Quinlan takes Savoy hotels

'WHEN Derek Quinlan's boys phone you with an offer, they make it pretty difficult to say no. The cash is ready, the structure is set and they guarantee to get the deal done quickly.' That was how one London property investor describes the growing Irish investment consortium known as Quinlan Private.

Today's £750m takeover of the Savoy Group of hotels lived up to the growing legend building around the former tax inspector's modus operandi.

Venture capitalists Blackstone and Colony Capital had been in talks with other bidders, including Saudi Prince al-Waleed Bin Talal. Negotiations were progressing fairly well. Then, three weeks ago, came the phone call from Quinlan. The gist of it was: 'We've got £750 million ready to roll and we guarantee we'll do it in three weeks.'

So here we are, bang on deadline, with a deal pretty much in the bag. It suits Blackstone and Colony, who wanted a quick exit from the business they bought in 1998 for £520m. And it suits Quinlan, which will now hold the investment for many years.

Today's deal is the biggest Quinlan has done. His Quinlan Private business model has proved popular among many of the first generation of millionaires who have sprung up in Ireland in the last two decades.

Investors, who include the likes of Allied Irish Banks chairman Dermot Gleeson, back Quinlan projects strictly on a deal-by-deal basis. They do not put up cash in the hope of getting a big payback when the business is sold in five to seven years. Of the 140 property investments Quinlan has done in the past 15 years, it has sold only two.

Instead, 'Quinlan's hinwris' (high net worth individuals), as they are known in Dublin, are offered very long, stable investments with strong underlying assets. So there will be no fancy sale and leaseback deals for the Savoy group. Investment will continue, with 36 new rooms to go into the Connaught and an unspecified number likely to go into the Savoy.

Quinlan has been closely researching the Savoy portfolio for months. It first started talking when Claridge's was being auctioned as a solo deal, but blanched at the £300 million figure being bandied around.

Then, when it became known the whole chain was up for grabs, the numbers started to work.