Quinlan Private, a private equity property investment group, which owns the Jurys Inns hotel chain, has announced that the Sultanate of Oman has bought half the company for a figure believed to be €200 million (£157 million).

The board of Jurys Inn will now be split equally between the Sultanate’s Oman Investment Fund (OIF) and Quinlan Private.

The OIF’s governing body is the financial affairs and energy resources council of Oman, which draws up the state's fiscal policy. The size of the fund is not publicly known. Its remit is to make equity investments in companies and real estate in Oman and globally.

Since Quinlan Private bought Jurys Inn in a €1.6 billion (£916 million) deal in June 2007, it has increased the number of hotels to 23, Quinlan Private says a further ten hotels are in development and due to open in 2009 and 2010. Jurys Inns aims to have 48 sites in operation by 2012 and it is already known to be planning hotels in Prague and Budapest.

Hassan Al Nabhani, deputy CEO of OIF, commented: “…OIF believes that the group has many attractive characteristics and is excited to participate in the next phase of the group’s expansion.”

He added: “OIF was impressed with the quality of the Jurys Inns business as well as with its growth potential and Jurys Inns operates in the fastest growing sector of the hotel industry which is proving very resilient in the current environment.”