Moran Bewley’s Hotel Group is a portfolio of nine hotels with 2,506 rooms across Ireland and the UK. The portfolio includes four hotels in Dublin, two in London and one hotel in each of Cork, Manchester and Leeds. The Red Cow Moran Hotel and the Red Cow Inn Complex in Dublin do not form part of the acquisition.

The company said the acquisition offers “a rare opportunity to acquire a large, well invested portfolio of three and four star hotels”. It said it will enable it to scale up its operations significantly and particularly expands its position in the key Dublin market with the four hotels in the capital having a total of 1,423 rooms. It also gives Dalata exposure to three attractive UK hotel markets “and provides a platform from which the company can further grow in the UK in the coming years”.

The purchase price is made up of the repayment of inter-company and third party debt, the issue of 12,200,000 shares in Dalata Hotel Group plc (representing 10pc of the existing issued share capital) and cash.

The company also said today that it intends to raise €16.775m from the issue of 6,100,000 shares.

Because of its size, the acquisition constitutes a reverse takeover under AIM and ESM rules and completion is therefore conditional on shareholder and CCPC approval.  Shareholder approval will be sought at the EGM to be held at the Clyde Court Hotel, Lansdowne Road, Dublin 4, at 10 am on the 5 January 2015.

“The acquisition of the Moran Bewley’s Hotel Group is a transformational development for Dalata,” said chief executive, Pat McCann. “It is a business we have admired for a long time and the acquisition is a rare opportunity to acquire a large well invested portfolio of hotels.

“We have now fully invested the proceeds from our IPO in line with our investment strategy well ahead of schedule. I look forward to driving value from the acquisitions we have completed in 2014 for the benefit of our shareholders.” Source: Business and Leadership.