Their core businesses may be rooted in bananas, sugar or fertilisers but, when chief executives talk up their companies' prospects, the story keeps coming back to property.

Fruit importer Fyffes is spinning off 200m worth of property into a new company that will be listed later this year on London's AIM and Dublin's new Irish Enterprise Exchange later this year. Food company Greencore will be left sitting on two vacant sites that could fetch anything from 80m to 150m, after deciding last week to quit the sugar business early.

Another food company, IAWS, could have similar riches buried in its balance sheet. As farming fortunes decline ever further, it is steadily abandoning its roots in the fertiliser and animal feeds business, freeing up an estimated 150m of property that will be surplus to requirements.

Even the banks are getting in on the act, with a sale and lease-back of Bank of Ireland's headquarters on the cards following a similar transaction by AIB at its Bankcentre property.

"I think you'll see most companies highlighting a property play to some extent in their results, " says Liam Boggan, head of research at Merrion Stockbrokers. "It's all being triggered by what happened at Jurys Doyle last year."

That mammoth take-over battle, which culminated in developer Sean Dunne paying 260m for 4.8 acres that Jurys owned in Ballsbridge, has convinced some chief executives that the land occupied by their companies could be worth more than the businesses themselves.

"In the old days, companies were valued on a multiple of their future earnings, " Boggan says. "But that seems to have gone out the window because of the property boom."

Fyffes has played its hand most aggressively by hiving off 25 properties into Bluestone, a separate entity whose ownership will be shared between the fruit importer and its shareholders. The move is a blatant attempt to capitalise on the property boom and paper over serious cracks in Fyffes' underlying business, which has been hit by EU tariffs on banana imports. And, for now, it seems to be working.

According to Merrion's calculations, Fyffes should be worth about 1.96 a share including the Bluestone properties. This is significantly less than the current price of 2.25, implying that investors believe the real estate is worth a lot more than the 200m price tag placed on it by auctioneers Lisney.

Greencore's share price has also been swept up by the property hype. Other companies in the convenience foods sector, including Northern Foods and Geest, were hammered in recent days because of worries over falling sales and rising costs.

But Greencore has emerged unscathed.

The company's shares started and ended the week at roughly 3.60, although they briefly traded higher after Wednesday's announcement that Greencore was pulling the plug on its sugar business immediately. Stock watchers say Greencore's ability to buck the market is not unconnected with the valuable sites occupied by its sugar factories in Carlow and Mallow, which will be sold off for development assuming the planning permission can be secured.

Real estate is also one of the reasons why Eircom still looks attractive to predators.

The former state monopoly has huge debts. Having gone through the hands of two owners in little more than four years, it is difficult to spot where any remaining value could be extracted. But the telco has no shortage of admirers, from the doomed courtship of Swisscom before Christmas to the current stake building by Australian investment house Babcock & Brown.

"Eircom has yet to see any major unloading of its property assets and this is an area that any acquirer will look at closely, " said Kevin McConnell, head of research at Bloxham Stockbrokers.

At other companies, property is just the icing on what is already a nice cake. IAWS's bake-in-the-shop products have helped secure a rosy future of rising sales and fatter margins. But investors also stand to benefit from the valuable properties occupied by its farm supplies operation, which is becoming increasingly marginal in terms of the overall business.

"We continue to view IAWS as a very strong organic growth investment case delivering strong cash flows and the additional benefit of having at least 150m in surplus property assets which will become available in the near term as the group reconfigures its agri-nutrition business to the changing needs of the business, " said Paul Meade of NCB Stockbrokers.

Grafton is in a similar position. Its builders merchants and DIY business is powering ahead but property is sure to add an extra sparkle, especially as the group rationalises its real estate portfolio following last year's acquisition of rival Heiton.

Announcing bumper earnings for 2005 last week, chief executive Michael Chadwick revealed that property sales had contributed almost 10m of the 192m pre-tax profits made in the year. And there are more disposals to come with Grafton looking for bids in excess of 25m for a prime two-acre site occupied by its Atlantic Homecare store in Sandyford, Co Dublin.

Other companies are not so fortunate. While they own hugely valuable sites, selling them off would make it impossible to continue with the existing business. Examples include ICG Group, whose Irish Ferries unit owns a considerable amount of land at Dublin Port. CRH is another big land owner although much of it is linked to its quarrying business.

According to the experts, anything that can be sold off has probably been identified already. "Institutional investors, and especially hedge funds, copped on to the property angle some time ago so I don't think there are too many hidden gems left, " said Boggan.

But this will not stop the search for something to pull out of the property hat.

"When trading isn't great, it's very tempting to shift shareholders' attention on to property, " said McConnell.

"Property divestment is a constant theme at the moment and we may be only half way through the cycle.

But it's important to remember that, once you've sold the family silver, it's gone for good."

HOT PROPERTY

Greencore's mothballed sugar factories are worth 80m- 150m, with the 320 acre Carlow facility being by far the most valuable.

Fyffes is spinning off 25 properties worth 200m into Bluestone, which will be owned 40% by the fruit importer and 60% by its shareholders.

Bank of Ireland's pension fund is mulling a 150m- 200m sale and lease-back of the bank's Baggot Street headquarters as a prelude to a move to new premises.

AIB completed a 367m sale and lease-back of an extension to its Dublin headquarters last year and is working on a similar 275m transaction for other parts of the Bankcentre site.

IAWS owns 150m of property that may be surplus to requirements as it scales back activity in its agri-nutrition business.

Grafton made pro"ts of 7.5m in 2004, 9.6m in 2005 and is looking for more than 25m for a two acre site occupied by an Atlantic Homecare store in Sandyford, Co Dublin.