EBS sale process passes latest deadline

THE sale process surrounding the EBS Building Society is unlikely to be completed until near the end of the year, despite yesterday’s latest deadline for bids from interested parties.

While no parties were commenting yesterday, the Friday deadline for second round bids for EBS isunderstood to have drawn attention from Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) and three private equity groups in the form of Doughty Hanson (which owns Irish broadcaster TV3), Cardinal Asset Management and US giant JC Flowers.

The building society’s ultimate new ownership structure will be split between Government and one of the above parties. The process is likely to be whittled down to two parties before finally being completed around October or November.