Lynch in sale-and-leaseback of Limerick's South Court Hotel

COUNTY CLARE-based hotel group Lynch Hotels has sold the South Court Hotel in Limerick to two property investors based in the city for €15 million.

Property developer Robert Butler and solicitor Paul O’Brien of Limerick firm McMahon O’Brien Downes bought the hotel.

The hotel group, which is owned by Ennis-based businessman Michael Lynch, will continue to run the hotel. The South Court has 127 bedrooms and is located beside the Raheen Industrial Estate where computer manufacturer Dell is located. Mr O’Brien said he and Mr Butler would continue the hotel operation “over the medium term”, leasing the property to the Lynch group. “It is a very good site and it is very well located,” he said.

Mr Lynch was unavailable for comment. Industry sources said the sale-and-leaseback deal was worth €15 million to his group.

The hotel group invested €11 million in the South Court, one of the group’s four-star hotels. It has eight hotels, including the George Hotel in Limerick city. The group sold the 270-bedroom Green Isle Hotel at Newlands Cross in Dublin last January to Brian Brennan of Brennan Hotels, which owns the Springhill Court in Kilkenny and Bettystown Court in Co Meath.

The Lynch group, which includes Breaffy House Hotel in Castlebar, Co Mayo, was established in 1968 by Mr Lynch’s parents with the West County Hotel in Ennis. The group said its main company, West County (Ennis), would “continue to maximise property gains from its existing land banks [and] seek out . . . property developments in non-hotel areas”.

The group’s pretax profit fell 73 per cent to €1.1 million from €4.1 million in the year ended March 31st, 2006, while turnover rose 3 per cent to €44.7 million.