Property developer Liam Carroll has emerged as the mystery new buyer of a large portion of shares in Jurys Doyle.

The purchases, which have left Mr Carroll holding as much as 7 per cent of Jurys stock, put a very new complexion on the takeover process that began almost four months ago at the hotel group.

Mr Carroll began to build a stake in Jurys on Tuesday with the €11 million purchase of almost 1 per cent of the company. He continued to buy aggressively yesterday, picking a further three to four million shares at prices up to €17.85.

Yesterday's deals, which will be disclosed to the Stock Exchange this morning, were conducted through Merrion Stockbrokers. Merrion also acted for Mr Carroll on Tuesday.

He has has now spent more than €70 million on building his position in Jurys, choosing to buy at exactly the time when the only formal takeover approach for the hotel group was collapsing.

Precinct, the consortium that said it would pay €17.50 for Jurys, confirmed yesterday morning that it was exiting the takeover process. In a statement to the Stock Exchange, the group led by developer Bryan Cullen said it had told its equity backer, Aldersgate, that it no longer wanted to take part in an offer.

The group referred to trades made in Jurys over the past week, indicating that shares had moved too high to justify a bid.

The statement raised questions in the market about whether Aldersgate, the vehicle fronted by Simon Reuben, would now be able to bid for Jurys on its own. Under Takeover Panel rules, Precinct is forbidden from bidding for the company for a year, but it is possible that Aldersgate could get permission from the panel to work around this.

Simon Reuben has asked to meet the dominant Jurys shareholders, the Doyle family, but no arrangement had been fixed as of yesterday. Mr Reuben is also likely to make contact with Sean Dunne, the developer who has spent €205 million to build up an 18.23 per cent stake in Jurys.

Jurys meanwhile confirmed yesterday that it had decided to sell the site of the Berkeley Court Hotel in Ballsbridge and said it would also sell the nearby Montrose Hotel.

The firm cited the "changed context" that had arisen from its agreement, after a tender process, to sell almost five acres at Ballsbridge to Mr Dunne for €260 million.

It is thought the company's board weighed up the value it could derive from the sites by keeping them against the cash it could realise by selling them and concluded that a sale was by far the best option.

All members of the board, including the representatives of the Doyle family, approved the decision to sell. The unanimity of the decision appears to contradict the belief that the Doyles, whose father founded the hotel group, were emotionally attached to the properties.

While the Berkeley Court will be razed under the new proposal, Jurys will consider selling the Montrose as a hotel. If both properties were sold as sites, they could be expected to raise more than €150 million for Jurys.

The firm is unlikely to pursue sales by tender on this occasion, and may simply go back to the parties that submitted bids for the Ballsbridge site.

Mr Dunne would be in poll position among this group, which also included Paddy Kelly and Derek Quinlan, both of whom have expressed an interest in taking over Jurys as a whole.

Shares in Jurys closed 45 cent higher at €17.85 last night.

Having purchased his first block of shares at €18.00, Mr Carroll, who has deep pockets, has shown his readiness to pay a high price for the stock.