Jurys Doyle shares fall 25 cent to €15.30

SHARES in Jurys Doyle fell 25 cent in Dublin yesterday to €15.30 but remain 5 cent above the rejected €15.25 offer price.

Precinct is expected to hit back with a higher price, something above €16.

Precinct remains the sole bidder for the international hotel chain, regarded as having underperformed in recent years.

Jurys Doyle board meets today to consider the future of its Ballsbridge site, regarded as the key factor driving the bid speculation.

Since the weekend, US private equity giant Blackstone has also been linked with a counter bid for Jurys. That report from the US is thought to be highly speculative.

So far, Precinct has been the only firm offer, despite speculation that several potential bidders were waiting to pounce.

The eight-acre Ballsbridge site, home to Jurys Hotel and the Towers Hotel is the key component driving the bid. Precinct is a development property consortium and other developers are reported to be sniffing around the hotel chain, which operates 33 outlets in Britain, the US as well as Ireland.

It is expected a decision to sell the site would generate huge developer interest in the site, pulling in property players with no interest in acquiring the entire group.

Analysts say the board is under huge pressure to show it has a plan to unlock the untapped value in the site. Previous speculation suggested the board would consider selling off the site to realise the underlying value of the land and then lease back a high grade hotel as part of a mixed residential/commercial development.

A decision by the board today to sell the site could strengthen its hand in the battle for the group.

The group’s perceived weakness has been its failure to address the Ballsbridge question before now. Its Irish hotels have been suffering while the Inns have been doing well.

It was thought at one point the Inns might have been floated off and the rest of the company taken private to facilitate the sale of Ballsbridge while allowing the group to reposition itself in the Irish market.

To date, the initial Precinct bid values the group at €960m.

It is thought that to buy the chain of hotels, bidders will have to go above 1bn to wrest control from the current owners.