Latest news with #PressUp
Business Mayor
07-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Dean hotels lost €8.8m in year before sale to investors
The company behind the Dean chain of hotels lost more than €8.8 million in the year before Paddy McKillen jnr sold a majority stake in the group to US and UK investors. New accounts filed in Dublin by Warlington Key reveal the group generated a turnover of close to €12.8 million in the year, €6.6 million of which came from food and beverage sales. Room and accommodation revenues reached €5.6 million. Warlington Key, which Mr McKillen jnr and his business partner Matt Ryan incorporated in 2022, was used in an inter-group transaction to acquire the trading entity behind the Dean group, Holtend Ltd, in May 2023 for €13.3 million. Proceeds from the transaction, which split the Dean Group from the wider Press Up hospitality group, were used to repay the group's banking facility with Cheyne Capital, according to the most recent set of accounts for Holtend. Cheyne Capital is the London-based alternative lender that separately acquired a 95 per cent stake in the Press Up last year after turning €25 million of debt into equity in the business. Administrative expenses at Warlington Key, including wages and salaries, topped €10.4 million in 2023, but exceptional costs of €4.5 million related to management services costs within the group dragged the company to a €3.7 million operating loss for the year. It meant that before tax, the company lost some €8.8 million, owing its lenders some €3.4 million in interest payments on its borrowings at the end of 2023. Mr McKillen jnr and Mr Ryan sold a majority stake in the Dean Hotel group to British property group Lifestyle Hospitality Capital and US investment giant Elliott Investment Management in a transaction completed in April 2024. Read More The Art of Marketing With Raja Rajamannar Initially reported in late 2023, the portfolio of hotels included in the deal at the time comprised the Dean Dublin, the Mayson, the Devlin, the Dean Cork and the Dean Galway. Three other Press Up-operated hotels – the Clarence Hotel on Wellington Quay, the Leinster Hotel on Lower Mount Street, and the Glasson Lakehouse near Athlone in Co Westmeath – were eventually added to the deal, which valued the portfolio at some €355 million. Separately, Cheyne Capital last week petitioned the High Court to have an examiner appointed to Workman's Club, the former Press Up company behind some 12 venues in Dublin, including the eponymous bar and nightclub on Wellington Quay. The court heard the immediate cause of the court application was a demand from the group's financiers RELM Capital for some €4.5 million in March.
Irish Times
07-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Dean hotels lost €8.8m in year before sale to investors
The company behind the Dean chain of hotels lost more than €8.8 million in the year before Paddy McKillen jnr sold a majority stake in the group to US and UK investors. New accounts filed in Dublin by Warlington Key reveal the group generated a turnover of close to €12.8 million in the year, €6.6 million of which came from food and beverage sales. Room and accommodation revenues reached €5.6 million. Warlington Key, which Mr McKillen jnr and his business partner Matt Ryan incorporated in 2022, was used in an inter-group transaction to acquire the trading entity behind the Dean group, Holtend Ltd, in May 2023 for €13.3 million. Proceeds from the transaction, which split the Dean Group from the wider Press Up hospitality group, were used to repay the group's banking facility with Cheyne Capital, according to the most recent set of accounts for Holtend. READ MORE Cheyne Capital is the London-based alternative lender that separately acquired a 95 per cent stake in the Press Up last year after turning €25 million of debt into equity in the business. Administrative expenses at Warlington Key, including wages and salaries, topped €10.4 million in 2023, but exceptional costs of €4.5 million related to management services costs within the group dragged the company to a €3.7 million operating loss for the year. It meant that before tax, the company lost some €8.8 million, owing its lenders some €3.4 million in interest payments on its borrowings at the end of 2023. Mr McKillen jnr and Mr Ryan sold a majority stake in the Dean Hotel group to British property group Lifestyle Hospitality Capital and US investment giant Elliott Investment Management in a transaction completed in April 2024. Initially reported in late 2023, the portfolio of hotels included in the deal at the time comprised the Dean Dublin, the Mayson, the Devlin, the Dean Cork and the Dean Galway. Three other Press Up-operated hotels – the Clarence Hotel on Wellington Quay, the Leinster Hotel on Lower Mount Street, and the Glasson Lakehouse near Athlone in Co Westmeath – were eventually added to the deal, which valued the portfolio at some €355 million. Separately, Cheyne Capital last week petitioned the High Court to have an examiner appointed to Workman's Club, the former Press Up company behind some 12 venues in Dublin, including the eponymous bar and nightclub on Wellington Quay. The court heard the immediate cause of the court application was a demand from the group's financiers RELM Capital for some €4.5 million in March.
