International Hotel Investments plc - Bonus share issue and Memorandum of Understanding

International Hotel Investments announced details of a bonus share issue to shareholders as at 30 June 2006 and a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Corinthia parent company and Istithmar Hotels FZE, a global hotel firm based in Dubai.

In its announcement IHI stated that subject to the statutory shareholder and regulatory approvals which shall be duly sought, the Directors intend to capitalise past reserves in favour of its shareholders, by way of an issue of 5,000,000 bonus shares to those shareholders registered on the company’s books as at 30 June 2006. Corinthia Palace Hotel Company Ltd. (CPHCL), the Corinthia parent company and majority shareholder in IHI, has waived its rights to such bonus shares. This implies that the 5,000,000 bonus shares will be distributed on a pro rata basis among the holders of the 29,765,114 shares held by public shareholders as at 30 June 2006. This translates into an allotment of 16.8 shares for every 100 shares held. It is important to note that the cut-off date was set at 30 June 2006 to reward the private shareholders rather than the institutional investors who have subscribed to a total of 6.5 million shares in the summer months. Furthermore, the Company is offering shareholders a buy-back programme enabling them to cash their bonus shares at a price of €1 per share.

The Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Corinthia parent company and Istithmar Hotels FZE (Istithmar) stipulates that:

a) Istithmar will subscribe to 110,000,000 new shares at €1 each, which will be allocated exclusively to the funding of a programme of acquisitions of hotel properties by IHI;
b) IHI will acquire from CPHCL the 100% ownership of the Corinthia Bab Africa Hotel & Commercial Centre in Tripoli and the Corinthia Towers Hotel in Prague on the basis of expert third party valuations and subject to regulatory approvals in return for new shares in IHI issued to CPHCL; and
c) The Directors of IHI shall endeavour to obtain a secondary listing of their Company’s shares on an international stock exchange within the next 12 months.

Simultaneous to the above transactions with CPHCL and Istithmar, the Directors also announced that agreements are in place to issue approximately 28,000,000 shares at €1 each to a series of institutional investors, principally from Kuwait and including the National Real Estate Company and the National Projects Holding Company.

Further information on Istithmar is available from their corporate website.