The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group began in January 2012 when two great companies joined forces to leverage their significant synergies and go to market to do business together:

Carlson Hotels, a division of Carlson - a vibrant, family-owned, U.S.-based global hospitality and travel company with a strong portfolio of ambitious brands and ambitious goals, and The Rezidor Hotel Group - one of the world's most dynamic, innovative and fastest growing hotel companies; operating and developing the Carlson brands Quorvus Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson Red and Park Inn by Radisson across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Rezidor is a publicly listed company at Stockholm Stock Exchange. The company's legal status and ownership structure remain; Carlson is Rezidor's majority shareholder (50.3%).

Carlson and Rezidor have enjoyed a long, common history of successful growth. And so, the decision to join forces as a strategic partnership and go to market as The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group was a natural, next step in leveraging the strengths of two great companies to create additional value for all stakeholders.

The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group is co-led by Trudy Rautio, President & CEO of Carlson, and Wolfgang M. Neumann, President & CEO of the Rezidor Hotel Group. It is governed by a global steering committee with Trudy Rautio, Wolfgang M. Neumann, David Berg, Chief Operation Officer Carlson, and Thorsten Kirschke, President Carlson Asia-Pacific. Carlson Hotels is a privately-held company, 100% owned by Carlson. Rezidor Hotel Group AB (publ) is 50.03% owned by Carlson. It remains listed on the Stockholm stock exchange.

The impressive size of the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group's worldwide footprint unlocks significant value creation opportunities related to:

• The global management and alignment of its brands
• The ambitious development of its revenue generation engines
• The leveraging of global purchasing opportunities
• People development on a global basis

The goals of the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group partnership are to:

• Generate attractive financial returns for owners
• Create value for all shareholders
• Be advantageously perceived by business partners around the world as one global hotel company
• Offer compelling and consistent value propositions to the guests
• Offer global career and development opportunities to the staff

Through a number of concrete revenue generation initiatives, the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group aims to generate more than MUSD 400 in additional revenue and a RevPAR Index increase of more than nine points by 2015. These initiatives include:

• A reinforced global sales team
• The growth of the company's brand website
• Unique revenue optimisation tools
• Partnership projects with travel intermediaries, including Carlson Wagonlit Travel
• The rapid growth of Club Carlson, the group's successful loyalty programme

A global steering committee has been established to oversee the value creation areas and the development of the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group.

The chosen logo of the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group symbolises several key elements of the company: the combination of the Carlson name and the Rezidor name highlights the partnering nature of the relationship; and the Carlson symbol on top of the logo represents important values such as relationships, heritage, innovation and service.