Income stream of Convention Centre to be sold

The liquidator of Treasury Holdings plans to appoint an investment bank within weeks to sell the income stream of the Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) to a pension or sovereign wealth fund.

The value of this income stream has been estimated to be worth between €80 million and €150 million depending on the return appetite of potential bidders.

It will also include the sale of a plot of land located beside the centre which has planning permission for a new hotel complete with walkway connecting it to the CCD.

There are just over 21 years of income to be generated by the convention centre before its operations return to the State, making it attractive to investors looking for predictable annuity income. Joint liquidators Grant Thornton's Paul McCann and Michael McAteer are the joint liquidators of the company called Spencer Dock International Convention Centre Ltd (SDICC) which is to be sold.

The sale will not impact trading at the CCD and it will continue to be operated by its existing management team.

Bookings by conventions in the centre will also not be impacted by the sale.

Proceeds of the sale will go to unsecured creditors of SDICC's ultimate parent company Treasury Holdings, the development group set up by developers Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett.

These creditors are mainly the National Asset Management Agency and a number of foreign banks.

The sale also includes SDDC Hotel Ltd, which owns the plot of land beside the convention centre which has planning permission for a hotel.

There is demand for more hotel rooms in the vicinity of the successful convention centre. However, the construction of any new hotel would have to be funded in a large part by equity as banking support to build new hotels in Dublin remains low. Partners Both the OPW and CIÉ, State-owned partners in the CCD, will have to approve any buyer.

Operating profits at the firm that operates the Dublin Convention Centre last year increased nine fold to €5.4 million, according to accounts for SDICC to February 28th, 2013.

The company’s revenues were made up of €15.4 million in income from event services and €8.7 million in operational revenues from the OPW.

The CCD had 340,000 delegate days in 2013, up 112 per cent on the previous year.