Sean Dunne to sell stake in Jurys Doyle

Irish property developer Sean Dunne has agreed to sell his 28% stake in Jurys Doyle hotel group to the Doyle-family consortium JDH Acquisitions for €20m (£13.5m).

The deal brings to an end months of speculation on the future of Dunne's involvement with the hotel company, which peaked when he completed the €260m (£175m) Ballsbridge site deal last month.

Dunne said: "I view a minority shareholding in a public company over which I have no say in its direction as negative for both parties."

Dunne has agreed to JDH's offer of €18.90 (£12.70) per share despite having paid up to €19.50 (£13.10) for some Jurys Doyle shares recently.

But the move will provide him with the cash he will need to buy Jurys Doyle's Berkeley Court hotel in Dublin. He put in a tender for the property, which is valued at around €100m (£67m), along with at least seven other bidders.

JDH owns just over 50% of the company but needed to acquire more than 80% of shares to take the company private and realise their ambitions of continuing to run it as a hotel business. This deal should now secure that.

By Emily Manson

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