Occidental Hoteles will be chaired by Luis Rullán Colom and Gregorio de Diego will be the Group�s Executive Vice-President.

Mercapital, a leading Spanish capital investment company, has been a shareholder of the Occidental Hoteles group since 1997 and has accompanied the firm in the development of its strategic plan since 1996.

La Caixa, one of the country�s leading financial institutions, now has a direct stake in the capital of the group�s holding company, although they did collaborate with Occidental previously, through Soteltur, in the development of the Flamenco project.

Following the increase, Occidental Hoteles are implicitly worth 28,541 million pesetas, with a post-increase equity of 15,877 million pesetas. In 1998, the Occidental Group had a total turnover of 20,550 million pesetas and the forecast for 1999 is 23,145 million pesetas. The net result for 1998 was 1,507 million pesetas. Occidental Hoteles presently own 54 hotels (with a total of 13,223 rooms).

The Occidental Hoteles Group has now embarked on a new phase of expansion which will strengthen the internationalisation of the chain, while encouraging geographical concentration and specialisation. Accordingly, Occidental Hoteles will undertake a strategic investment plan in an amount of over 100,000 million pesetas during the next five years, mainly dedicated to the acquisition and construction of new, high category, holiday hotels in their natural markets: Southern Europe, the Mediterranean basin, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Occidental�s expansion plan envisages the Flamenco project, which is being  developed through Soteltur, with an investment volume of more than 62,000 million pesetas for the development of between 6 and 8 new resorts with a total of around 5,500 rooms, of which 2 are already under construction (1,581 rooms) and another 2 are at the blue-print stage (1,250 rooms).

Occidental Hoteles also intend to incorporate other Spanish and foreign hotel chains and individual hotels into their group, present in strategic destinations, by acquisition or by the incorporation through capitalisation into their real estate company, Occidental Properties.

Since its creation in 1982, the Occidental Hoteles Group has experienced a fast and sustained growth and is now Spain�s 5th hotel chain with regard to rooms. Ever since their creation, Occidental Hoteles have followed a clear policy of portfolio internationalisation and have concentrated their business on the higher category tourism sector, with 4- and 5-star resort type hotels at sun and sand destinations; they were pioneers in Spain in top quality �all inclusive� hotels in the Caribbean.

The hotels managed by Occidental are located mainly in their natural markets, geographical areas where the group has most experience: the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean coast, the Canary Islands and Latin America.

During these years, the Occidental Hoteles Group has paid special attention to meticulous staff training, through OCCITUR, with training centres in Cordoba (Spain) and Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), and to the levels of quality and service offered to customers with the group�s particular style of hotel management. At the same time, the group has its own booking centre, OCCIRES, and also belongs to Supranational, of which they are a founder shareholder, and which is one of the world�s largest booking centres representing more than 800 hotels throughout the 5 continents.