JURYS Inns, the budget wing of the famous hotel chain, has been sold for more than €1bn by the glamorous Bernie Gallagher, for the Doyle family.
Bernie is a daughter of legendary hotelier PV Doyle.
The sale will recoup some of the fortune spent during the family's high-priced battle with developer Sean Dunne.
The Doyle family announced yesterday that the 20 no-frills hotels that comprise Jurys Inns will be sold to Quinlan Private, a company owned by tax inspector turned property mogul Derek Quinlan for €1.165bn.
The Inns, which were put up for auction more than two months ago, were the latest in a string of the company's prize assets that have been sold off in a bid to protect the legacy of the late PV Doyle.
The sale means all that remains of what was once the Jurys Doyle Hotels group are 12 hotels, including the upmarket Westbury in central Dublin.
Bernie Gallagher and her sisters who control Jurys Doyle Hotels now plan to reinvest the sizeable profits from the Jurys Inns deal to turn those hotels into luxury world-class establishments.
Ms Gallagher and her sisters, Anne Roche and Eileen Monahan, together with their husbands and children, made the company private two years ago to fend off the unwelcome approaches from property speculators eyeing the valuable Dublin sites on which the hotels sat.
They were determined not to allow the hotels their father had helped to build be destroyed for apartments and office blocks. The buy-up was led by Ms Gallagher and her entrepreneur husband John.
The jewel in the crown was the Jurys Ballsbridge site, and the neighbouring Berkeley Court Hotel, which attracted the attention of rival property developers Sean Dunne and Liam Carroll.
When the prospect of the break-up of the Jurys Doyle Hotel Group was signalled in 2005, the developers moved in for the kill. Although the firm had made profits of €45m, the company chairman, Richard Hooper, suggested that the Ballsbridge hotels might have to be sold because they weren't performing as well as expected.
The aggressive approach came from Sean Dunne, the gregarious high-profile developer, married to onetime socialite Gayle Killilea. He mounted an unsuccessful bid to take over the company completely, but came away with the valuable Jurys Hotel, for which he paid €260m, and the Berkeley Court, which cost him €119m.
Dunne's plans for the two sites, which include a 32-storey tower, shopping malls and apartments, are at the mercy of Dublin City Council, which will decide this week whether the area should be rezoned. Council officials have already indicated that they support rezoning in Ballsbridge, which could pave the way for high-density buildings, despite massive objections from 14 local residents groups and councillors.
Mr Dunne's approach forced the Doyle family to make their own counter-bid for the hotel group, which they eventually took over for €1.6bn. Having won the company back, the family also inherited debts of more than €385m.
Bernie Gallagher, who heads JDH Acquisitions, and her husband steered through the strategic review led by consultants Merrill Lynch. The fruits of that review were recommendations to sell off more of the company's assets in order to focus on its high-end hotels.
The Burlington, in another prime Dublin 4 location, was put on the market in January and sold to developer Bernard McNamara. In March, the Jurys Inns were put up and the process ended with the announcement yesterday that the Doyle family had accepted the €1.165bn bid tendered by Derek Quinlan, one of the richest property developers in Ireland.
Mr Quinlan has added the latest acquisition to a string of international property coups, including buying London's best-known hotel, the Savoy, and Claridges. It has also secured numerous hotels around the world, including a string of Marriot Hotels for more than €1bn.
He beat off competition from Swiss private equity firm Lydian Capital Partners. His firm, which syndicates its deals among wealthy Irish businessmen, lawyers and consultants, bought the company on behalf of investors.
Pauline Bradley, the Quinlan Private Director who led this transaction, said yesterday: "This is an attractive business with enormous growth opportunities which we are delighted to acquire. It is a hugely interesting opportunity for our investors."
Irish Independent
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