A receiver has been appointed to Ormond Inns, the company which owns the Ormond Hotel in Dublin's city centre. The application for a receiver was made by Anglo-Irish Bank, which is understood to be owed around £1.8 million by the company.

Several other creditors are also believed to be owed money by Ormond. The receiver appointed yesterday is Mr Martin Ferris of Ferris and associates. The hotel is located on Ormond Quay, on the North side of the Liffey, close to central Dublin. Mr Des Coffey, the owner of the Ormond Hotel, was not available for comment last night. A public auction for the hotel had been scheduled to take place tommorrow . However the attitude of the receiver, Mr Ferris, to the proposed sale was not clear last night.

The Ormond Hotel has 63 bedrooms, 55 of them en suite. It also has three function rooms, a bar and a night club.

The hotel reportedly had a turnover of around £2 million in 1996 and benefits from a reasonable level of block booking from tourist groups. It first came on the market last March at an asking price of around £3 million, but was later withdrawn from sale. Anglo-Irish is believed to have taken on the Ormond Inns loans when it bought over the loan book of Irish Business Bank, formerly Hill Samuel Ireland, from the British TSB Group at the end of 1994. One other banking group is also understood to be among the creditors.