‘Game is still on’ for Dunne’s Jurys takeover

BUILDER Sean Dunne has hired a top corporate finance executive as he weighs up a takeover bid of the Jurys Doyle Hotel Group.

Mr Dunne, who has a 28% stake in the group, has brought former IBI Corporate Finance chief executive Richard Keatinge in as an adviser.

The move would indicate he is preparing an all-out assault on Jurys despite an offer from the company’s founding shareholders.

Mr Dunne is paying €260 million for almost five acres of land owned by Jurys in the Ballsbridge area of Dublin. That deal will be completed later this week.

The Doyle family, which have offered €18.90 a share for Jurys, are in pole position to snap up the rest of the company. They claimed last Friday to have won control of the company after buying up or getting commitments for 50.1% of shares.

But Mr Dunne has not given up all hope of launching a counterbid.

Some sources claimed the family had only 48% of the company’s shares as the higher figure includes options that can only be exercisable when the takeover off become unconditional.

A source close to the Dunne camp yesterday told the Irish Examiner: “The game is still on.”

The prospect of beating the bid led by the three daughters of the hotel group’s founder PV is difficult, though still mathematically possible.

He will need to buy the stakes held by property developer Liam Carroll and of Bord na gCon chairman Paschal Taggart, plus all of the remaining small shareholders to have any hope of stopping the Doyles from gaining control.

If Mr Dunne does not launch his own takeover bid for Jurys, he could still make a healthy €20m profit on the stake he currently holds by selling out to the Doyles.

It is also not known if David Doyle, the former chief executive of the Doyle Hotel group, who has a small shareholding in the company, will sell to his sisters.