Jurys Doyle bid agreed to by consortium
A family consortium owning more than 40% of Jurys Doyle has launched a €1.25bn takeover bid for the hotel group, it was announced today.
JDH Acquisitions, which represents members of the Doyle family, said it would pay €18.90 per share, a premium of 41.5% over Jurys’ closing share price on May 6, the day before takeover rumours first emerged.
The board said it had unanimously agreed to recommend the offer to shareholders.
But acceptance of the offer will still require the approval of more than 50% of voting shareholders.
The consortium owns 26,578,635 Jurys Doyle shares representing approximately 41.9% of the issued share capital and said it has received irrevocable undertakings to accept the offer in respect of approximately 45.2%.
Richard Hooper, chairman of Jurys Doyle, said: “The independent board is pleased to have reached a position where an offer is to be made at a price level and acceptance condition level which the independent board will recommend to Jurys Doyle shareholders for acceptance.
“The independent board believes that the price to be offered by JDH Acquisitions represents an attractive opportunity for Jurys Doyle shareholders to realise their investment for cash by accepting the cash offer.
“In addition, Jurys Doyle shareholders who were on the share register on September 16, 2005, will remain entitled to receive the Jurys Doyle interim dividend of 8.82 cent per share.”
JDH Acquisitions includes five board members and the daughters of the company’s late founder, PV Doyle.
Jurys Doyle, which operates 36 hotels in Ireland, Britain and the United States, has been the subject of intense takeover speculation since May.
