US businessman to buy Hilton Hotel at Charlemont Place

John Malone emerges as top bidder at close to €30 million for 193-bedroom hotel

John Malone: buying Hilton Hotel at Charlemont Place six months after acquiring the Trinity Plaza at Pearse Street. Photograph: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

US businessman John Malone is to buy the Hilton Hotel at Charlemont Place in Dublin 2, only six months after acquiring the Trinity Plaza at Pearse Street. Mr Malone, who bought Humewood Castle in Co Wicklow last December, has emerged as the top bidder at close to €30 million for the 193-bedroom hotel which made a profit of more than €2 million in 2012.

Tom Barrett of Savills had been inviting offers in excess of €22 million for the hotel which attracted a considerable number of bidders.

The Hilton was upgraded at a cost of €5 million in 2008 by owners Jerry O’Reilly and Bernard McNamara, whose loans were transferred to Nama. Funding for the four-star hotel was originally provided by AIB in 1997.

Mr Malone is largest private landowner in the US with 2.2 million acres.