The Jurys Doyle group could realise as much as €160 million as a result of its decision yesterday to knock down its three hotels in Ballsbridge and sell five of its seven acres at the south Dublin site.
The site is currently occupied by the Jurys Ballsbridge and Towers hotels while the company is planning to redevelop a new four-star Berkeley Court hotel on the site of the old five-star hotel of the same name.
Prospective buyers are likely to seek permission to build mixed-use residential and retail developments on the site.
With tender documents to be released early next week, the project could attract interest from major property market interests such as Seán Dunne of Mountbrook Homes, builder Bernard McNamara and the Treasury Holdings group controlled by Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett.
Any decision to go forward with a final sale of the site is likely to be conditional on the approval of shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting.
Hundreds of staff are facing redundancy as a result of yesterday's decision. Jurys Doyle chief executive Pat McCann declined to specify how many job losses were likely when he said "there is no doubt a sizeable number of people will have to opt for redundancy".
The board made its decision public yesterday morning after it rebuffed a second approach from the Precinct consortium, whose backers already own the Gresham hotel chain.
Shares in Jurys Doyle lost 20 cent on the Dublin exchange yesterday to close at €15.10. The trading was the first since the board rejected the Precinct approach, which valued Jurys Doyle at €16.25 per share or slightly more than €1 billion.
Stock market analysts welcomed the decision to put the property on the market. Shane Matthews of NCB Stockbrokers said the group was obliged to demonstrate to its shareholders an alternative strategy to realise value for the group after its rejection of the latest Precinct approach.
Precinct noted the development but said it remained interested in acquiring the hotel group. "Precinct wish to confirm their continuing interest in delivering an offer to the shareholders of Jurys Doyle," said the group, led by developer Bryan Cullen.
Analyst Bríd White at Merrion Capital said the decision to put the property to tender would strengthen the group's hand if it received any further approaches from Precinct.
"It gives them more information about the value of the site," she said. and if there's excess value associated with the value of site beyond the conditional €16.25. It means it would go to Jurys rather than the consortium."
