One story in particular provides a window into this new environment. In February, Oakmount put a portfolio of five major hotels — the Dean Dublin, the Mayson, the Devlin, the Dean Cork and the Dean Galway — up for sale with a price estimated by market sources at the time to be in the region of €250 million. The sale followed on the heels of two previous attempts to exit from at least a portion of its investments to further fuel its breakneck expansion.
On the Press Up side of the empire, The Irish Times put a series of questions to the group about developments within the business in recent times Turnover at the cluster of bars and restaurants surged from a relatively meagre €9.3 million in 2021 to more than €30.8 million in the year to the end of May 2022. Operating profits in turn recovered from just €2.7 million in 2021 to €3.7 million, still down from the €6.4 million recorded in the year to the end of May 2018 but trending in the right direction.
The good news for McKillen jnr and Ryan is that they have never had trouble attracting funding and their reputation for deploying capital is well establishedIn a report attached to the accounts, the directors said Covid-19 and “general cost increases” were the primary risk facing Press Up’s businesses despite the post-Covid bounce in trade. No surprise there.
This stark warning was not surprising given that it came at a time when most Press Up enterprises were forced to close their doors due to public health restrictions. At the time, this particular batch of businesses within the group had long-term obligations to creditors in the order of around €27 million.