14 November 2006

Protea Hotels has formed a powerful alliance with the Extreme Group and Istithmar Hotels to bring about the formation of a new international hotel brand, Extreme Hotels, as announced at the World Travel Market in London earlier this month.

As announced at the World Travel Market in London, Protea Hotels has formed a powerful alliance with the Extreme Group and Istithmar Hotels, bringing about the formation of a new international hotel brand, Extreme Hotels, set to revolutionize what's on offer in the hotel sector today. The creation this hotel brand is the brainchild of Al Gosling, CEO of Extreme Group founders of the global Extreme Sports TV channel.

"The significance of the launch of this new hotel group is both in its offering and the power behind the partners involved," said Arthur Gillis, Group Managing Director for Protea Hotels. Extreme Group, one of the world's fastest growing youth focused brands and Istithmar Hotels, one of the world's leading hotel investment and asset management firms, together with Protea Hotels, have signed Heads Of Terms documents and secured initial funding for up to £200 million to acquire or develop hotels that will see the formation of a ground-breaking and revolutionary hotel chain called Extreme Hotels.

"With global hotel markets and concepts changing dramatically and constantly, Protea Hotels has consistently sought to anticipate and identify these changes and to develop hotel concepts that meet and exceed these new demands. As Africa's largest hotel operating company and the 21st largest in the world we believe that, by teaming our hotel marketing and operational expertise to that of the globally recognised Extreme brand, we are on line to achieve a chain of exciting, energetic and quirky but affordable new age hotels located in key destinations around the world," said Arthur Gillis, Group Managing Director for Protea Hotels.

It has also been revealed that the first of these hotels opened in Cape Town on 1st November, namely Extreme Hotel Cape Town! This all new 130-bedroom hotel, offers a fully functional 5-star climbing wall up the outside of the building, from the 2nd floor to the roof. Located in the city centre with the iconic Table Mountain as a backdrop, it offers the Extreme GUEST the ultimate adventure platform and the ideal launching pad for this new brand.

Recognising that the world presently holds more than 165 million extreme sports participants worldwide and that extreme sports are the fastest growing market sector in the sports arena, Extreme Hotels has a clear market positioning and target audience craving this product. The locations will be focused around three main environments, namely surf, snow and urban, where extreme sports are part of the culture such as Cape Town, Rio and Sydney.

As stated at the press conference in London, Extreme Hotels' mission is to be one of the world's leading lifestyle based hotel brands, offering something new, different and exciting in the hotel sector. Delivering affordable, high value, entertaining, active, cutting edge sports based hotels located in the finest extreme sports and urban destinations around the world. "It's all about delivering high quality innovative design with cutting edge technology, a revolutionary social bar concept and, as you'd expect, the best local advice, access to extreme sports facilities, packages and equipment for all our GUESTS," said Al Gosling, CEO of Extreme Group and founder of the Extreme Sports Channel.

About Extreme Group
Extreme Group was started in 1995 by Al Gosling, founder of the Extreme Sports Channel and is a collection of businesses, with a shared brand and shared values. Aged 24, passionate about extreme sports and unable to find a job that interested him, Al set up Extreme.

Today, Extreme delivers a range of branded lifestyle products and services including, Extreme Entertainment (TV), Extreme Stores, Extremepie.com, Extreme Mobile (an MVNO mobile phone network), Extreme Drinks, Extreme Hotels, Ex Parks (sports based theme parks), Ex Space (Restaurants), Ex Eyez and Extreme Cred. Extreme employs 247 people and operates in more than 70 countries around the world. 

The Extreme Sports Channel gives the Extreme brand continuous 24/7 exposure and reaches over 40 million homes in 60 countries around the world.

About Istithmar Hotels
Istithmar Hotels is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Istithmar. It was established in April 2006 with the objective of managing the hospitality assets within Istithmar's investment portfolio. Istithmar Hotels' mission is to create value through the strategic management and development of these hospitality assets.

Istithmar Hotels manages assets in a number of segments or markets, being the high-end luxury, boutique, as well as budget hotels, in strategic locations - key gateway cities such as London, Paris and New York, as well as in the emerging markets of China, India, Pakistan, the Middle East and North Africa.

For further information, please contact:
Victoria Braithwaite
Istithmar Hotels FZE
Phone: +9714 361 2690 / Fax: +9714 367 1188
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

About Protea Hotels
Founded in 1984 with just 4 hotels, Protea Hotels today operates over 120 hotels throughout Africa in over 10 countries and is the largest hotel operating company in Africa and the 21st largest in the world. At the 2005 and 2006 World Travel Awards, Protea Hotels were voted best hotel brand in Africa by the world's travel industry.

Operating three brands, Protea Hotels, African Pride Superior Hotels, Lodges and Country Houses and Extreme Hotels, Protea offers a diverse range of hotels and continues to grow, with 9 new hotels set to open in 2007.