Receivers are appointed over €6m in assets owned by businessman Colm Wu

Among the buildings now controlled by the receivers is 22 Lower Leeson Street, which is home to businesses including solicitors Hughes & Liddy.

Brendan Liddy, of Hughes & Liddy, is the company secretary of a number of Mr Wu’s firms, including Baron Clonbrock Capital Ltd, where Colm Dolan and Nicholas O’Dwyer, of Grant Thornton, have been appointed receivers over assets over which First Citizen Finance has a charge on foot of a 2019 finance agreement.

Those assets include the 22 Lower Leeson Street premises, 44 Lower Leeson Street and 11a Raleigh Square, in Crumlin.

Mr Liddy did not respond to requests for comment in relation to Hughes & Liddy’s premises, or in relation to Mr Wu.

Number 22 was put up for sale in early 2019 with a €1.8m asking price.

Number 44 was put up for sale in 2017 with a price tag of €1.9m.

The Crumlin property is listed as having been bought in 2019 for €440,000.

Another firm controlled by Mr Wu, also known as Guoqing Wu, has also seen the receivers from Grant Thornton appointed by First Citizen Finance over certain assets owned by Celtic Ranelagh Capel Investments Ltd.

The assets in the company over which the receivers have been appointed include 1 Saint Alphonsus Road, in Drumcondra. It is listed as having been bought for €900,000 on the date that the debenture was created between First Citizen Finance and Celtic Ranelagh Capel Investments.

The other asset in Celtic Ranelagh Capel Investments over which the receivers now have control is 66 Lower Drumcondra Road. It is listed as having been bought for €750,000 on the date the debenture was inked.

The latest moves against Mr Wu’s assets come after months of pressure being heaped on the businessman.

The Revenue Commissioners launched winding-up petitions against some of his firms, while in the past number of months he has lost two pubs that were controlled by him.

A liquidator, Myles Kirby, was appointed earlier this year to Mr Wu’s Castor Ventures Ltd, which operated the Mulligan & Haines gastropub on Dublin’s Dame Street.

The pub closed with the loss of 30 jobs. Another pub in Ashtown was saved.