Ireland: Property entrepreneur Stephen Vernon’s John Pollard Foundation has acquired a five per cent shareholding in Dublin-based operator Staycity.
Stephen Vernon is described as “one of Ireland’s most accomplished property entrepreneurs and a well-known philanthropist through the John Pollard Foundation, named after his grandfather”. He is also the co-founder and chairman of Dublin and London listed property investment company Green REIT Plc.
Vernon joins the Staycity board as a non-executive director but intends “to take an active role by working with CEO and co-founder Tom Walsh and his team in achieving their growth targets”. The transaction was arranged by Investec Corporate Finance.
“I’m delighted to become involved with the Staycity Group,” said Vernon. “It’s a dynamic business with exciting growth plans to be the biggest pan-European aparthotel company – I’m very much looking forward to being a part of that.”
Tom Walsh said: “It is an honour to have Stephen join our board and for his foundation to join our shareholder group. Stephen will add enormously to our success and our ability to secure future sites – and most importantly, he is a great fit for our culture. I look forward to many years of interesting and challenging collaboration with him as we continue on our ambitious journey to scale the business.”
Staycity, established in 2004 by Tom Walsh and his brother Ger, now has 7,000 apartments (operational and pipeline) across the Staycity Aparthotels and Wilde Aparthotels by Staycity brands. Its target is to operate 15,000 apartments by the end of 2023.
