Dublin pub AKA wound up after failure to make rent payments
A Dublin city bar with an annual rent bill of €160,000 has been wound up by the High Court for failing to make payments.
The owners of AKA on Wicklow Street deny insolvency and told the judge they were in dispute with the landlord and holding out for a downward rent review.
A liquidator has been appointed to Salmoncita which owns AKA bar and nightclub over an unpaid rent bill of €68,000.
Counsel Eamon Marray for Salmoncita claimed the landlord Kilfoylan Vale was "using a sledgehammer to crack a small nut" and wanted to reclaim the Wicklow Street premises to kill off competition.
He denied claims of gross insolvency and said the rent was in dispute.
However Judge Brian McGovern found that under the terms of the lease the tenant had no power to initiate a downward rent review.
He said he was not impressed that Salmoncita had failed to file company accounts since 2009 but he also pointed out to the landlord that there "had to be an air of reality" about rent in the current economic situation.
