REO to build €300m port

The State commercial port company in Drogheda has selected Real Estate Opportunities (REO), the listed vehicle controlled by Treasury, to build a new €300 million deep water port at Bremore, 21 miles north of Dublin, writes Arthur Beesley, Senior Business Correspondent

Separately, REO received approval at an egm in Jersey yesterday to acquire from Treasury Holdings the 50 per cent of Havenview Investments that it does not already own and seven other properties and development projects around Dublin.

Treasury, which is controlled by businessmen John Ronan and Richard Barrett, owns 58 per cent of REO. Drogheda Port Company said in a statement that it had selected REO's subsidiary Castle market Holdings to build the new port. REO's business in Ireland is managed by Treasury.

The Bremore project has been under way since 2002. Situated near Balbriggan, the new port will be designed to have capacity to handle 10 million metric tonnes of freight per year, more than three times the current capacity of the Drogheda port.

Accessible to the M1 motorway and directly connected to the rail network, the new port will be designed to make up a deficit in capacity in Drogheda.

With freight volumes on the increase, the new port will be designed to tap extra demand throughout the east coast.

"The development of Bremore is hugely significant: it will free a potential bottleneck in the continuing growth of freight traffic to and from Ireland," said Patrick Traynor, the chairman of Drogheda port.

John Bruder, managing director of Treasury in Ireland, said the project had "enormous" development potential. REO's Havenview transaction was valued at £60.54 million (€87 million), satisfied through the issue of new 80.72 million new shares in REO. The transaction is expected to take effect today.

The company is incorporated in Jersey and listed on London's Alternative Investment Market.