Premier Inn London Expansion

RNS Number:8273R
Whitbread PLC
08 April 2008

RNS - For release on Tuesday 8th April 2008





               £100 MILLION PREMIER INN LONDON EXPANSION



Whitbread PLC, the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group, has today announced
six new Premier Inn hotels in London, with 1200 rooms, to be opened over the
next three years, with an investment equivalent to £100 million.



Whitbread has agreed to acquire the Quality Hotel (Westminster), Comfort Inn
(Kensington) and Purple Hotel (City of London) from the Real Hotel Company PLC
(RHC) for £18.5 million in cash, adding 400 new rooms.  An additional £12
million will be spent converting them to Premier Inn hotels.  Whitbread has also
secured the first right of refusal to acquire all 12 of the remaining Purple
hotels from RHC should they be earmarked for sale. The proposed acquisition is
subject to RHC shareholder approval and certain property related consents.



Premier Inn is also developing three new build hotels in the Greater London
area, which together with extension to existing properties adds 800 new rooms.
The three new builds are located at Waterloo, Ealing and Old Street in the City
and are scheduled to open by 2011.  The equivalent of £70 million* will be
invested in these leasehold developments.



Premier Inn is the largest hotel group in London by number of properties with 44
hotels and 5,300 rooms.  The plans announced today will increase the total
number of rooms in the Capital to 6,500, with a further pipeline of 2,000 rooms
expected to be announced over the next twelve months.  Together, these will
represent an increase of 60% to Premier Inn's London estate.



Alan Parker, Chief Executive Officer of Whitbread PLC, said:



"We have exciting expansion plans for Premier Inn in London and today's addition
of 1200 rooms is a great start.  The Capital is an important focus for Premier
Inn, and there is an increasing need for high quality, affordable accommodation.
Our further pipeline will position us as the largest hotel chain in London
with at least 8,500 rooms before the Olympics in 2012".





* This relates to the capital value of the lease commitments.  The cash capital
to be invested amounts to some £6.5 million.



Whitbread PLC
Investors:
Chris Rogers, Finance Director                         01582 889418

Media:
Julie Foster, Interim Communications Director          01582 844244



Tulchan Communications
David Allchurch/Tom Murray                             0207 353 4200



High resolution images will be available later this morning for the media to
view and download free of charge from www.vismedia.co.uk



About Whitbread PLC ... Whitbread PLC is the UK's largest hotel and restaurant
group with market leading businesses Premier Inn, Brewers Fayre, Beefeater and
Costa.    Founded in 1742, the company is listed on the London Stock Exchange
(as WTB.L) and is a member of the FTSE4Good indices.  
http://www.whitbread.co.uk/.






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            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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