ED PLANET HOTELS ACCELERATES ASIAN EXPANSION THROUGH INVESTMENT FROM GOLDMAN SACHS

          Red Planet Hotels, the fast growing pan-Asian budget hotel chain announced today it has received USD70 million from Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), a leading global investment bank. 
          Founded in 2010, Red Planet Hotels owns and operates a portfolio of 26 hotels in Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. The funds from Goldman Sachs will facilitate the activation of a confirmed pipeline for 10 hotels to open over the next 24 months. 
          Red Planet Hotels Chief Executive Officer, Tim Hansing, said the investment would solidify the company's current expansion roadmap and help to establish a basis to close a final round of private investor equity to support further expansion of the brand. 
          "We have a well-diversified portfolio over four countries, and have developed a highly systemised brand. We have also created a unique customer-facing IT platform that is without parallel in our market. We now have substantial growth opportunities not only in our existing markets but also in additional countries where we are confident our brand and product will excel," Mr Hansing added. 
          "To have our company, our people, our product, and our brand be funded by Goldman Sachs indeed gives us the confidence that we are on the right track to our stated goal of a 2018 IPO." 
          Jonathan Vanica, a managing director at Goldman Sachs, said: "The growth of travel, coupled with the evolving demands for more diverse and cost-efficient hospitality platforms, is leading to new opportunities for entrepreneurial companies in Asia. We anticipate our capital will help Red Planet Hotels accelerate its expansion throughout the region." 
          Simon Gerovich, Chairman of Red Planet Hotels, added: "The investment we have received from Goldman Sachs will augment our expansion capabilities in the short-term and allow us to focus on our longer-term goals of scaling up our hotel footprint across the Asia-Pacific region." 
          Since 2011 Red Planet Hotels has raised USD240 million of capital and the funds from Goldman Sachs position the company well to complete its next and final pre-IPO round of capital raising amounting to USD250 million.