Scandic Hotels to take over Silja Hotel Ariadne in Stockholm

Scandic Hotels to take over Silja Hotel Ariadne in Stockholm Silja Line and Scandic Hotels have reached an agreement to the effect that Scandic will take over the operations of Silja Hotel Ariadne, situated in the Värtahamnen area of Stockholm, as of 1 October 1999. In connection with the takeover, the name of the hotel will be changed to Scandic Hotel Ariadne. The hotel, which has a direct link to Silja Line's ferry terminal, has 283 rooms and excellent conference and restaurant facilities. Silja Line and Scandic Hotels have been co-operating in marketing activities for a number of years, and this business relationship will now be developed further as a result of the agreement, since the hotel will be included in both Silja Line's and Scandic's reservation systems, and figure in the package deals and customer affinity programmes offered by both companies. "The transfer of these hotel operations to Scandic is part of Silja Line's strategy to focus more on its core passenger ferry business," says Jukka Suominen, President of Silja Line. "The hotel is an important complement as we can offer our passengers hotel accommodation upon their arrival in Stockholm. With Scandic's resources in the hotel business, this co-operation will enable us to market trips to Stockholm more actively." "Hotel Ariadne will provide Scandic with an excellent complement to its hotel portfolio in Stockholm," says Roland Nilsson, President & CEO of Scandic Hotels. "Scandic has lacked capacity on this side of Stockholm. The hotel is well situated, with a direct link to Silja Line's terminal, and in close proximity to the growing number of IT and communication businesses in the Värtahamnen area of Stockholm. Developing the already successful co-operation with Silja Line in this way will not only benefit Scandic Hotel Ariadne; it will also create a platform for future co-operation between the companies in a number of areas." The property was recently acquired by Nordisk Renting AB, which today owns four of the properties in which Scandic operates hotels. For further information, please contact: Scandic Hotels: Roland Nilsson, President & CEO +46 (0)8 517 352 00 Gunnar Brandberg, Vice President, Marketing & Investor Relations, +46 (0)8 517 352 12 or +46 (0)709 73 5212 Silja Line: Jukka Suominen, President +358 (0)9 1804 331 Håkan Stenberg, Information +46 (0)8 666 33 44. "Scandic Hotels is the largest hotel operator in the Nordic region, with 128 hotels in 10 countries, out of which 110 hotels are in the Nordic countries. Scandic´s strategy is to be a dedicated hotel operator. The company´s business mission is "to offer many people the highest value for money when staying in its hotels, during work and leisure." "Silja Line is the leading operator of Baltic Sea passenger ferries. Most of the ferries in its modern fleet were delivered during the 1990s. The company´s nine ferries, which transported some 5.8 million passangers and 123.000 cargoes in 1998, operate the following routes: Helsinki - Tallinn - Rostock, Turku - The Åland Islands - Stockholm, and Vasa - Umeå." Scandic Hotels AB (publ). P O box 6197, SE-102 33 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel: +46 (0)8 517 350 00. Fax: +46 (0)8 517 352 80. E-mail: info@scandic-hotels.com, Internet: www.scandic-hotels.com Org. no.: 556299-1009 ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/09/03/19990903BIT00190/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/09/03/19990903BIT00190/bit0002.pdf