Published: Wednesday, 8th September, 2010 5:00pm

Quinn Group: Slieve Russell not for sale

by Sean McMahon

Sean Quinn.
Pic by==: 97

Rumours that the Slieve Russell Hotel near Ballyconnell was for sale or would soon be changing hands in the near future, have been totally scotched this week by the Quinn Group. The group said that the rumours "were completely without foundation and the Hotel is not for sale", and they pointed out that the entire complex including a magnificent golf course is currently celebrating 20 years in business.

The first guests were welcomed at the Slieve Russell in August 1990 and the hotel will mark its 20th anniversary with a special celebration from 8pm to 10pm on Wednesday evening next, September 15.

A spokesperson for the Quinn Group also pointed out that the Belfry golf resort is not for sale, saying that Ernest & Young has carried out a review as part of the refinancing of the property. "There is no intention to dispose of the Belfry, which remains very profitable and is one of the family's prime assets," she added.

The spokesperson admitted that ambitious plans to redevelop the site by bulldozing the unprepossessing 324 room hotel and replacing it with a luxury 500-room property were "currently on hold", but added "plans are in place to improve the standard of accommodation and facilities".

Sean Quinn purchased the Warwickshire complex from De Vere Group for £186m (€225m) five years ago and some property experts now believe it could be worth around £120m.

€30m retail centre

Meanwhile, As part of its investment programme in Eastern Europe, the Quinn group has announced the opening of a new retail centre in the city of Ufa, Russia to be tenanted exclusively by Castorama.

Ufa is the capital city of Republic of Bashkortostan and one of the largest industrial, scientific and cultural centres of Russia. It currently has a population in excess of one million people.

The new retail outlet is located in the Kirovsky District of Ufa, on the Ufa-Airport Road, and is conveniently close to other key retail centres such as the IKEA / MEGA Family Shopping Center and METRO Cash & Carry. Castorama now adds to the list of international retailers in this area and their own growing presence in Russia with a hypermarket specialising in home and renovation.

The Quinn group would like to acknowledge the strong support received from city, regional and national authorities in development of this project. The opening of this new retail centre in Ufa adds to the portfolio of prime commercial properties held by the Quinn group throughout Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia, Turkey and India.

Continued from front

A spokesperson for the Quinn group told The Anglo-Celt that the group continues to recognise the growing importance of the Russian economy and has high expectations about the future of their investments there. Castorama Russia forms part of the Kingfisher plc group, Europe's leading home improvement retail group and the third largest in the world with around 840 stores in eight countries in Europe and Asia. The Ufa hypermarket is their 14th store in Russia.

Peter Quinn, nephew of Sean Quinn and head of the Quinn group's property portfolio said: "We are proud to announce the opening of our new retail development in Ufa and would like to thank all those involved in bringing the project to completion. On behalf of the Quinn group, I would like to welcome Castorama to our growing list of international tenants and wish them every success with their new venture in Ufa."

Prospective buyers size up Quinn Insurance

Preparation for the sale of Quinn Insurance is reported to be gaining momentum with the joint administrators at Grant Thornton supplying an information memorandum (IM) to interested parties.

At the outset in the region of 45 groups had lodged expressions of interest and received a "teaser" document some months ago. Currently it is understand that more than between 20 and 30 groups are still left in the frame and have received the information memorandum.

A data room has been established and a deadline for bids has been set for September 17. The sale process is being handled by Macquarie.

Many of the usual suspects are believed to be in the mix, including trade players Aviva, RSA, Allianz and FBD. It will be interesting to see how any Anglo proposal in unison with a trade player would be viewed by the regulator.

US insurer Liberty has also gone public with its interest in Quinn and is seen as the frontrunner in the race to take over the Cavan-based insurer. There is believed to be private equity interest as well. Quinn Insurance was put into administration on March 30 by the Financial Regulator.

It is understood that the business is performing well is retaining a much higher percentage of customers than originally projected to the extent that the redundancies planned for the office in Enniskillen did not proceed.

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