Dunloe Ewart to raise €146m from sale of 13 properties

Property group Dunloe Ewart plans to sell almost its entire portfolio of properties in Northern Ireland and Britain for a total of £90.75 million sterling (€146 million), in a move that will leave Dunloe with cash of about €100 million for investment in its operations in the Republic.

The decision to sell the 13 properties, which will have to be approved by an extraordinary general meeting, comes less than a year after chairman Mr Noel Smyth said that Dunloe had no intention of leaving the Northern property market.

Mr Smyth said yesterday: "I'm disappointed to be leaving the North. I've spent 12 years building up our interests but I simply don't have the dough."

The various properties are being acquired by two Northern property developers, Mr Frank Boyd and Mr Andrew Creighton.

The properties include numbers 1, 6, 8 and 9 Lanyon Place in Belfast as well as other properties at Cathedral Way, Sirocco, Fitzwilliam Terrace, Wellwood Street and Windsor House.

The other planned disposals are the Castle Centre in Antrim, and three properties in Aylesbury, Braintree and Milton Keynes in England.

The final disposal is Dunloe's 25 per cent stake in Belfast Hilton, the company which opens the Belfast Hilton Hotel. Dunloe will incur a loss of £3.75 million (€6 million) on this sale.

Dunloe will still retain an interest in the North through its joint venture with McAleer & Rushe at Bedford Street in Belfast, where an outline planning application has been submitted for a 27-storey development involving a hotel and 26,000 square metres of office space.

While the proposed sale has to be approved by an e.g.m., it will only require a simple majority and this means that 27 per cent shareholder Zoe Developments owner Mr Liam Carroll cannot block the sale if he wished to do so.

It is thought, however, that while he has never uttered a single word about his investment in Dunloe, Mr Carroll is unlikely to oppose the sale of the properties.

In the Republic, Dunloe has what is considered its landmark site at Sir John Rogerson's Quay in Dublin as well as 400 acres of development land at Cherrywood in south Dublin.

It is also involved in a property joint venture near Dublin Airport with Aer Rianta as well as other properties in Limerick and Clondalkin.