Birmingham in central England will be the location of the third-largest hotel in the Jurys Doyle chain following Jurys' acquisition of the privately-owned Chamberlain Hotels group for £41.9 million sterling (€66.2 million).
The Birmingham hotel will be smaller than Jurys' Burlington and Ballsbridge hotels in Dublin, but will be the largest of the group's low-cost inns.
Jurys is acquiring two hotels as part of the deal - the 445room three star 16-storey Chamberlain Tower Hotel in central Birmingham and the two-star 250-room Chamberlain Park. The Chamberlain Tower will be rebranded as Jurys' Birmingham Inn but the group intends to sell the Chamberlain Park as it is not suitable for redevelopment either as a four star hotel or a three-star inn, Jurys chief executive, Mr Pat McCann, stated.
Mr McCann said Jurys would not be rushed into selling the Chamberlain Park. "We will sell it at some stage, it's trading profitably and we don't have to be in a rush to sell," he said. He declined to disclose how much the Park hotel contributed to Chamberlain's total turnover last year of £11.4 million sterling (€18 million) and earnings before interest, tax and depreciation of £3.75 million sterling (€5.5 million).
Jurys is paying the two owners of Chamberlain Hotels £8 million (€10.16 million) in cash, £19.6 million sterling (€31 million) in loan notes which convert into equity in 2004 and is assuming bank loans and other liabilities of £14.3 million sterling.
Mr McCann said the Chamberlain deal was "a lovely deal" for Jurys, as it gave the group a presence in England's second largest city, and a city that has been revitalised in recent years. There would be minimal costs in converting the Tower to a Jurys Inn as the hotel was only opened in 1999. As well as it 445 rooms, the new inn has two restaurants, 16 conference rooms and car parking for 220 vehicles.
Mr McCann said the cost of Chamberlain Hotels was £60,300 (€95,300) per room. This compared favourably with the £63,000 per room that Jurys' new inn in Croydon in London was costing the group. "This is anything but an expensive deal for us," he stated.
"Our stated strategy is to develop our Inn's brand in strong city-centre locations throughout the UK. Jurys' Birmingham Inn, together with our development in Croydon which will open for business in January 2002, adds 685 rooms to our existing portfolio of 870 rooms in our UK Jurys' Inn network," he added.
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