Jurys board shaken by €17.50 bid

JURYS Doyle board was rocked last night by a €17.50 per share offer for the entire equity of group.

The new proposed bid from Precinct values the business at over €1.1 billion or €60 million above its previous offer of €1.04bn or €16.50 per share.

This apparent knockout bid came on the day the board of Jurys sealed the fate of its five-acre Ballsbridge site with a €260m deal with property developer Sean Dunne.

In its last offer, Precinct valued the site at €200m and the €1 per share higher bid made last night fully takes into account the higher price secured by the group for the five acre site.

A spokesman for Jurys said the board will respond once it has had time to give the mater “due consideration.”

Precinct, in its statement, said it will formally put the bid to the group provided the Jurys board confirm their intention to recommend the bid to shareholders.

Sources said it would be difficult for Jurys Doyle directors to ignore the latest offer from the Precinct board, headed by property developer Bryan Cullen.

In a further twist, Precinct has taken the unprecedented step of offering to pay €16.75 per share to shareholders if they achieve a 65% acceptance for the proposed offer.

That is a premium of approximately 34% to the closing mid-market share price of Jurys Doyle of €12.50 the day before Precinct made its first move to buy Jurys.

It said the offer of €17.50 represented a premium of 40% on the closing mid-market share price of Jurys Doyle of €12.50 on May 5, 2005.

That was the last day prior to the date of submission of the first approach to the board by Precinct when it offered €15.25 to buy the chain of 33 hotels.

Precinct directors have also sought an extension to today’s deadline for a formal bid to be made, which was laid down by the takeover panel some weeks ago in light of the new package put on the table last night.

The entire Jurys board may be forced to recommend the €17.50 offer, due to their legal responsibilities as directors which obliges them to act in the interest of all shareholders.

One of the key stumbling blocks to a successful bid has been the resistance of the Doyle family to sell.