£1B Dalata Puts For-Sale Sign Up On Portfolio As It Considers Options
Dublin-based Irish and UK hotel owner Dalata Hotel Group is undertaking a strategic review to explore options to optimise capital opportunities for the group, including the potential sale of the company.
Despite reporting record revenue of €652M for 2024, the board said that while it maintained confidence that Dalata offered a “highly attractive” investment proposition, it also recognised that the group faced structural challenges.
It listed “its relatively small scale in a public market context, its relatively concentrated shareholder register, a constrained capital base in the context of its growth ambition and a share price that continues to trade at levels which the board does not believe reflects the asset base, fundamentals, performance, cash generation, and exciting growth prospects of Dalata.”
The company has a market capitalisation of €1.17B (£982M). Dalata said it is not in discussions with or in receipt of an approach from any companies over a potential acquisition.
Dalata Chair John Hennessy will continue in his role throughout the strategic review process and said that while the board was excited about the company’s 2030 vision, it was also unanimous that the key to achieving that vision was the availability of capital and that the share price does not reflect the company’s underlying value.
Dalata has appointed Rothschild & Co as financial adviser in connection with the strategic review.
Announcing its results, the company said trading has started strongly in 2025, with group revenue per available room expected to be around 2.5% ahead for the first quarter compared with the prior year, with a particularly strong performance in Dublin and an expected uplift of circa 5% in RevPAR for the same period.
It refinanced last year, securing a €600M debt package and widening the pool of funders, including a €124.7M inaugural private placement.
The company is targeting a portfolio of 21,000 rooms either open or in development by 2030. Growth will primarily be focused on the UK and large European cities.
Since it was set up in 2007, Dalata has established itself as an independent four-star hotel platform primarily through two brands, Clayton and Maldron, and is listed on the Euronext Dublin and the London Stock Exchange.
It operates a portfolio of 55 hotels, including 30 owned hotels that are valued at €1.7B (£1.4B), including assets under construction, 73% of which relate to hotels in Dublin and London.
It also operates 22 leased hotels, the majority on long-term institutional lease agreements with a weighted average length of 29 years and rent cover of 1.7x. Dalata also operates three managed hotels.
Since 2021, the team has driven growth in the portfolio by circa 35% to 11,990 rooms, with a further 1,624 rooms in the pipeline. In the same time frame, it has nearly doubled the number of rooms it operates in the UK and taken its first steps into continental Europe.
In Dublin, Dalata has 4,638 rooms and a circa 16% market share. The Dublin portfolio consists of 10 owned hotels, seven leased hotels and two managed hotels. Within the owned and leased categories, there are eight Maldron hotels, seven Clayton hotels, The Gibson Hotel and The Samuel Hotel.
It has grown its presence in London since mid-2023, adding three hotels to now own five in the city, and Dalata’s regional UK portfolio is now 4,204 rooms, including three new Maldron hotels opened in 2024.
This hotel portfolio comprises nine Clayton hotels and eight Maldron hotels situated in Manchester, Glasgow, Northern Ireland and eight in other UK cities. The company said it is targeting large regional cities such as Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham to grow the portfolio by a further 5,000 rooms.
Dalata’s continental Europe portfolio includes Clayton Hotel Düsseldorf and Clayton Hotel Amsterdam American. The company is in detailed discussions on two further hotels in Berlin and Madrid.
