ICTU condemns property developers
As takeover speculation continues to heighten after Sean Dunne and Liam Carroll increased their stakes in the company yesterday, Congress general-secretary David Begg said the "speculator-driven feeding frenzy" would cost the jobs of the Jurys' employees.
Around 800 jobs will be lost in the next couple of years when Jurys hotel on its Ballsbridge site, which is being sold to Mr Dunne, closes. There is also the prospect of further jobs losses as Jurys plans to sell the Berkeley Court and Jurys Montrose hotels.
"Throughout this whole slightly sordid episode played like a soap opera in the media people seem to have lost sight of the 800 jobs that will be sacrificed to satisfy speculative greed," Mr Begg said yesterday. "These 800 permanent and pensionable jobs will be lost forever, not because of outsourcing, not because of competition from low-wage economies, but because already wealthy speculators want to make a quick buck."
It emerged yesterday that Mr Dunne, husband of social diarist Gayle Killilea, upped his stake in Jurys at the cost of €103 million. Mr Dunne now owns just over 21% of the company's shares and is the largest single investor. He is due to have more talks with Jurys management this week and has not ruled out a takeover. He won the auction to buy the five-acre site in the Ballsbridge area of Dublin for €260 million and has been building a stake in Jurys since to protect that investment.
There had been speculation over the weekend that Mr Dunne would do a deal with the Doyle and Beatty families, who own 32% of Jurys shares between them, to take over the company.
It also emerged that Liam Carroll, one of the largest property developers in the country, increased his stake to 8.3%. He spent more than €10 million on the shares last Friday.
Shares in Jurys were up 5 cent yesterday at €18.05. Some 864,000 shares in the company changed hands.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
