Four brothers in their 30s from a little-known business family in Co Mayo and three of their friends are to buy the Great Southern airport hotels in Dublin, Cork and Shannon from the State for €75 million.
Ben Walsh and his brothers Seán, Liam and Colm have branched out from Poplar Linens, their family's household textile business in Wesport, with the aim of starting up a new hotel chain. They aim to develop the chain in partnership with a young businessman from Dundalk, Co Louth, Ronan McArdle, and his father Frank, who is a property investor.
The other partner is Scottish accountant Alan McIntosh, who is well-known in Britain as a co-founder of Punch Taverns, the publicly-quoted pub chain.
The succcess of their bid was the big surprise in the sale by the Dublin Airport Authority of seven of the eight Great Southern hotels for some €265 million.
The other hotels went to established multimillionaire businessmen Gerry Barrett and Bernard McNamara. Mr Barrett, owner of the G Hotel in Galway, is reputed to have spent well in excess of €100 million buying the Killarney, Eyre Square and Corrib hotels.
Mr McNamara, a co-owner of the Superquinn supermarket chain and the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, acquired the Parknasilla Hotel in Sneem, Co Kerry. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, takes his summer holidays at the hotel, which has been in business for 152 years. Queen Victoria was a guest there in 1861.
The Dublin Airport Authority, which inherited the hotels from its predecessor, Aer Rianta, said it did not receive an acceptable tender for the Great Southern hotel in Rosslare. However, the company was confident that it could achieve a successful sale in the "near future".
The smallest of the transactions yesterday was the sale of the hotel group's 25 per cent interest in the City of Derry hotel to three Derry businessmen who own the other 75 per cent. They are: Patrick Durkan, a brother of SDLP leader Mark Durkan; Brendan Duddy, owner of the Strand Bar in Derry; and Billy McCartney, who has retail and manufacturing interests.
About three-quarters of the 922 staff in the chain are taking a severance package as part of the sale. Those remaining will receive a lump-sum on their transfer to the new owners.
The sale of the seven Great Southerns brings to an end the State's direct involvement in the hotel industry. While the public ownership of the chain was frequently in question, divestment was highly politicised.
The Independent TD Jackie Healy-Rae all but blocked a sale during the Government's previous term of office when he made his support of the Coalition dependent on there being no sale.
While it is known that the Co Kerry-based Minister for Tourism, John O'Donoghue, was opposed to the privatisation, he issued a statement yesterday welcoming the sale. He noted with pleasure that the artworks in the hotels will be transferred "free of charge" to the Office of Public Works, which will arrange to have them placed on public display.
The Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, who had political responsibility for the sale, said that the hotels, "with the appropriate investment from their new owners, stand ready to reach their potential as beacons of excellence" in Irish tourism.
"I look forward to a new era of growth and development at these landmarks. This is great news from the perspective of customers, employees, and the local communities served by the hotels and the wider economy," Mr Cullen said.
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