The Ormond Hotel in Dublin's city centre was sold for £2.3 million yesterday. The 63-bedroom premises, located on the North Liffey quay, was bought in trust at the auction handled jointly yesterday afternoon by Morrissey's and John Younge. Mr Bill Morrissey said that there were three bidders for the property. Bidding started at £1 million and continued in £100,000 lots until it went under the hammer at £2.3 million. He added that he was unaware of the identity of the buyer, but believed it was a property developer. The hotel was owned by the Ormond Inns company which went into receivership on Monday on the application of its main creditor, Anglo-Irish Bank, believed to be owed £1.8 million.

Prior to the sale, the receiver, Mr Martin Ferris, of Ferris and Associates, undertook to provide a tax clearance certification to the Revenue Commissioners to allow the premises to continue to have a liquor licence.

The hotel came on the market last March with an asking price of £3 million.