In March, analysts from the investment bank Jefferies sat down and started to crunch the numbers on Dalata. 

The hotel chain had just announced a “strategic review” of the business. 

Strategic reviews can often mean many things, but this was something more specific.

Dalata was at pains to stress that the review would look at all options to “optimise capital opportunities for the group and to enhance value for shareholders”. 

In reality, however, the publicly listed company was officially on the market. The sale process had begun.

So, Jefferies went to work and sought to determine how much the company was worth. 

According to Jefferies, Dalata’s 30 owned hotels were worth €1.64 billion. These were the physical assets — real estate — that the company held on its balance sheet. They were brick-and-mortar hotels that the company owned. 

This was part one. It also has a portfolio of 22 leased hotels, the majority of which are on long-term institutional lease agreements.

Jefferies said the leased estate Ebitda of €40 million after rent could generate a further €280 million in earnings on a theoretical 7x multiple. The bank also believes the development pipeline could add further upside. 

“This could value the company at more than €2 billion,” according to Jefferies.

This was a lot more than the €1.15 billion market capitalisation that investors had placed upon Dalata at the time it was put on the market. (Its stock’s value has now risen to €1.3 billion following the announcement of the sale process and follow-up interest.)

However, that valuation was one of the reasons the company initiated the strategic review in the first place. Dalata has long been trading below its net asset value (NAV) – the value of its assets minus the value of its liabilities. 

Pointing to its lacklustre share prices, Dalata chairman John Hennessy said the value ascribed by investors did not reflect the underlying value of the business.

The company had reached an inflexion point. It needed a serious injection of international growth to woo investors, but it was hampered by a relatively concentrated shareholder register and a constrained capital base within the context of its growth ambition.

The sales process made sense for all involved. Managed by Rothschild, it has been ongoing in recent months. 

According to Dalata, the company is now engaging in “constructive discussions” with a number of parties who are participating in the formal sale process. A number have submitted initial non-binding proposals.

The company had not identified the parties involved. Reports suggest Apollo, Bain, Davidson Kempner, KSL, and Starwood are all circling the hotel group. 

A consortium including Sweden’s Pandox and Norway’s Eiendomsspar is not part of that formal sales process. Last week, however, the consortium made a €1.3 billion offer for the company. 

The bid value of €6.05 per share represented a 27.1 per cent premium to Dalata’s stock before it announced the sale process in March. Within hours of the bid, shares in Dalata were up five per cent in Dublin and 10 per cent in London.

Pandox owns hotels run under the Leonardo brand in Ireland. Oslo-based Eiendomsspar owns about 8.8 per cent of Dalata and 24.8 per cent of Pandox.

The Scandinavian suitors, who are being advised by Goodbody, said they believed their proposal “would deliver tangible and certain value” for Dalata shareholders, fully in cash and at a meaningful premium.

The offer was swiftly rejected, with Dalata saying that the bid “materially undervalues the group and its prospects”.

“The board confirms it continues to engage in constructive discussions with a number of parties who are participating in the formal sale process (FSP) and who have submitted initial non-binding proposals,” Dalata said. 

“Pandox is not a participant in the FSP, having declined to enter the process on the terms of the process set out in the group’s announcement dated 6 March 2025.”

So what does it all mean? 

Essentially, this is a play on the Irish economy. Dalata has grown its market share in Britain and has ventured into continental Europe. Its London presence has significantly grown since mid-2023. Three hotels have opened, bringing its number to five Dalata-owned hotels in the city. 

“Dalata’s London portfolio is now 876 rooms, of which 74 per cent were built within the last 10 years,” according to the company.

But it remains an Irish hotel operator at its core. The majority of its business remains rooted in this country, particularly in Dublin. 

The sale of Dalata is not just a corporate story. It is a litmus test for the broader Irish economy – much like the sale of the utility Energia, where my colleague Alice reported one week ago that bids were now coming in. As the country’s largest hotel group and one of its few listed hospitality companies, Dalata is deeply embedded in the fabric of Irish tourism, commercial property, and consumer sentiment.

A strong sale price or competitive bidding war would be read as a vote of confidence in the underlying strength of Ireland’s economic fundamentals: foreign direct investment, international tourism, and domestic consumer activity. 

Conversely, a weak result — or a failure to close a deal — could raise questions about investor appetite for Irish assets at a time of rising interest rates, global uncertainty, and increasing operational costs.

Dalata’s footprint — in both city-centre and regional locations — also makes it a proxy for real estate valuations and labour market health. Its earnings are tied not just to tourist flows, but also to corporate travel, events, and domestic leisure — all of which are economic indicators in their own right.

In that sense, the sale of Dalata is more than a single corporate transaction. It is a bellwether — a high-profile gauge of how international capital views Ireland’s future growth, stability, and resilience.

Elsewhere this week…

From college shorts to Cannes acclaim, Ed Guiney has spent decades turning creative vision into commercial and cultural success. As co-founder of Element Pictures, he champions original storytelling, nurtures global talent, and sees intellectual property – not AI –as the industry’s most valuable asset. He spoke to Alison in the latest episode of Arts Matters. 

European Innovation Council board member Bart Becks talked to Jonathan about the sandboxes, unified incorporation regime and new funding options in the EU’s latest strategy for start-ups and scale-ups as lawmakers obsess over competitiveness.

Dismissed by Irish banks, Charles Cosgrave turned to private equity to help scale Village Vets into a national network. He told me about his story.

Monzo, the British fintech bank last valued at €5.3 billion, is in the process of building out an Irish arm to operate in the European market. It has already made a series of high-profile hires and invested millions into its Dublin entity. Michael had the details.