Mr Bryan Cullen, the lead investor in the Precinct consortium seeking to take over Gresham Hotel Group, will provide a personal guarantee of €10 million to Anglo Irish Bank to help secure the necessary finance to fund his group's offer, writes Una McCaffrey.

Information in the Precinct offer document, which was sent to Gresham shareholders last night, shows that Mr Cullen has a 66.66 per cent stake in the offer vehicle. His fellow investors - Mr David Coleman and Mr JJ Murphy - both hold 16.66 per cent.

Mr Coleman and Mr Murphy will both provide personal guarantees of €2.5 million to Anglo Irish to allow the release of the funds Precinct would need to fund a full takeover of the company.

Precinct's offer of €1.30 for Gresham, which is conditional on an acceptance rate of 54 per cent, values the company at €108 million. If the acceptance rate climbs to 80 per cent, the price offered will rise to €1.35. This would value Gresham at €113 million and would lead to the personal guarantees of €15 million kicking in. These undertakings would come in addition to a €15 million collective guarantee provided by the consortium. The three men also undertake to personally guarantee all interest that might be due on the Anglo Irish loan.

The bank would hold charges over Gresham's hotel assets, including a first-ranking charge over Dublin's Gresham Hotel.

The offer document confirms that two of the three investors in the consortium already have substantial hotel interests in the Republic and abroad.

Mr Coleman and Mr Murphy together form the Limestone Partnership, which owns the Castleoaks Hotel in Limerick, as well as hotels in South Africa.

Mr Murphy also owns the Hotel Rosslare in Wexford. Mr Cullen is managing director of Dublin-based property firm Jackson Homes.