Falling stars are not end of world for hotels

CurrentAccount: All is far from lost for the Shelbourne Hotel, which was stripped of its fifth star this week along with the Conrad, Jurys in Ballsbridge and the Radisson SAS.

Four-star hotels are hot property according to Guy Naggar, who is best known here as the principal of Dawnay Day, the UK finance house currently embroiled in the battle for control of Real Estate Opportunities.

One of his other interests is Dawnay Shore Hotels, an offshore investment vehicle which has ambitions to become the UK's largest operator of four-star hotels. What attracts Mr Naggar to the sector is that, when things are bad, four-star hotels can be bought pretty cheaply but, when things are good, they can raise their prices substantially.

The group has just raised £22 million (€32.9 million) and plans to raise another £30 million in the coming months. It is on the lookout for leading hotels in regional markets that have large numbers of conference rooms, which is good news for the new Irish four stars. The bad news is that it doesn't want hotels that are dependent on overseas visitors.

M&T's Riggs bid may give AIB cause to pause

AIB Group must be viewing the attempts by M&T Bank to buy Riggs National with mixed emotions. The family-owned bank, long synonymous with diplomatic banking in Washington, would be a nice fit for M&T, which is 22.5 per cent owned by AIB. In addition, M&T could fund the mooted $700 million to $800 million acquisition without recourse to shareholders.

However, some in AIB must be asking themselves whether - given the bank's rather battered image - it really wants to be associated, no matter how indirectly, with an organisation that flouted US money-laundering legislation.

But at the same time Riggs is well qualified to join the wider AIB family, given its somewhat relaxed approach to offshore banking.

Earlier this week, the US Senate's permanent subcommittee on investigations said Riggs' actively sought business from former Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet, setting up offshore accounts and shell companies for him in 2002. The bank also opened 60 accounts for the ruler of Equatorial Guinea, Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, another man not likely to feature on any Amnesty International lists of great world leaders.

"Riggs did not decline to complete any of the requested transactions or identify or investigate any of them as suspicious activity," according to the Senate report.

Boyzone is dead, but the royalties linger

Boyzone may be but a distant memory on the music scene but the company set up to handle the group's royalties, touring income and merchandising rights is still going strong.

Lunaria Limited is one of three companies set up to handle the earnings of the five members of the Irish boyband that sold more than 12 million albums in seven whirlwind years before breaking up in 1999.

In the 12 months to the end of August 2003, it earned more than €225,000 from activities related to the band, including royalties from the playing of their music in public places - a sharp rise on the €87,190 in their activities brought in the previous year.

At the same time, the company's costs fell, largely due to a sharp cut in money paid to the directors, the group's five members - Ronan Keating, Shane Lynch, Stephen Gately, Keith Duffy and Mickey Graham.

In the year to end-August 2002, they took a total of €115,000 out of the company, a figure that fell back to €53,613 this year. This helped the group turn around a €71,000 loss in 2002 to a profit of €82,759 in the most recent period..

The band's former manager, Louis Walsh, is still making money on the back of Boyzone's success. War Management, the company he set up with nightclub owner Mr John Reynolds to manage Boyzone, received €40,537 in commissions during the year. Lunaria has retained profits of close to €300,000.

The group's two subsidiary companies, Kasama and Greyship, which were set up to handle the boys' touring earnings abroad and in Ireland respectively, both made losses during the year.

However, both groups have profits banked from earlier years.