US private equity firm WL Ross part of group bidding for EBS

ANOTHER US private equity firm, New York-based WL Ross, is the third member of the Irish-led Cardinal Capital Group consortium bidding for EBS Building Society, The Irish Timeshas learned.

WL Ross, which has a record of investing in distressed companies, has worked with Cardinal in the past and has joined the Irish firm and US private equity group Carlyle in submitting a bid for EBS.

The Cardinal consortium is one of four parties to have made offers for the State-controlled building society, which requires €785 million to meet the Financial Regulator’s new capital rules.

Irish Life Permanent and two other private equity firms – Doughty Hanson, owner of TV3, and US company JC Flowers, set up by former Goldman Sachs banker Chris Flowers – have submitted offers for the lender.

WL Ross was founded by billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, a former director of investment bank Rothschild. The firm manages assets of $9.6 billion (€7.6 billion) and has lengthy experience investing in financial companies.

The firm has invested about $2 billion in troubled US mortgage and financial firms since the global banking crisis struck.

They include the bankrupt American Home Mortgage Servicing, Assured Guaranty, Bank United, First Michigan Bank and Virgin Money.

James B Lockhart III, vice-chairman of WL Ross and a former director of the US Federal Housing Finance Agency, is leading the company’s interest in the investment in the consortium.

A spokesman for Cardinal had no comment on the involvement of WL Ross in the consortium, though it is understood to be a minority shareholder in the group.

An EBS spokesman also had no comment to make on the matter.

The building society is expected to choose either a preferred bidder or two short-listed bidders over the coming weeks. EBS is working with the National Treasury Management Agency, the State agency which manages the Government’s banking matters, on the offers.

A final decision on a preferred bidder or short-listed bidders is thought to have been delayed by the agency’s work on the Government’s plan for Anglo Irish Bank announced earlier this week.

The four parties bidding for EBS have plans to buy and merge the society with other lenders to create a so-called third force in Irish banking to compete with the two largest banks, Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland.