THE FRIDAY INTERVIEW: Despite his decision to sell his stake in TRH, Hugh O'Regan is protective about the chain he founded, writes Siobhán Creaton, Finance Correspondent

Mr Hugh O'Regan believes he has served his apprenticeship in the Dublin pub scene and is looking forward to pursuing what he hopes will be more meaningful projects.

The 38-year-old Dubliner has the capacity to do just that, or at least he will have, once he completes the sale of his 75 per cent stake in Thomas Reid Holdings (TRH). Depending on the level of interest in his assets he could conceivably walk away with more than €30 million (£23.63 million) in the coming months.

He says he started in 1988 with a little more than €10,000.

"It's not a bad achievement. It's been a good journey. Now I'm going to throw the dice in and see what happens."

The 40 Foot bar and restaurant in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, is his most recent undertaking and one in which he has considerable pride.

Despite his decision to move on, he is protective about the future of the chain that he founded and wants some reassurance that some of his work will be preserved by the new owners.

In his view, the Morrison Hotel is his greatest achievement and he is likely to want to retain a small shareholding in the hotel if it is sold on to an international chain. He would ultimately like to see it being bought by a company with "deep pockets" that would build sister hotels in cities such as New York and London.

"Ideally I would like to find a company that can see the vision I had for that hotel, buy into it and roll it out internationally," he says. Mr O'Regan would also like to see fashion designer Mr John Rocha have a continuing role in such an expansion.

The Morrison has been a difficult project and, even now, disagreements with the builders are not fully resolved.

Mr O'Regan got started in the pub trade in 1988 when he and his brother bought the Temple Bar for €190,460.

He began his career as a student of electronic engineering but quickly decided this wasn't for him. He subsequently got a job at AIB and completed a degree in English and economics while working there.

He briefly studied law but abandoned this following the death of his mother during the course. Mr O'Regan's father died when he was four.

After his mother's death, the family home was sold, leaving the four boys in the family with €19,000 each. With this money, he bought a house in Rathmines and later moved to Sandymount, which left him well positioned to benefit from spiralling house prices.

It was against this house that he secured the loan for his first pub, the Temple Bar, in 1988. Temple Bar was an exciting place to be then as the entire area was being revived.

"Everybody owned their own business. It was a wonderful nucleus," he says.

He quickly added to his pub interests, opening Thomas Reids, The Crane and Hogans.

In 1994 he came to public attention after selling a €63,486 option he had over a site in Smithfield for €2.54 million. He had originally purchased the site with a grand plan to create a technology hub there. However, this plan was abandoned when he failed to get Government backing for the project.

He put his energy back into pubs after that windfall, creating Pravda, Life, the Budda Bar in Blanchardstown, Searsons and the Bailey in Dublin, and O'Riada's in Galway. His group also won the licences to operate the five bars at Dublin Airport.

Other projects in the pipeline include the creation of a young business person's club in Dawson Street.

Mr O'Regan says he feels now is as good a time as any to get out of the pub scene. "It's a difficult business. There are a lot of hidden costs. Publicans are often pilloried unfairly. There is a high turnover of staff and margins are very tight."

Some of his staff won't be that surprised by his decision as he has been fairly hands-off for some time and has tried to get out of the game before.

He says he has had "distractions" such as his failed bid for Capital Bars two years ago and his involvement in Bar Trader, a now defunct company that tried to secure keener prices for the pub trade. The bid for Capital Bars was part of a strategy to achieve critical mass in the pub trade, he says.

"Today I am glad that the bid for Capital Bars didn't happen."

Bar Trader was another costly project. Mr O'Regan suggests he invested €1.9 million in the venture that ultimately failed.

"I am philosophical about it. It was part of my apprenticeship," he says.

Married to Adrienne, Mr O'Regan has four sons ranging in age from 18 to three years. Looking back on his achievements, Mr O'Regan says he would have liked to get to know many of the people who worked for him a bit better, liked to have paid his creditors a bit more speedily and kept away from e-business. "I am looking forward to a new beginning. I won't be rushing into anything."