Dalata Hotel Group eyes three more sites after latest purchase

The Dalata Hotel Group is negotiating the purchase of a further two-to-three development sites in Dublin.

Deputy chief executive Dermot Crowley yesterday said the group has around €45m to invest and needs to secure another 800 rooms by 2020 to maintain its 20% share of the Dublin market.

He said Dalata is only eyeing new build options, rather than acquisitions of existing hotels, in order to develop.

He was speaking on the back of the group buying its fourth development site in the past three months.

The owner of the Maldron and Clayton hotel brands has bought a site on Dublin’s Kevin Street, close to St Stephen’s Green, for €8.1m.

The group will invest €26m building a new Maldron Hotel on the site, with work due to begin in the fourth quarter of this year and the premises expected to open in 2018.

In February, Dalata acquired the site of the former Charlemont Clinic in central Dublin for nearly €12m, on which it will open a new Clayton Hotel in 2018.

Earlier this month, it spent over €10m on the part-completed hotel on Cork’s Beasley Street, which when open will give Dalata a 21% share of the Cork market.

It also recently completed its expansion plans in the North with the purchase of a development site in Belfast.

Dalata’s share price has been in decline for much of the year. It was up over 1.2% yesterday at €4.90.

It has rebounded by around 12% in the past month on the back of strong tourism figures and rising confidence about Britain remaining in the EU.

If Brexit doesn’t happen, Dalata aims to open up to seven hotels in the UK by 2019. The group still has three Maldron hotels in Cork, Dublin and Portlaoise.

It operates them under lease arrangements in its acquisition sites and is also keen on any acquisition opportunities that might arise in Limerick and Galway.