The future of Ryan Hotels as a public company has once again been thrown into doubt after the Red Sea Hotels group of Israel increased its stake to almost 23 per cent. Yesterday, Red Sea - which runs a chain of hotels in Europe and the Middle East - bought the 6 per cent of Ryan held by the Donegal hotelier brothers, Brian and Sean McEniff.
Neither Red Sea nor the McEniffs were available to comment, but it is understood that Red Sea bought the McEniffs' 4.56 million shares for €1.14 a share, or €5.2 million (£4.1 million). Last May, Red Sea snapped up the 16.6 per cent of Ryan held by the Ashdown family for €13 million.
Ryan chief executive Mr Patrick Coyle said he was aware that 4.5 million shares had gone through the market yesterday but did not know the buyer's identity. Market sources, however, were in no doubt that Red Sea Hotels was the buyer and the McEniffs the seller.
The sources said that Red Sea - which has 15 hotels in Europe and eight in the Middle East - may move towards a full-scale bid for Ryan. At yesterday's price of €1.14, Ryan is valued at €85.3 million.
Ryan has four hotels in London, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Brussels, which are undoubtedly attractive to Red Sea. The Israeli group has six Park Plaza hotels in Germany, three in Holland, three in France, and one each in Antwerp, London and Budapest.
Industry sources believe that Red Sea might also be interested in Ryan's two hotels in Dublin - the Gresham and the Royal Marine in Dun Laoghaire - but not its hotels in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Killarney.
Ryan Hotels said yesterday that Mr David Bunworth had been appointed business development director and will join the board in January.
He is now group marketing director for Esat Telecom and was a key beneficiary when Esat was taken over by BT. Previously, he had spent five years with Aer Lingus as marketing director.
