Property developer Sean Dunne has raised his stake in takeover target Jurys Doyle to 18.2 per cent but analysts said he probably wanted to secure a major property deal rather than make a bid of his own.
"As a result of today's acquisition, Sean Dunne is the single largest shareholder in the company," stockbroker Dolmen Securities said in a statement on his behalf today.
Dolmen said while he had not approached Jurys or any of its shareholders with a view to making an offer for the whole company, he would seek meetings with them within the next week.
Analysts believe his primary motive is to ensure he can complete a deal agreed last month to buy 4.84 acres of property in Dublin's prestigious Ballsbridge area from Jurys for €260 million.
"The deal is legally binding but subject to an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) and shareholder approval," said Brid White, analyst at Merrion stockbrokers. "Dunne wants to guarantee he gets it."
Given the Jurys board controls about 32 per cent of the company, analysts said Dunne's additional 18.2 per cent stake meant that with management backing he could secure over half of the votes at an EGM, due to be held next month.
"I think the feeling is that Dunne is not interested in bidding for the company," said one analyst who declined to be named. "As the biggest single shareholder, however, he's now in a position to influence the future direction of the company."
Since agreeing the property sale, Jurys has also said it is ready to recommend an informal offer from Precinct Investments for the whole group. Precinct has said it would not block the land sale if its takeover bid succeeded.
Precinct has made a provisional offer of €17.50 a share for Jurys, valuing the company at €1.1 billion. Two other potential buyers have also said they are monitoring the situation and may get involved with bids of their own at some point.
While Dolmen did not say from whom Dunne had bought the shares, Bank of Ireland said it had earlier sold the bulk of its 12.6 per cent holding, including a block of 5.5 million shares at €18 each.
Dunne and his company DTC Construction Services Limited said in a statement to the Irish Stock Exchange they had bought 8.9 million shares at €18 apiece and just under 424,000 shares at between €17.54 and €17.90 each..
Shares in Jurys, which operates around 30 hotels in Ireland, Britain and the United States, closed nearly 3 per cent higher at €18.0 on the Irish bourse.