easyHotel, the owner, developer, operator and franchisor of "super budget" branded hotels, announces that it has agreed the acquisition of land for a new build easyHotel in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, subject to planning permission. The project will be the Group's first owned hotel outside the UK and is in line with the Group's targeted European strategy. The planned 200-room easyHotel is expected to open in 2018. The site is located on Gran Via, the main avenue of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, with easy access to Barcelona City Centre and Barcelona Airport. The site has good transport links, with a train and Metro station adjacent to the proposed hotel, and is within walking distance of the Fira Barcelona Gran Via 240,000m2 convention centre, the Barcelona and L'Hospitalet de Llobregat City of Justice and the Gran Via shopping centre, which includes 180 shops, 24 cafes/restaurants and a 15-screen cinema. Subject to planning permission, the total anticipated investment on completion will be approximately €15 million. Guy Parsons, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "We are delighted to be investing in our first owned property in Spain. The Barcelona region is an extremely attractive market for us, with Barcelona being the 12th most visited city in the world* . "The strength of the "easy" brand has already driven significant appetite for our hotels from the Spanish market, with Spanish customers currently accounting for 5% of all easyHotel guests. We are confident that there is considerable opportunity to expand the easyHotel brand through a mix of owned and franchised hotels in Europe and in Spain."

About easyHotel

easyHotel is an affordable, low-carbon chain of value hotels. It was founded in 2004 by Sir Stelios Haji loannou and is now 79.1% owned by ICAMAP Investments S.à r.l and Ivanhoé Cambridge.

The company's purpose is to offer affordable travel to all. It now has over 40 establishments in 11 countries, with all hotels ideally located in city centres or near major transport links. Over the past few years, easyHotel has been working to achieve its ambitious growth objectives, with several developments in the pipeline in major city centres and a planned schedule of hotel openings.

ICAMAP Investments S.à r.l. is an investment fund managed by ICAMAP S.à r.l., an asset management company founded by Guillaume Poitrinal, Harm Meijer and Alexandre Aquien.

Ivanhoé Cambridge internationally develops and invests in high-quality real estate properties. It is a subsidiary of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a global investment group.

Operating hotels:

easyHotel has an estate of 40+ hotels with c.4,400 rooms, comprising 16 franchised hotels (c.1,400 rooms) and 26 owned and leased hotels (c.3,000 rooms)

Hotels:

United Kingdom: London Shoreditch,, London Paddington, London Victoria, London South Kensington, London Croydon, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Ipswich, Milton Keynes, Cardiff, Oxford, Reading, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast

Benelux: Amsterdam City Centre, Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam Zaandam, The Hague, The Hague Scheveningen, Rotterdam, Maastricht, Brussels

Europe: Berlin, Charles de Gaulle (Paris), Paris Nord Aubervilliers, Nice, Barcelona, Malaga, Madrid, Zurich City Centre, Zurich West, Zurich Central Station, Basel, Lisbon, Sofia, Budapest, Dublin