A major row has broken out between the Gresham Hotel Group and the Israeli property group Red Sea Hotels about control of the Irish group.
The row escalated sharply today with Red Sea threatening to call an extraordinary meeting of the company to deal with what they call the 'lamentable' performance of the Irish group.
Gresham hit back tonight accusing Red Sea of seeking to take control without making an offer to all shareholders. They called for a full bid from Red Sea for the company.
In a statement, Gresham Hotels say their board is extremely concerned at the possibility that a connected party of Red Sea is acting with Red Sea in this affair.
Red Sea has built up a 28.25% stake in Gresham, and today accused the Irish company of leaking details of confidential matter to the media overnight.
A meeting between Red Sea and Gresham executives last Wednesday was 'heated', according to today's Irish Independent.
Red Sea managing director Amos Pickel today accused Gresham of having no interest in continuing the discussions and said Gresham 'prefers to mask the real issues of shareholder value and performance with the leaking of completely mischievous and irrelevant information.'
The Gresham share price, they say is below where it was 12 years ago, and this year to April 3- the day before Red Sea's most recent share purchase - had fallen by 11.8%, while the Jurys Doyle share price rose by 43.5%.
Shares in Gresham were down another 3.45% today to 84 cent - a fall of three cent.
Red Sea proposed a reduction in the size of the Gresham Board from ten members to six with one direct Red Sea member, and two 'suggested nominees who would be recognised as senior independent professionals'.
Gresham says Red Sea also wanted one of these three to be chairman, and this would mean effectively ceding control of the company to Red Sea.
One of those proposed was Harvey Soning - an executive director of the British AIM listed company Your Space and a property advisor for Red Sea for 20 years according to Gresham. The finance director of Your Space is Monaco based Ian Ilsley, whom Gresham says is the beneficial owner of 4% of the Gresham Group.
Amos Pickel says the first they heard of Mr Ilsley's interest in Gresham shares was yesterday afternoon through media calls. He says that neither he nor Red Sea Hotels know Mr Ilsley.
The other suggested director was Tom Byrne, a former Davys corporate financier, and Pickel maintains that the restructured board would be independent of Red Sea Hotels.
Pickel accuses Gresham of being hostile to them from the start, though he says they have never been hostile to the Irish company. He says they are left with 'little option' but to consider calling an EGM to redress 'your board's failure to implement any coherent planning or performance strategies.'
