Ownership of the Berkeley, Connaught and Claridge's could be settled in court

14 October 2011 by
Ownership of the Berkeley, Connaught and Claridge's could be settled in court

The ownership of three of London's leading five-star hotels could be settled by a legal battle in the High Court.

Property developer Patrick McKillen, who holds a 36% stake in the Maybourne Hotel Group - the company which owns and runs the Berkeley, Connaught and Claridge's - is suing the Barclay brothers (pictured) over their ownership of the 35% shareholding they acquired from the founder of Maybourne, Irish property entrepreneur Derek Quinlan, to take their holding in the company to 64%.

At the end of September Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, who already own the Ritz and Cavendish hotels in London, increased their control of the group through the purchase of £695m of the company's debt from Ireland's National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) via their company, Maybourne Finance.

However, McKillen is disputing the ownership of the shares in the company, which the Barclays earlier acquired from Quinlan. He claims that Quinlan remains the owner because the brothers failed to register a change of ownership and that as a result of an earlier agreement he should have been offered the opportunity to purchase Quinlan's shares.

Maybourne Hotel Group denies it is to be sold by Irish government >>

Barclay brothers set to dominate London's luxury hotels >>

Barclay brothers increase stake in Maybourne Hotel Group >>

By Janet Harmer

E-mail your comments to Janet Harmer here.

Tabletalk
Tabletalk
If you have something to say on this story or anything else join the debate at Table Talk - Caterer's new networking forum. Go to www.catererandhotelkeeper.com/tabletalk

Catererandhotelkeeper.com jobs

Looking for a new job? Find your next job here with Catererandhotelkeeper.com jobs

Blogs on Catererandhotelkeeper.com ](http://www.catererandhotelkeeper.com/blogs) Catch up with more news and gossip on all Caterer's blogs
[E-newsletters](http://www.catererandhotelkeeper.com/email-newsletters.htm)[ For the latest hospitality news, sign up for our E-newsletters
The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking