Newly-filed accounts for the business show that its revenue rose to €27.6m from €23m the previous year.
The firm behind the hotel on Dublin’s O’Connell Street also paid its parent firm a €5.5m dividend in 2024, up from €3.9m in 2023. Dividends totalling more than €22m have been paid since the Spanish group acquired the property.
Riu Hotels and Resorts acquired the Gresham Hotel in 2016 for €92m, after it was put up for sale by Nama.
The Gresham had been owned by Precinct Investments, which was controlled by builder Bryan Cullen.
Precinct was used in 2004 to take the then stock market-listed Gresham Hotel group private in a €117m deal.
Family-owned Riu saw off competition from US private equity giants Apollo and Cerberus to buy the Gresham, which is more than 200 years old. The net book value of the land and buildings owned by the hotel firm last year was €54.5m.
The Spanish group has invested a significant amount of money in The Gresham since it bought it, including a renovation project completed last year.
The latest accounts show that the hotel, which employs about 280 people, generated €23m of its revenue last year from room sales, up from €18.9m a year earlier. Bar and food sales accounted for €4.1m, compared to €3.7m in 2023.
Riu Hotels and Resorts has a significant international footprint, with more than 100 properties worldwide.
It is opening its sixth hotel in Cancun, Mexico, this year. It will bring its total number of hotels in Mexico to 23. It is also opening its first property in Thailand.
It also has hotels in locations including the Caribbean, Panama, the Maldives, Spain and the United States.
Ireland’s biggest hotel operator, Dalata, is currently up for sale with interest in the group having come from bidders such as Norway’s Pandox.
A number of new hotels are planned for Dublin or are under construction. They include the Sofitel Dublin Airport, a 412-room hotel being built beside Terminal 2.
The UK’s Whitbread group announced during the spring that it will redevelop a site on Dublin’s Parkgate Street into a 155-bedroom Premier Inn.
It is also starting construction soon on a 100-bedroom hotel on Usher’s Quay in the city.
source