Paddy McKillen jnr: restaurateur and hotelier who shuns the limelight

DCM Editorial Summary: This story has been independently rewritten and summarised for DCM readers to highlight key developments relevant to the region. Original reporting by Irish Times, click this post to read the original article.

Hospitality mogul Paddy McKillen jnr has been the figure behind many of Dublin’s most significant entertainment and dining venues over the past 20 years, but the man himself has mostly shunned the limelight.

From 2007, the Press Up hospitality group was a key and highly visible player in Dublin’s social scene with super-stylish restaurants, popular nightclubs and bars and a cinema.

Founded with his old school friend Matt Ryan, McKillen jnr’s group changed the face of dining out in the capital, growing fast by developing its own restaurants and existing, successful operations including Wagamama, Elephant & Castle and Wowburger.

[ Paddy McKillen jnr challenges bankruptcy move against him over alleged €2.1m debtOpens in new window ]

Press Up Entertainment traced its foundation to Paddy McKillen snr’s acquisition in the 1990s of Captain America’s on Grafton Street and the later opening of a Wagamama franchise on nearby South King Street.

Ireland was in the depths of recession and was bailed out by the EU-ECB-IMF troika. In this challenging business environment, McKillen jnr and Ryan took advantage of the downturn and the fear it engendered in potential competitors, to grow the Press Up brand aggressively.

The pair took a handful of restaurants owned by McKillen snr and expanded very quickly. They often opened in premises in which they or businesses connected with them were also the landlord.

Most of them were successful, with the pair credited with having caught perfectly the changing tastes of a country whose self-confidence was rebounding as it dragged itself surprising quickly out of national bankruptcy. The group grew to more than 2,000 staff across 50 venues.

[ John McManus: Where did it all go wrong for Press Up?Opens in new window ]

Press Up explored a stock market flotation in 2018 but did not proceed. Neither did a planned €50 million sale of 45 per cent of the business in 2019. On both occasions the underlying properties were excluded from the proposed deal.

Then came Covid in March 2020. Lockdowns combined with changes in consumer behaviour that followed their lifting hit the business hard.

The cost-of-living crisis that followed the economic rebound did not help. Nor did the rise in interest rates that came afterwards.

In October 2021, the group took a loan from a fund set up by London-based Cheyne Capital.

Cheyne is reported to have invested €55.5 million and taken a lien on all the businesses in the group but not the underlying properties.

Some €13 million was repaid when British property group Lifestyle Hospitality Capital and Elliott Investment Management bought the hotels operated by Press Up but owned separately by a company connected to McKillen jnr and Ryan.

By September 2024, Cheyne Capital had taken a majority stake in the company in a debt for equity swap, later renaming it Eclective Hospitality Group. McKillen jnr reportedly retained a small stake in the business.

Since then issues appear to have piled up for McKillen jnr.

In November 2024 a property investment finance company, AHG Properties Unlimited Company sought a judgment for €1.19 million against him over a guarantee he gave on loans to buy a property in England for development as a 155-bed hotel and 1,500 capacity venue.

In May 2025, Cabriz Finance Ltd, which funded loans to entities associated with McKillen jnr, sought judgment of some €8.7 million against the businessman over alleged various guarantees and indemnities for loans to four companies.

Last October, Revenue applied to the High Court for a summons against McKillen jnr, which is used by Revenue to begin civil proceedings to recover money it is owed, generally relating to unpaid taxes.

At that time, a McKillen jnr spokeswoman said the case “concerns Paddy McKillen Jnr and company Covid taxes already covered by performing phased payment arrangements”.

“Revenue is effectively seeking double payment, with refunds due later,” she added.