Shares in Dalata Hotel Group ceased trading on the Dublin Stock Exchange today after its €1.4 billion sale to Scandinavian investors has completed.
The country’s biggest hotel group is being bought by Pandox and Eiendomsspa.
Dalata operates 56 hotels under the Maldron Hotel and Clayton Hotel brands, mostly in Ireland and the UK, and aims to open new hotels in Europe including in Berlin and Madrid.
It launched a strategic review in March to explore options for enhancing shareholder value, including a potential sale.
Dalata said it will retain its staff, management team and Dublin headquarters as it continues to expand as an international hotel group.
Sweden-based Pandox specialises in the ownership, development and leasing of large hotel assets in major cities across Sweden and northern Europe.
It has been expanding its portfolio through acquisitions and leases in key European cities including Stockholm, Berlin and Brussels and its portfolio consists of 163 hotel properties with about 36,000 rooms across 11 countries in Northern Europe.
Eiendomsspar is one of the largest real estate owners in Norway and it owns 11 hotels in Norway, with another two hotels under construction. Eiendomsspar controls about 36% of the voting shares of Pandox.
The closing of the sale marks another exit from the stock exchange in Dublin, which is operated by Euronext.
Companies including Smurfit Kappa, CRH, Flutter Entertainment, DCC, Greencore and Datalex are among those that have left the Dublin Stock Exchange in recent years.
Dalata, which was founded by former chief executive Pat McCann, confirmed that its shares will be delisted from Euronext Dublin and from the main market of the London Stock Exchange by 7am today.
In August, the hotel group reported half year revenues of €306.5m, an increase of 1% on the €302.3m reported the same time last year. But its profit after tax sank by 45% to €19.6m from €35.8m on the back of Strategic Review related costs and an increase in non-cash accounting charges.
The hotel group said its like for like revenue per available room (RevPAR) was o €109.78, down 2% on the same time last year, with its Dublin hotels outperforming the Dublin market.
But it said the UK market has been more challenging, which impacted on its RevPAR performance there with a 3.5% reduction on last year.
During the first half of the year, it completed the €83m acquisition of the Radisson Blu hotel on the Dublin Airport campus. The 229-bedroom property will be rebranded as a Clayton hotel next year.