Jurys Inns Go To Quinlan in Nearly $1.6B Sale

DUBLIN-A portfolio of 20 “budget-plus” hotels in Ireland and elsewhere in the UK has been acquired by Quinlan Private for $1.56 billion. Encompassing 4,835 rooms, the properties operate under the Jurys Inn brand, heretofore a division of the Jurys Doyle Hotel Group.

“This is a highly attractive business with enormous growth opportunities which we are delighted to acquire,” says QP director Pauline Bradley, who negotiated the deal for the international property and private equity investment and advisory firm. Principal Thomas Dowd says the venture “demonstrates [QP's] ability to complete attractive deals quickly,” also citing capital partner Anglo Irish Bank for helping accomplish that feat, especially for an asset that attracted plentiful competition.

The sale completes a strategy by locally based JDHG to concentrate on its luxury hotel portfolio, a group assembled in the UK and the US, where the firm has one hotel in Boston and three in Washington, DC. The Inns division was then offered for sale by JDHG, which developed most of the properties as a public company before going private in 2005. Located in city centers, 14 of the hotels divested are in the UK and six are in Ireland.