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Ireland's Stephen Vernon acquires Staycity stake

Irish entrepreneur Stephen Vernon’s John Pollard Foundation has acquired a 5-percent share in Staycity, a privately held Dublin-based company that manages short- and long-term "aparthotels" across Europe.

The transaction was arranged by Investec Corporate Finance.
 

Vernon, co-founder of investment company Green REIT Plc, is joining the Staycity board as a non-executive director, but intends to take an active role by working with CEO and Co-Founder Tom Walsh and his team in achieving growth targets.

At 15 years old, Staycity has 7,000 apartments both open and in the pipeline across the Staycity Aparthotels and Wilde Aparthotels by Staycity brands. The company’s expanding estate now includes properties in Birmingham, England (249 apartments); Dublin (229); Edinburgh, Scotland (146); Liverpool, England (268); London Heathrow (269); London Greenwich (166); London Strand (106); Lyon, France (144); Manchester, England (182); Marseille, France (108); Paris (50); and York, England (197). 

The company is on target to achieve its stated goal of 15,000 aparthotels by 2023, and is slated to open new assets in Paris, Venice, Edinburgh, Berlin and Manchester this year. 
 
In a statement, Vernon called Staycity "a dynamic business with exciting growth plans to be the biggest pan-European aparthotel company," while Walsh said Vernon would help the company's ability to secure future sites for development.