Great Southern Hotels could be sold
11 February 2004 by Samantha McClary
Irish airport company Aer Rianta could be forced to sell its hotel division in order to facilitate a government-enforced reorganisation.
Aer Rianta may have to sell its Great Southern Hotels group to boost its financial reserves so that it can overcome legal issues that could arise when it's broken up into three new airport authorities - Dublin, Shannon and Cork.
The group is valued at about €200m (£137m) and recorded a profit of €3.9m (£2.7m) on a turnover of €43m (£29.4m) in the 12 months to the end of 2002.
Following the break-up of the company, which was announced last summer and is expected to be completed by this summer, ownership of the group of nine hotels was intended to be transferred to the Dublin airport authority.
