Rezidor Sas Hospitality And Carlson Hotels Worldwide Complete Strategic Agreement

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM AND MINNEAPOLIS, MN (Thursday, June 30, 2005) - Rezidor SAS Hospitality, the Brussels-based subsidiary of the SAS Group, today jointly announced with US-based Carlson Hotels Worldwide, that they have completed the strategic agreement, originally announced in March, 2005, which results in an enhancement of their long-time franchise partnership into a shareholder agreement.

Carlson Hotels has now acquired a 25 percent shareholding in Rezidor SAS from SAS Group in return for renegotiated commercial terms of the parties' current Master Franchise Agreement (MFA). The MFA is the agreement between Rezidor SAS and Carlson by which Rezidor manages Carlson Hotel brands in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). These brands have included Radisson SAS, Park Inn, Regent International Hotels and Country Inns & Suites.

Since the agreement was originally announced, the companies have moved forward to seek closer cooperation in key business areas such as sales, distribution, marketing and communications.

BACKGROUND

Rezidor SAS first signed an agreement with Carlson in 1994 for the first class Radisson brand. The combined brand, Radisson SAS, which was created from that MFA, has been the vehicle that has turned Rezidor SAS into one of the fastest growing hotel management companies in the world today.

The success of this initial Radisson SAS partnership then led Rezidor SAS and Carlson to sign a further multi-brand MFA agreement in 2002 that added three other Carlson brands to the Rezidor SAS portfolio - Regent, Park Inn and Country Inns & Suites. This has proven to be another significant success that has seen the high volume mid-market brand Park Inn, grow from zero to over 60 properties in just two years in the EMEA region; while also facilitating the re-launch of the luxury brand Regent, with Rezidor SAS adding two new landmark hotels, in Berlin and Zagreb, to the global Regent portfolio.

As a result Rezidor SAS has grown from 29 Radisson SAS hotels, when the original agreement was signed in 1994, to now having in total 252 hotels open or under development.

This new deal has an option for Rezidor SAS to use the Carlson brands to 2052, an increase of twenty years on the previous agreement. It will now bring the two companies even closer together and allow for stronger brand alignment on a global basis.

The deal also gives Carlson two seats on the six-member board of Rezidor SAS.

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SAS AB is the Nordic region's largest listed airline and travel group and the fourth-largest airline group in Europe, in terms of number of passengers and operating revenue. The SAS Group offers air transport and related services from its base in northern Europe. Scandinavian Airlines provides services within Scandinavia, to/from Europe, North America and Asia. Scandinavian Airlines is a founder member of the world's largest global airline alliance - Star Alliance. The Group also includes the airlines Spanair, Wideroes's Flyveselskap and Blue1 and the partly-owned airlines airBaltic and Estonian Air. The Group's business areas Airline Support Businesses and Airline Related Businesses include companies that support the airline operations. The Group also includes hotel operations with Rezidor SAS Hospitality. For more information please visit www.sasgroup.net.

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