Globally-focused Swedish hotel group closing in on €900m deal for Jurys Inns

Swedish hotel investment group Pandox has confirmed recent media reports that it is interested in buying the Jurys Inns chain. While not naming Jurys, it said that “following speculation in the media Pandox confirms that the company has entered a negotiating phase concerning the possibilities for a major acquisition’.

Pandox added that “the acquisition concerns a hotel portfolio focused on larger cities in Britain and the Republic of Ireland”. It emphasised that the deal is complex and that current negotiations may not necessarily lead to an agreement, and that it is not certain that the transaction will be successfully concluded.

Jurys Inn, Milton Keynes

Pandox’s portfolio covers 122 hotels with 26,837 hotel rooms in 11 countries – Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Austria, England and the Netherlands.

Those hotels are managed under different types of agreements and are marketed under brands such as Scandic, Leonardo, InterContinental, Hilton, Hyatt, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Radisson Blu, Clarion, Comfort, Quality, Elite, First and NH. Pandox has also created a number of independent brands such as The Hotel Brussels, Hotel Bloom!, Hotel Berlin, Berlin and Urban House Copenhagen. Closer to home, the Hilton London Heathrow Airport.

It’s been reported that the Swedish group is offering around €900m for the Jurys Inns chains, plus one Hilton property, which are owned Lone Star Funds, an American private equity firm.

Jurys Inns has 35 hotels in Ireland and Britain, with one in Prague. The brand was launched in 1993 with hotels in Galway and Dublin’s Christchurch. A hotel in Cork followed a year later, while Jurys Inn Custom House (Dublin) and Jurys Inn Belfast, opened in 1995 and 1997.