A new UK real-estate firm cofounded by an Irish property veteran is close to buying Buswells, the storied hotel opposite Leinster House once owned by the Quinn family, for about €15 million, according to sources.
London-based Roundstone Real Estate Group, cofounded by Irishman David Meagher, is understood to have secured part financing for the deal from Novellus – a so-called alternative lender owned by Billy McManus. Mr McManus is a nephew of racehorse owner JP McManus, but is reported to have links to the billionaire’s Swiss family investment office, Leicosa.
Two previous high-profile bidders each walked away from talks to buy Buswells, a favoured haunt of politicians, lobbyists and reporters, in the past two years.
Agents appointed by the liquidators of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), formerly Anglo Irish Bank, entered advanced talks in late 2022 to sell the three-star establishment to the Murtagh family behind insulation giant Kingspan for a reported €22 million. The Murtaghs did not reach a final agreement.
By the end of 2023, businessman Eamonn Waters was said to have agreed to buy the hotel for €16.4 million. He has been one of the most active individual property buyers in Dublin in recent times, having sold Beauparc Utilities, the holding company of the Panda and Greenstar waste firms, three years ago to Macquarie Infrastructure Fund in a deal worth €1.4 billion.
New York investment giant Blackstone had a minority 37.6 per cent Beauparc stake at the time of the sale, with the remainder almost entirely in the hands of Waters.
The Murtaghs were subsequently reported by earlier this year to be back in talks to buy the 67-bedroom hotel.
The IBRC liquidators, Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson of Interpath Ireland, have ratcheted up the sale of assets in recent times – primarily centred on former assets of businessman Seán Quinn and his family – as the Government prepares to fold IBRC into the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) early next year.
IBRC, which was put into liquidation in 2013, seized Quinn assets following the financial crash as it attempted to recover €2.88 billion owed by the family.
Mr Meagher, who once worked with AIB and most recently served as chief executive of UK retirement living developer Auriens Group, cofounded Roundstone in January with fellow property veteran Richard Banks.
One of the fledgling company’s business lines is to identify hotel, residential and office property opportunities and structure deals working with private equity real estate and family offices, according to its website.
Efforts to reach Mr Meagher were unsuccessful, queries made to representatives of Billy McManus and JP McManus went unanswered, while representatives for IBRC liquidators declined to comment. Online publication The Currency outlined the business connection between Billy McManus and Leicosa earlier this year.
Nama is on track to be wound down by the end of 2025 and the residual assets and liabilities of both crisis-era vehicles will be put into a new resolution unit to be set up by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).
A Melbourne-based property group owned by Irishman Tony Brady acquired Mr Quinn’s once-prized Slieve Russell hotel, golf and country club in October. The Brady Group is reported to have bid below the original €35 million asking price set by agents CBRE on behalf of the IBRC liquidators.
The Quinns’ former Hilton Prague hotel was put up for sale over the summer by CBRE, acting for the liquidators, with a price tag of up to €290 million.
Elsewhere, the liquidators are seeking to sell the family’s former Indian office complex, called Q City, in Hyderabad.
The main remaining former Quinn assets on IBRC’s books are an office building and shopping centre in Kyiv, an office building in Moscow and logistics centre in Kazan, almost 800km east of the Russian capital. However, sales plans for these assets have been hit by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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