Billionaire owner of Parknasilla hotel in Kerry secures €20m loan secured against property
The UK-based investment company, the Topland Group is providing the loan facility, which is secured against the hotel and resort.
Jacqui Safra, a member of the billionaire Swiss-Lebanese banking family, purchased the four-star hotel and resort in 2012 for around €11 million, alongside local businessman Tony Daly.
Mr Safra and the Parknasilla Resort were advised in the deal by James Corrigan, with Farrer & Co and JW O'Donovan providing legal representation.
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Tony Daly, the managing director of the resort said the company was delighted to be working with 'a highly respected party like Topland' saying the UK investment company are 'showing trust' in the Parknasilla property and the hospitality industry.
Sol Zakay, the chairman and chief executive of Topland Group said the deal reflected the group's 'continued conviction in asset-backed private credit and our appetite to support high-quality sponsors across a range of sectors'.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Safra's advisor James Corrigan said there was a lack of lenders in the Irish market with the 'necessary credit strategy to actually support successful properties like Parknasilla'.
He said that the arrival of international lenders into the hospitality industry demonstrated a 'vote of confidence in the Irish hotel market' and showed that the industry had recovered from the impact of the pandemic.
Silork Ltd, the company behind the four-star Parknasilla resort recorded losses of more than €401,000 in 2022 and €604,000 in 2021, its most recent accounts show.
Turnover grew to €11.6 million in 2022, from €6.8 million the year prior, as the hospitality industry recovered after the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and employee figures increased from 89 to 119.
The company's 2022 accounts show it owed a total of €23 million in loans due within one year, €17.5 million of which was owed to an unnamed US bank and was due for refinancing in 2023. That loan was also secured against the value of the land.
The Parknasilla resort, which is situated close to the village of Sneem, has 88 bedrooms, 24 lodges and 38 three-bedroom villas.
In November 2023, the High Court
granted a €146m judgment against Mr Safra
when a suit was taken by MGG California LLC hoping to enforce a judgment against Mr Safra from the New York supreme court, less credit for sums already secured.
The court heard that the debt had arisen from a personal guarantee for 2018 loans to his company, Spring Mountain Vineyard Inc.
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