Watchdog clears Dalata's €83m deal for Radisson Dublin Airport
Dalata Hotel Group
will give up the lease on the DAA-owned Maldron Hotel at Dublin Airport after the competition watchdog approved its bid to acquire the nearby Radisson Blu hotel from Alan McIntosh's Emerald Investments for €83 million.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) said on Wednesday it had cleared Dalata's bid to buy CG Hotels Dublin Airport, which holds the long leasehold interest in the property.
The CCPC said it had approved the €83 million transaction, subject to several conditions, one of which is that Dalata will have to surrender the lease on the nearby Maldron Hotel. Dalata said previously the Maldron lease is due to expire in January 2026.
In a statement on Thursday afternoon, Dalata confirmed it had received approval for the acquisition and all conditions are now satisfied, with the transaction set to be completed before the end of the month.
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Dalata said it is 'contractually committed to operating the Maldron Hotel Dublin Airport, under licence, into 2026, and will engage with the owner, DAA, to ensure an orderly handover of operations during the period'.
Dalata chief executive Dermot Crowley said: 'We are pleased the regulatory approval process is now complete, and I am very excited about the future of the hotel within Dalata Hotel Group.
'I look forward to meeting the team at the hotel in the coming weeks and welcoming them into Dalata.'
The transaction was notified to the CCPC last November, and the watchdog launched its investigation into the competition implications of the deal in April.
CG Hotels Dublin Airport is a subsidiary of CG Hotels, which is linked to Mr McIntosh, a co-founder of Irish-listed home builder Cairn Homes, and his Emerald Investment Partners firm.
The four-star hotel is on 4.4 acres to the east of Dublin Airport, comprising 229 bedrooms as well as meeting and events rooms.
Dalata put itself up for sale in March, hiring investment bank Rothschild to carry out a strategic review of the business following a sustained period of underperformance by its stock.
Earlier this month, the Dublin-listed group rejected a €1.3 billion bid from a Scandinavian consortium comprising Swedish peer Pandox, which owns hotels run under the Leonardo brand in Ireland, and Oslo-based Eiendomsspar, a leading shareholder in Dalata.
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