Doyle family shareholders in Jurys are understood to be open to an approach for their 23 per cent stake in the hotel group.

However, any successful bidder is likely to have to pay something above €16 a share to secure their support.

In a formal statement to the Irish Stock Exchange yesterday morning, Jurys said that neither the Doyle family members nor the family interests of another director, Walter Beatty, which controls about 7 per cent of the stock, was involved in the approach to the hotel group.

"The board of Jurys Doyle has been informed by the directors of the company connected with the Doyle and Beatty family interests in the company that neither they nor their family interests are connected with or have given their support to the unsolicited approach which has been made to the company," the statement said.

Shares in the group fell back slightly yesterday after the statement, closing down six cent at €14.74, still well above their pre-approach level.

A consortium led by Jackson Homes developer Bryan Cullen is behind the approach to the company which recently expressed concerns about trading at its four-star Dublin hotels.

The hotel group owns valuable property, especially an eight-acre site in Ballsbridge in Dublin, that is understood to be worth around €200 million.

Mr Cullen, is the dominant investor in the Precinct Consortium, which last year acquired Gresham Hotels in a €117 million deal. The other investors in that acquisition, solicitor David Coleman and builder and hotelier JJ Murphy, are also involved in the Jurys approach.

Since news of the approach surfaced, a number of other property investors have expressed an interest in the group, which has 30 hotels in Ireland, Britain and the United States.

There is significant money available in Dublin for property investment. A recent exercise by AIB to sell and leaseback part of its headquarter premises, also in Ballsbridge, attracted the interest of 10 consortiums boasting funds worth around $€2 billion in total.

A spokeswoman for Jurys Doyle yesterday said there had been no further approach to the company.

Any successful bidder for the company would need at least to acquire the support of the three daughters of the late PV Doyle, each of whom holds a sizeable interest in the hotel group.

NCB analyst Shane Matthews said the "base case" break-up value of the hotel group was €14.80 a share. "We believe a successful bidder will need to pay a substantial premium to this level," he said. "Based on historical exit prices, we think the bidder may need to pay as much as a 20 per cent premium to the pre-announcement price - i.e. €16.50 per share." (Additional reporting: Reuters)