Irish Times
04-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Tony O'Reilly's lost Dublin town house has a new owner: his godson
Of all the indignities suffered by Tony O'Reilly during his financial collapse , the enforced sale of the Castlemartin Estate in Kildare , where his parents are buried beside a small church in the grounds, must have wounded him the most. But it is said that he was almost as fond of his meticulously restored Dublin town house on Fitzwilliam Square . Last week the classical Georgian house appeared on the property price register with a sale price of €6.475 million. It has been owned for the past decade by Tony O'Shea, a low-key entrepreneur from Co Meath who made his fortune making surgical kits for operating theatres and who in more recent years helped to bankroll the Press Up group's dizzying expansion. The new owner, who bought the house in an off-market deal, was perhaps not solely motivated by its 600sq m (6,500sq ft) of Georgian elegance. It must be far more personal for showjumper and horse breeder Cian O'Connor , who we can reveal as the purchaser. O'Connor, who owns the extremely profitable Karlswood Stables in Co Meath, was O'Reilly's godson. When O'Reilly died last year, O'Connor described him as his 'hero', crediting the former rugby international with inspiring his career in showjumping. Indeed O'Reilly owned Waterford Crystal, the infamous horse on which O'Connor won a gold medal at the Olympics in 2004 that he was subsequently stripped of when the horse tested positive for a prohibited substance. O'Reilly stood by his godson throughout the saga. Bringing Fitzwilliam Square back into the family fold may feel like a step towards repaying that debt. READ MORE Trainers Aidan O'Brien and Anne-Marie O'Brien's property move The other big property sale of the week shows the money's in horses. Aidan O'Brien , John Magnier's master trainer, and his wife and fellow trainer, Anne-Marie O'Brien, are the new owners of the sprawling Fanningstown House in Piltown, Co Kilkenny, near to where Anne-Marie's father, Joe Crowley, had his stables. Fanningstown House, Piltown, Co Kilkenny The couple bought the Georgian house through their family company, Whisperview Trading. While the property price register records the purchase at €1.25 million, that doesn't include its adjoining 40 acres, so it's likely to have fetched close to €2 million. As you'd expect, it comes with five stables, outbuildings, a barn, a coach house with a loft and a mare and foal box. There's also a sauna in case any of O'Brien's jockeys need to make weight in a hurry. Paddy Cosgrave joins 'Drico' on tennis club waiting list Earlier this year it was reported that even the great Brian O'Driscoll is struggling to become a member of Dublin's exclusive Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club. Apparently, O'Driscoll was one of about 300 nominees whose names were put forward this year. Of those, fewer than 80 were chosen, with the club already vastly oversubscribed. Paddy Cosgrove, entrepreneur and Web Summit co-founder Even getting nominated is quite the palaver, with applicants needing to be endorsed by two people who have been members for at least 18 months and who know the prospective member for at least two years. Upon joining, there's a once-off fee of €8,000, as well as annual fees of €2,500. We hear another of those who was unsuccessful this year was Web Summit supremo Paddy Cosgrave, who strung together some decent performances playing masters doubles with nearby Brookfield last year. Presumably his Web Summit hiatus gave him time to work on his backhand. Journalist Eoghan Harris. Photograph: Bryan O'Brien/The Irish Times Would Harris have plumped for Pym if he knew she was a spook? When the journalist Eoghan Harris chose Barbara J Pym as a pseudonym for a Twitter account in which he took pot shots at various public figures (imagine what Babs would have made of Kneecap), he was presumably paying homage to the English satirist Barbara Pym. The novelist, celebrated for her comedies of manners, worked as a post office censor during the second World War. One of her jobs was to ensure that people in Britain writing to Irish relatives wouldn't reveal any compromising secrets about the war effort. But would Harris have chosen Pym as his nom de plume had he known about new research by British diplomat and Pym scholar Claire Smith that suggests she was working for MI5 during her time poring over wartime correspondence? Apparently British intelligence recruited Pym, a German speaker, because they believed her writer's eye for detail would help her detect coded messages in correspondence. The scabrous Barbara J Pym would surely have had something to say about the matter, had Twitter not shut Harris's sock puppet account down for breaching its 'policy on platform manipulation and spam'. Behind the scenes at the Irish Dancing World Championships in Dublin in April. