IHG® Rewards Club Signs Global Partnership With Mahindra Racing Formula E Team

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Mar 10, 2015, 11:08 ET

ATLANTA, March 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) today announces a multi-year partnership between its industry leading loyalty program, IHG^® Rewards Club, and the Mahindra Racing Formula E Team.

Formula E is the world's first all-electric powered motor racing Championship consisting of a series of races known as 'ePrix' all held on city-center street circuits. Formula E represents cutting-edge engineering and progressive design. It promotes clean energy and sustainability, which makes it a great partner for IHG with its own strong track record of innovation and commitment to achieving sustainability, through its award-winning environmental management tool, the IHG Green Engage™ system.

The partnership will be officially launched at the inaugural Miami Formula ePrix on March 14^th 2015, where IHG^® Rewards Club branding will be unveiled on the Mahindra Racing Formula E Team's uniforms and cars raced by Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok. As part of the strategic partnership, IHG will also become the preferred hotel partner of Mahindra Racing Formula E Team worldwide.

The partnership will offer IHG^® Rewards Club's valued members various levels of access to the Mahindra Racing Formula E Team and its drivers, both at ePrix and other exclusive member events, in some of the world's most exciting cities from Miami to Beijing and London.

This latest enhancement is in addition to the other existing industry leading benefits of IHG^® Rewards Club such as, Reward Nights with no blackout dates and access to a wide selection of offerings in the new global redemption catalog. The partnership also gives IHG^® Rewards Club members more opportunity to share rewarding experiences such as these, with their family and friends.

Announcing the partnership, Susanna Freer Epstein, senior vice president, Customer Loyalty Marketing, IHG, said:

"At IHG we aim to build lifetime relationships with our guests and ensure we are offering our most valued IHG^® Rewards Club members fantastic experiences they can share with their family and friends. In Mahindra Racing, we see a like-minded, innovative business that is helping to make this entertaining sport accessible to a global audience.

"Through this new partnership, IHG^® Rewards Club will offer motor racing fans opportunities that are simply not normally available."

"We are delighted to partner with IHG," said Dilbagh Gill, team principal, Mahindra Racing. "IHG Rewards^® Club precisely reflects the quality of brand partnerships that we are seeking to support our team and in particular, helps us to further excite and engage our growing fan-base worldwide."

"The team will also benefit from access to the most comfortable hotels and highest levels of guest service as we travel the world, which will no doubt make a real difference to our ability to perform on the track."

IHG has a history of sponsoring motorsports team, drivers and associations. Crowne Plaza^® Hotels & Resorts has been the Official Partner of BMW Motorsports since 2007, represented by motor racing driver and brand ambassadors Joey Hand and triple world champion Andy Priaulx MBE.

From 2015, IHG^® Rewards Club will take over the BMW partnership which has been evolved to cover IHG^® Rewards Club-branded cars in the British Touring Car Championship, driven by Andy Priaulx, and in the GTLM and GTD classes of the Tudor United Sports Car Championship in the U.S. It will also support the BMW NA Young Driver Program, sponsoring up-and-coming female driver Ashley Freiberg, 23, who is competing in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge.

In recent years, the InterContinental^® brand was the official partner of Aston Martin racing, while the Holiday Inn^® brand has had partnerships with Vauxhall and Seat racing teams in the U.K. and the Jeff Burton race team in NASCAR in the U.S.

Notes to Editors:

About IHG

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organization with a broad portfolio of hotel brands, including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, HUALUXE® Hotels and Resorts, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, EVEN™ Hotels, Holiday Inn® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites® and Candlewood Suites®. In January 2015, IHG acquired Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, the world's leading boutique hotel business.

IHG manages IHG® Rewards Club, the world's first and largest hotel loyalty program with over 84 million members worldwide. The programme was relaunched in July 2013, offering enhanced benefits for members including free internet across all hotels, globally.

IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns over 4,800 hotels and more than 710,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries, with over 1,200 hotels in its development pipeline. Over 350,000 people work across IHG's hotels and corporate offices worldwide.

In January 2015 we completed the acquisition of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, adding 62 hotels (11,300 rooms) to our system size and 16 hotels to our development pipeline.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group's holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.

Visit www.ihg.com for hotel information and reservations and www.ihgrewardsclub.com for more on IHG Rewards Club. For our latest news, visit: www.ihg.com/media, www.twitter.com/ihg, www.facebook.com/ihg or www.youtube.com/ihgplc.

About Mahindra Racing

The Mahindra Group focuses on enabling people to rise through solutions that power mobility, drive rural prosperity, enhance urban lifestyles and increase business efficiency.

A USD 16.5 billion multinational group based in Mumbai, India, Mahindra provides employment opportunities to over 200,000 people in over 100 countries. Mahindra operates in the key industries that drive economic growth, enjoying a leadership position in tractors, utility vehicles, information technology, financial services and vacation ownership. In addition, Mahindra enjoys a strong presence in the agribusiness, aerospace, components, consulting services, defence, energy, industrial equipment, logistics, real estate, retail, steel, commercial vehicles and two wheeler industries.

In 2014, Mahindra featured on the Forbes Global 2000, a comprehensive listing of the world's largest, most powerful public companies, as measured by revenue, profit, assets and market value. The Mahindra Group also received the Financial Times 'Boldness in Business' Award in the 'Emerging Markets' category in 2013.

Visit us at www.mahindra.com

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SOURCE IHG Hotels & Resorts