Great will-power is needed to suppress the jokes in reporting the news that Ryanair has today closed the purchase of a 90,000 sq ft office complex in David Daly’s Airside Business Park in Swords in north county Dublin. The price has not been published but is understood to be a shade over €9m for a building known as “The Concourse” Airside already hosts a range of bluechip companies including Kelloggs and Fujitsu.
Some 400 Ryanair staff, mostly presently housed in Dublin Airport, will move to the facility by the end of 2013, and Ryanair intends renting out 50,000 sq ft in the building to other companies. A back of the envelope calculation, assuming notional rent of €10 psf, indicates a 10% notional yield, which is about right for suburban Dublin office blocks at present.
Jones Lang LaSalle were the sellers and the new Ryanair head of communications, Robin Kiely is widely reported saying “This is a significant investment by Ryanair, allowing us the space and facilities to further develop our Dublin organisation, at much lower costs than the high rents on the Dublin Airport campus and allowing other staff currently housed in satellite offices to be brought together under one roof, resulting in a large reduction in rental expenses and further cost savings”
Ryanair is facing apparently bad news in its bid to take over rival airline Aer Lingus, with the European Commission indicating it will not approve the bid, though a final decision has not yet been made. David Daly financed his NAMA loans out of the Agency in December 2011.
