{"id":645562,"date":"2026-10-05T15:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T15:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/645562\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T15:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T15:26:15","slug":"i-dont-see-this-as-an-asset-that-you-flip-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/645562\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I don\u2019t see this as an asset that you flip\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A third generation of the Loughran family has taken over the running of the Sandymount Hotel in Dublin 4<\/a>, 71 years after its doors were first opened to guests. <\/p>\n

Recently filed accounts for Mount Herbert Ltd and its parent company, Loughran Investments, reveal that hotel director Gerard Loughran <\/a>has taken ownership of the ordinary shares in the business from his father, John Loughran, who retired last year. <\/p>\n

In a 2025 restructuring of the company behind the 190-bedroom hotel, two of Gerard Loughran\u2019s three siblings \u2013 Ois\u00edn and Sin\u00e9ad \u2013 were also issued a new class of preference shares in the business.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Budget 2027: All you need to knowOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Irish Times, John Loughran said there are no voting rights attached to the preference shares and Gerard, who has worked in the hotel for 20 years, is \u201cfree to run the business as he sees fit\u201d. John is also retaining some preference shares in the company \u201cin the event I need a few bob in the future\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Mount Herbert Ltd has also acquired one of the hotel\u2019s eight buildings from John Loughran\u2019s wife, Audrey Loughran, for about \u20ac5.7 million, according to the filings. <\/p>\n

John Loughran said the proceeds were used to pay taxes associated with the transfer of the business \u2013 including capital gains tax, capital acquisitions tax (CAT) and stamp duty \u2013 in the order of about \u20ac4.5 million. He said the company, which had accumulated profits of more than \u20ac13 million by the end of last year, was in a \u201cfortunate\u201d position.<\/p>\n

Formerly called the Mount Herbert Hotel before being renamed in 2011, the property sits about 200m from the Aviva Stadium. It comprises eight Victorian buildings, which were first converted into a four-bedroom hotel by John Loughran\u2019s Tyrone-born parents, Gerard and Rosaleen, in 1955. <\/p>\n

John and his brother Paul inherited the business before John bought out his sibling\u2019s shareholding in 1999. He has stewarded the business through difficult times, including the post-2008 property crash and financial crisis, narrowly avoiding the appointment of receivers to the hotel.<\/p>\n

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However, Loughran said that when it came time to pass the torch to his children, the process was anything but smooth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was coming up to my 66th birthday in 2021,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were Government incentives to transition a family business where you got business relief [for CAT], and you got retirement relief [for CGT] if you transition the business before you are 66.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, there was a \u20ac3 million cap on the value of business assets that could be transferred within families tax-free for those aged 66 or older.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018You might have five stars but it will be soulless if there is no connection with the staff\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThen Covid hit, and it was off the table, so the window of opportunity had passed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Loughran said he contacted the Department of Finance in 2024 to lobby for an extension of the retirement age, which led to a meeting with officials. \u201cI said my business is going to go to foreign ownership, when it could remain an Irish family-owned and run business because there won\u2019t be an Irish buyer for this hotel,\u201d he recalled. <\/p>\n

Due to its reputation and prime location, the hotel has had countless suitors over the years, Loughran said, including some \u201cbig offers\u201d. However, he said that he felt he had a duty to his \u201clegacy staff\u201d \u2013 the longest-serving of whom has been with the business for 46 years \u2013 to maintain family control. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see this \u2013 and Gerard would be of the same view \u2013 as an asset that you flip,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is the livelihoods of 130 people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Budget 2025, the Government moved to raise the age at which the \u20ac3 million cap applies from 66 to 70. The reforms came into effect in January 2025, giving the Loughrans five months to complete the transfer before John\u2019s 70th birthday that May. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that I had a motorbike accident in February and was off the page for a month didn\u2019t help things,\u201d he said. \u201cBut anyway, we just about got it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loughran said that due to inheritance tax rules, Gerard is \u201chandcuffed\u201d to the business for 12 years, meaning it will \u201cremain an Irish family-owned and run business\u201d for years to come. <\/p>\n

Even with the changes to the CGT regime, the experience of dividing a family business was challenging, Loughran said, and costly. \u201cWhereas other countries recognise the value of family-owned businesses and have policies and tax incentives to support them, that\u2019s not really the case in Ireland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Still, Loughran said the hotel is lucky to have traded well in 2025 and into 2026. Mount Herbert Ltd reported turnover of \u20ac9.8 million in 2025, up by about 5 per cent year-on-year. The company also swung to an almost \u20ac1.4 million profit last year from a loss of close to \u20ac688,000 in 2024. <\/p>\n

He put the turnaround down to a sizeable drop in administrative costs related to pension transfers that were conducted in 2024, which dragged on the hotel\u2019s bottom line in that year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other big cost, which won\u2019t be there in 2026, is probably close to \u20ac200,000 of professional fees,\u201d which were paid to three different advisory firms in the run-up to the transition. \u201cI was paying handsomely for three conflicting opinions,\u201d Loughran said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo the business as it sits now and moves forward into the next generation is in a strong place,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s debt-free. I suppose I learned my lessons from the financial crash.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A third generation of the Loughran family has taken over the running of the Sandymount Hotel in Dublin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1399,72,15940,61,60,10912],"class_list":["post-645562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-aviva-stadium","tag-business","tag-hotels","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sandymount"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}