Six Continents Franchisees Concerned About Rumored Hostile Takeover <b></b>

Atlanta--The IAHI, the owners' association of SixContinents Hotels, announced its concern over a rumored hostiletakeover for Six Continents PLC. "We believe this would be theabsolute worst time for change of control with the company,"said Jay Fishman, IAHI board of directors chairman. "We are inthe weakest business environment in the history of the modern hotelindustry."

Fishman pointed out that the owners' operations would bejeopardized by a breakup of the hotel group, which would destroythe synergies of the Priority Club Rewards program, a commonreservation system, the equity of Internet sites, preferred vendorrelationships, strategic alliances and more. -BusinessWire