Five bidders for Irish Life

JC FLOWERS & Co is among five bidders vying to buy Irish Life & Permanent’s life assurance unit, the biggest insurer of its kind in the country.

JC Flowers has teamed up with Apollo Global Management, another private equity firm, to make a joint bid, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.

London-based CVC Capital Partners and Great-West Lifeco’s Canada Life Ireland and US insurers Unum and Delphi are the other bidders.