InterContinental Hotels (IHG) has signed another major contract in China to manage four hotels for the Shanghai Greenland Group.
The new properties are an InterContinental in Nanjing, a Holiday Inn in Xi'an and two Express by Holiday Inns in Shanghai.
The deal will add a further 1,400 rooms to IHG's portfolio in China.
The group announced in February that it had signed contracts to manage six new hotels in China with a total of 4,500 rooms.
Andrew Cosslett, ceo of IHG, said the two deals cemented "our position as the leading international hotel company in China."
Austrian earnings slump
Austrian Airlines reported a net loss for 2005 of €129.1m compared with a net profit for 2004 of €43.9m.
The year saw revenue rise by 7.6% from €2,225m in 2004 to €2392m in 2005 while the carrier enjoyed record load factors from May onwards and record traffic for the year of 10.1m passengers.
But Mr Vagn Soerensen, the outgoing ceo, said that the airline had been hit by the high cost of fuel, the weak demand for transfer traffic in the first quarter and the "continuing overcapacity in the European aviation sector."
Fuel costs rose by 46.6% to add €144.5m to expenses.
But the airline said it had also increased staff in expectation of higher demand. Together these items had increased operating revenue by 13.2% from €2,283m in 2004 to €2,585m in 2005.
During the year, personnel expenses rose by 7.6% to €502.1m.
Mr Soerensen said that Austrian has also in 2005 "built strongly" on its Focus East strategy which established new destinations and increased frequencies in Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East.