Property entrepreneur Stephen Vernon’s John Pollard Foundation has acquired a 5 per cent stake in Dublin-based aparthotel company Staycity.
Vernon, a well-known philanthropist through the John Pollard Foundation (named after his grandfather), is also the co-founder of Dublin and London-listed property investment firm Green REIT Plc, where he is chairman.
He will join the Staycity board as a non-executive director but intends to take an active role in the company 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.
Vernon commented: “I’m delighted to become involved with the Staycity Group. 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.”
Walsh added: “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 currently has 7,000 apartments (both operational and in the pipeline) across the Staycity Aparthotels and Wilde Aparthotels by Staycity brands.
In December, the company opened its fourth property in Dublin and will open further sites in Paris, Venice, Edinburgh, Berlin and Manchester throughout 2019. Its target is to operate 15,000 apartments by the end of 2023.
staycity.com