The Doyle sisters have voted in favour of the €260m (£182m) Jurys Hotel Ballsbridge sale to Dublin property developer Sean Dunne.
They and two other directors with a combined 42% of the shares had played their cards close to their chests as speculation mounted that they would negotiate a deal with Dunne on their prospective €1.2bn (£0.8bn) takeover offer for Jurys Doyle plc.
At a specially convened extraordinary general meeting of shareholders in Dublin today, shareholders voted in favour of the site sale by a majority of 95.74%.
Dunne owns a 27.8% stake in Jurys but was not permitted to vote at the egm because of his interest in the deal
This meant the deal was dependent on the approval of the Doyle and Beatty directors and their families, who control about 40% of the company.
Together with another non-executive director Elizabeth Nelson, who has a 2.4% stake, the families have signalled a takeover approach to Jurys at €18.90 (£12.84) per share.
These non-executive directors and their families had earlier indicated they would approve the Ballsbridge hotel site sale if Dunne would support their takeover bid.
However there was no clear indication last night if Dunne had agreed to reciprocate.
The Jurys Ballsbridge property involved a five acre site including both the Jurys Towers and Jurys Hotel.
The company is also planning to place the adjoining Berkeley Court Hotel site on the market as well as the Jurys Montrose hotel about two miles away.
References: EGi News 28/09/05
