Wilbur Ross linked to €400m Irish property venture

US billionaire Wilbur Ross is said to be planning a joint venture with investment group Cardinal Capital to provide finance of up to €400 million to invest in property in Ireland.

Some of the proceeds of Mr Ross's investment in Bank of Ireland will be used in the fund, according to a report on RTÉ yesterday.

Mr Ross’s company earned €477 million on Tuesday from the sale of its remaining 1.8 billion shares in Bank of Ireland: the equivalent of a 5.5 per cent stake in the bank.

The new fund is reportedly set to begin operating in the coming weeks. It is expected to part-finance commercial and residential property investments. It plans to provide mezzanine finance and fund up to 15 per cent of the total of an investment.

Opportunities

Nick Corcoran, a director of Cardinal Capital, told RTÉ: "We have had a successful partnership with Wilbur Ross over some years and we are looking at opportunities in the Irish market."

In 2011, Cardinal Capital and Mr Ross were in a consortium s named as preferred bidder for Irish building society EBS before the Government scrapped the sale process and decided to merge it into AIB.