Jurys Doyle Hotel Group has agreed sell two of its three star hotels to the McEniff Hotel Group.
Jurys Waterford Hotel and Jurys Skylon Hotel in Dublin will be sold as going concerns for a cash consideration of €14 million. The two hotels have 186 bedrooms between them.
The McEniff brothers - Brian and Sean - also announced the merger of their individual hotel chains today. Branded as the McEniff Hotels, the newly expanded group now has 10 hotels in its portfolio. It has a workforce of over 15,000 in hotels from Donegal to Waterford.
Until today, the Brian McEniff Hotel Group consisted of five hotels, the Holyrood and the Great Northern in Bundoran, Co Donegal, the Yeats Country Hotel in Rosses Point, the Sligo Southern and the Westport Woods in Co Mayo.
His brother Sean is the key figure in the Tyrconnell Group, which includes the Allingham Arms Hotel in Bundoran, the Mount Errigal Hotel in Letterkenny and the Camden Court Hotel in Dublin. The hoteliers are also planning to open the Grand Canal Hotel in Dublin in 2004.
Jurys Doyle said today that the sale of the Waterford and Skylon hotels is part of the Group's strategic review of its portfolio which aims to maximise shareholder value from existing properties.
'As part of our development strategy, we have been looking at how we maximise returns from our existing portfolio in tandem with developing new hotels and inns in major city centre locations,' said Pat McCann, Chief Executive of Jurys Doyle Hotel Group.
'While our Waterford hotel and Skylon hotel have performed very well over the years, they do not fit into our strategic business plans. We received a very good offer for both properties at the right time and are pleased to have a purchaser who will continue to operate both properties as going concerns with the existing management and staff,' he added.
In a statement today, Jurys said that in line with its strategic plan, the Group is actively exploring additional development opportunities at a number of its hotels in Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
Work on Jurys Boston Hotel in the US is due to commence this month. In April, the group announced a €90 million development consisting of three new Jurys Inns in Glasgow, Leeds and Chelsea.
The development of all these new properties, when combined with Jurys Inn Newcastle which is due to open in February 2003, will add an additional 1,200 new bedrooms to the Group's portfolio by early 2004. This will bring the total number of bedrooms within the Group to 7,161.
