Consortium controls 96% of Jurys' shares

THE consortium seeking to take control of Jurys Doyle has won the support of 96% of the hotel group's shareholders, it emerged yesterday.

JDH Acquisitions, the group headed by three daughters of hotelier PV Doyle, told the stock exchange it had extended the deadline for the remaining shareholders to accept its €18.90 per share offer, which values the group at €1.25 billion, until November 23.

The group, whose key members were represented by five seats on the Jurys board before its offer was made, said it received acceptance notices from over 10% of shareholders. This meant it either owned or had received acceptance notices in respect of all but 4% of the outstanding shares. Shareholders with a further 0.5% stake had given irrevocable notices saying they would sell their shares to the consortium.

The group said it was now entitled under law to move to acquire the remaining shares on a compulsory basis, as it had the support of more than 80% of shareholders.

Jurys is expected to seek to delist from the stock exchange within days, after clearing its last major hurdle last week with the decision of developer Sean Dunne to sell his 28% stake to the consortium.

He is favourite to win the race to buy the site of the Jurys-owned Berkeley Court Hotel, next to the site of the Jurys hotel he acquired for €260 million earlier this year.