Dunne gets his hands on Jurys Doyle Dublin 4 site - Jurys Doyle has formerly told the Irish Stock Exchange this morning that developer Sean Dunne has made the winning bid for the landmark 4.84 acre Ballsbridge site the group had put out to tender in June. The value of the site is €260m. Sean Dunne is chief executive of Mountbrook homes. Earlier this month he secured the last site in the Grand Canal Dock redevelopment scheme in Dublin and he is also responsible for a salubrious development in Foxrock in south County Dublin. On this occasion he is using a company called Padholme for the Jurys bid. Any sale will require shareholder approval, but Jurys says that if the deal goes ahead it will earn a profit of €158m. Of course, this morning's news will have an impact on the ongoing Precinct Consortium courtship for the entire Jurys Doyle group. Precinct's latest bid, valuing Jurys Doyle at in excess of €1 billion, must be formalised by tomorrow evening. But that bid of €16.50 a share is not now expected to pass muster given the price tag on the Ballsbridge asset.
Jurys also said this morning that trading in its four star offering in Dublin continues to be disappointing, but it said the bombings in London are having some impact, but no material impact, on business at its hotels there.
Head of equity research at Bloxham Stockbrokers, Kevin McConnell, says Jurys Doyle would not have anticipated such a high price for the site, which works out at about €54m an acre. They had initially guided a price of about €150m. The analyst says that it would have become apparent over the last few years that the two hotels about to be demolished were not efficient by modern hotel standards with two few bedrooms occupying too big an area.
He says this latest development will put pressure on the Precinct consortium to raise their offer for the hotel group.
Dr Brendan Williams, of the Department of Planning and Environment Policy at UCD, says that the five acres of land is in a prime city centre location and is actually the size of a small town centre. He says that any property there will have high residential value and predicts that the density will be higher than we have seen before, perhaps even reaching the heights of Liberty Hall on the quays. He says that current building policy is to let landmark sites around the city go higher and higher.
He predicts that any apartments built on the Dublin 4 site will be large with an huge price tag of about €1m.
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CNG confirms informal approach received - Kerry based travel group CNG has announced that it has received an informal and unsolicited approach which may or may not lead to an offer for the company. In a statement to the Irish Stock Exchange this morning, the company said that it has noted the recent rise in its share price. CNG said that the approach is very preliminary in nature and there can be no certainty that an offer will ultimately be forthcoming.
