GREAT-West Lifeco, Canada’s second-largest insurer, is the leading candidate to acquire Irish Life & Permanent’s life assurance unit, according to two people familiar with the matter.

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.

US BILLIONAIRE investor Wilbur Ross has said he will look at other Irish-based investment opportunities, after his company took a near-10% stake in Bank of Ireland.

THE Government has injected a further €525 million to bail out EBS Building Society, effectively bringing it under state control.

WL Ross & Co chief executive Wilbur Ross said his investor group remains in the bidding for the EBS, even as it is in talks with the Government about new capital targets for the country’s fifth-largest lender.

IRISH Life & Permanent, the country’s biggest life assurer and mortgage lender, is in talks to hire four banks, including Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, to underwrite a rights offering, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

Nationalisation is “not the right answer” for Northern Rock, Richard Branson said today.

Northern Rock’s biggest shareholder is today hoping for an improved offer for the lender after querying the value of the salvage bid led by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.