Stake in Griffin hotels sold for €100k

Dublin-based building group Noonan Developments has sold its 34.9% share in Liam Griffin’s Griffin Group Hotels for a knockdown €100,000.

The sale — formally conducted last December — is confirmed in new accounts filed by Noonan Group Holdings Ltd.

In 2011 and 2012, the Noonan Group wrote down the value of its shares in the Griffin Group from €3.8m to €100,000. Noonan has had a long association with the Griffin Hotel Group, first joining forces to purchase the Ferrycarrig Hotel in Wexford in 1991.

Led by Liam Griffin — who won the All-Ireland Hurling Championship with Wexford while manager — the Griffin Hotel Group operates the five-star Monart Spa Hotel in Kilkenny, the four-star Ferrycarrig Hotel, and the four-star Hotel Kilkenny.

The hotel group’s most recent accounts show its pre-tax losses narrowed sharply to €572,897 in 2012 after revenues rose 11.5% to €16.58m. The previous year, it recorded an €11m pre-tax loss largely owing to an €8.7m writedown. The group had bank loans totalling €12.3m at the end of December 2012.

The 2013 accounts for the Noonan Group do not disclose who purchased its Griffin share.

However, the sale will help reduce Noonan’s bank debt. The directors’ report states it has reduced its bank debt by 27%, from €41.9m in September 2010 to €30.83m in September 2013.

The group’s loans were transferred to Nama in October 2010 and, according to the directors’ report, the group “has achieved an agreed property strategy approved by Nama”.

At the height of the building boom in 2006, the Noonan Group recorded revenues of €31m, with its seven directors sharing remuneration of €4.29m.

However, the collapse in the building industry resulted in the group recording just two house sales in Ireland, generating revenues of €325,991, in 2013. This followed the group recording seven house sales in 2012, with revenues totalling €1.17m.

Noonan recorded pre-tax losses of €943,251.