New Ires boss Sweeney has option to join equity raising
MARGARET Sweeney, the new chief executive of Ires Reit, the State’s largest private landlord with a portfolio of almost 2,500 apartments, has been granted a right to be awarded options to buy 3pc of any new shares issued by then firm as part of any future private or public equity raising.
The deal was confirmed in Ires’ annual report, which was published yesterday. It also confirms that Ms Sweeney was granted 2m share options in the company when she took over the top seat last November.
She had been a non-executive director at the company for about 18 months prior to being named CEO.
Ms Sweeney succeeded David Ehrlich, who stepped down to become chief executive of Canada’s Capreit, the apartment property giant that owns about 16pc of Ires Reit.
Ms Sweeney worked with KPMG for 15 years, and has previously held roles including as chief executive of Postbank Ireland, and CEO of Aer Rianta, the predecessor of the DAA, which operates Dublin and Cork Airports.
She is also a non-executive director at Ireland’s largest hotel group, Dalata.
The Ires annual report also shows that Ms Sweeney receives an annual salary of €330,000 as chief executive, and is entitled to a bonus of not more than 100pc of that base salary. The exercise price for the 2m share options granted to Ms Sweeney is just under €1.49 per share, compared to the current €1.38 share price on the stock exchange. In each year from November 2018, one third of the 2m shares are exercisable.
Ires chairman Declan Moylan said that in 2017 the group generated strong rental growth and increased occupancy across its portfolio.
The average monthly rent secured by Ires across each of its housing units was €1,517 last year, compared with €1,427 in 2016.
The most expensive apartments in its portfolio to rent are 84 properties at the Marker Hotel in Dublin’s docklands.
The average monthly rent on those properties is €2,697.
The cheapest are its 103 apartments at Priorsgate in Tallaght, south Dublin.
Average monthly rents there are €1,167.