The Hotelplan group is to sell its "Riviera Beach Club" to Belambra, France's number 1 operator of vacation resorts. The sale of the 3-star club facility on the French Côte d'Azur will be formally concluded on 31 October 2011.

"In effecting this transaction, we are selling our last hotel and thus concluding the strategic step of disposing of the ‘Horizonte' group," says Hans Lerch, Vice Chairman & CEO Hotelplan Group. The parties have agreed not to divulge the sale price involved. Under current plans, the "Riviera Beach Club" will remain in the Hotelplan Suisse portfolio, and will be offered under the Hotelplan brand's Autoplan product line.

"This acquisition fits excellently into the further development of the 57 vacation resorts we operate in France. We have always put a firm focus on providing special destinations in exceptional locations for our guests from France and elsewhere in Europe," says Olivier Colcombet, President of Belambra.

The "Riviera Beach Club" is located on the Giens Peninsula near the town of Hyères, at the western end of the Côte d'Azur between Toulon and Saint-Tropez. The 3-star resort is sited directly on the beach, is surrounded by an eight-hectare pine forest and offers 148 accommodation units. Further guest facilities include two restaurants (one on the beach), seminar rooms, a pool and a wide range of sports and leisure options and amenities.

About the Hotelplan Group

Founded in 1935 and wholly owned by the Federation of Migros Cooperatives, the Hotelplan group consists of several strategic business units: Hotelplan Suisse (MTCH AG), Hotelplan Italia S.p.A., Hotelplan UK Group Ltd., Interhome AG and Travelwindow AG. Hotelplan Group also holds a majority equity stake in Ascent Travel of Russia. Hotelplan Group's business activities extend to compiling vacation and leisure travel arrangements and distributing these through its own network of branch offices and via partner travel agencies. In consultation with Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, the Hotelplan group will sell the last hotel property in its ownership, the "Riviera Beach Club", to vacation resort operator Belambra on 31 October 2011.

About Belambra

Belambra is France's number 1 operator of vacation resorts, primarily for families from France and elsewhere in Europe. The group currently operates 57 vacation clubs in the country's finest locations. Belambra and its resorts offer animation and activities for vacationers of all ages. The group welcomes over 500'000 guests every year (more than 80'000 of them children) to some 40'000 accommodations at seaside and mountain locations. Belambra also invests constantly in further developing its clubs and their facilities (spending almost EUR 250 million and having 90% of his clubs as "Nouvelle Génération" in 2011). Customers from outside France account for up to 30% of all the guests at the group's "Nouvelle Génération" clubs. All in all, Belambra recorded over three million overnight stays last year and generated total annual sales of EUR 148 million.