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw/The Irish Times The Big Brother Edgar-Jones and Irish dancing The television adaptation of Sally Rooney's Normal People, starring Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones, performed the remarkable feat of making O'Neill's GAA shorts fashionable. Another Edgar-Jones, Daisy's father Phil, is also dipping into Irish culture with a new series for Sky on Irish dancing that airs later this year. Phil, one of the creators of Big Brother and now executive director of Unscripted Originals at Sky, has commissioned a new three-part series, The Battle of the Irish Dancers, which follows a cast of high kickers and their teachers competing at the World Championships in Dublin. Perhaps wife Wendy, who reportedly helped daughter Daisy with her Irish accent in Normal People, gave him a heads up about the theatrical potential of the glitzy world of turnouts, tiaras and tan – she comes from Co Down. Tidy town says No to Bible church plan If you think Tidy Towns involves picking up a bit of litter and planting a few flowers on public verges, you're underestimating the type of committees competing for national titles. For them, it's a year-round vocation. Take Abbeyleix, the overall winner in 2023 and a regional winner last year. When a local Bible church sought to extend an old Methodist church building on the town's main street last year, the Tidy Towns committee took issue with its plans. While Laois County Council granted Laois Bible Church permission for a single-storey flat-roof extension and some internal modifications, Abbeyleix Tidy Towns appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanála, criticising the extension's 'crude design'. Last week the appeals board ruled in favour of the Tidy Towns committee, saying the extension would detract from the appearance of the protected structure. And that's why they're champions.
Irish Independent
02-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Workman's Club Ltd applies for examinership
The company is part of the former Press Up group, which was renameds Eclective Hospitality Group in February following its takeover by the London-based financial firm Cheyne Capital last year. The application for court protection was triggered by demands in respect of guarantees on loans drawn down by property-owning companies outside of Cheyne Capital's control. Patrick Sheehan, the chief restructuring officer of Eclective, said: 'The decision to petition the courts for protection for Workman's Club Limited is a necessary step to protect jobs, maintain operations, and to secure the long-term sustainability of the business. Its current challenges stem from legacy issues and, since assuming control, Cheyne Capital has acted in good faith and committed significant financial resources to stabilise the business. 'Despite these efforts, it is clear examinership is required to address these historic issues to put the company on a sustainable path, and it is business as usual at all our venues.' Venues within The Workman's Club Ltd include the restaurants Angelina's, Dolally, and Isabelle's and the pubs Peruke & Periwig, Mama Yo and Vintage Cocktail Club, as well as the Workman's Club itself, a live-music venue in Temple Bar. It has a total of 362 employees, 55 of whom are full time. It is not envisaged that any will be made redundant. The annual turnover of the company is approximately €29m. During the due diligence process undertaken last year as part of a restructuring, it was discovered the company had given guarantees to RELM Capital in respect of borrowings by other companies controlled by a former shareholder. The potential exposure in respect of those guarantees is believed to be about €9.9m. RELM Capital issued demands to Workman's Club Ltd for payment of €4.5m in respect of the guarantees last March. Management is concerned that demands could be issued for other guarantees amounting to €5.4m. These demands, and the fact that there are insufficient realisable assets to make repayment, led to the decision that the company is insolvent. ADVERTISEMENT Learn more The vacant Odessa nightclub property on Dame Court, which the company is leasing at a cost of about €200,000 a year is now considered an onerous lease given the cost of its refurbishment. The landlord is said to be insisting that reinstatement works to the value of about €1.8m be carried out before it is handed back. The lease was entered into seven years ago with a plan to convert the Odessa into a hotel and restaurant. Some interior work was done, including demolition, which has led to the need for reinstatement. The company is not in a financial position to comply with the landlord's request. Cheyne Capital took over the group last year after turning €25m of debt into equity. Press Up was originally formed in 2009 by Paddy McKillen Jr and Matt Ryan. At its peak it had more than 50 venues and 2,000 employees, and a chain of hotels that were sold two years ago. There has been an investment of up to €18m by Cheyne so far to stabilise and restructure the group. The current outstanding debt is €46.1m. Management entered into Phased Payment Agreements in January with Revenue on its legacy debt, which has been kept up to date. Payment plans have been agreed with key creditors to pay down historic creditor balances Eclective now employs about 850 staff across 24 venues in Dublin. Among the changes it has made since taking over is opening a new Asian restaurant, Kaldero, in the premises previously used by Press Up's Wagamama on St Stephen's Green.
