Dublin: Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) and a consortium of private equity investors, led by Dublin-based house Cardinal Capital, have been confirmed as the final two bidders who will battle it out for control of the EBS Building Society, which is currently under state control.

A SHORTLIST of bidders to buy the EBS Building Society is expected to be announced by the Government within a few days.

IRISH bottling company Ardagh Glass has bought international packaging group Impress Co-operative for €1.7 billion, in a deal being described as strategic for the business.

IRISH Life & Permanent is still seen as the lead contender to buy EBS despite strong interest by three international consortia.

THE sale of the EBS is being viewed as an ongoing process as no real progress has been made this week despite reports that veteran American investor Wilbur Ross is to take control of the lender.

JC FLOWERS & Co and three other bidders for Ireland’s EBS Building Society may buy and merge several lenders to create a new competitor to the country’s biggest banks, two people familiar with the situation said.

IRISH Life & Permanent (IL&P) and US private equity group JC Flowers are now being seen as the probable last two players in the chase to acquire the EBS Building Society.

SPANISH bank Banco Santander – Europe’s biggest – is the front runner to buy AIB’s stake in Polish bank Zachodni WBK, in a head-to-head bidding war Poland’s biggest bank PKO BP which could garner €2.5 billion for the troubled Irish bank.

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.

EBS Building Society, the country’s biggest customer-owned lender, set an August 9 deadline for a second round of takeover bids, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation.

THE collapse of Setanta Sports in Britain probably means little to most people in this country, other than it is an Irish company that has taken a big blow.

SETANTA’S attempt to throw down the gauntlet to BSkyB and muscle in on Premier League football was always a risky move.

ENDEMOL, the Dutch television production company best known for creating the Big Brother reality show franchise, has emerged as one of the likely additional investors necessary to keep ailing sports broadcaster Setanta from going out of business.

With a possible US tycoon saviour waiting in the wings, John Hearne follows the roughest week in Setanta’s 19-year history, a week it seems to have survived — for now.

THE board of Setanta Sports is expected to meet again next week to consider fresh rescue packages for the ailing broadcaster, which surfaced on Tuesday night.

THE threat of administration at Setanta Sports looks to have been averted after an emergency two-hour board meeting last night.

SETANTA Sports, the Irish-founded sports broad-caster, could go into administration within the next couple of days.

SETANTA Sports founder Michael O’Rourke believes the company will survive its current difficulties but said there are no guarantees.

Doughty Hanson, the private equity group which owns TV3, is reportedly interested in increasing its Irish media portfolio and could be eyeing up the Irish radio interests of British group, Emap, to do so.

Sports channel Setanta today secured a major funding boost ahead of its Premiership ratings battle with BSkyB next season.

An offer has been made for the buy out of TV3.

TV3 has said the search for a buyer of the 45% of the company put up for sale by Canadian media group CanWest earlier this year is in “the final stages”.

BARCHESTER Healthcare, the British nursing home group backed by John Magnier and JP McManus, is expected to be among the bidders today for the famous Priory clinic group.

BARCHESTER, the nursing home group owned by JP McManus and John Magnier, has abandoned a takeover bid for its smaller rival BetterCare.

A PRIVATE nursing home group owned by John Magnier and JP McManus is eyeing up a takeover of The Priory, the London clinic best known for treating celebrities with drug habits.

Umbro, which supplies kit to the Ireland soccer team, said tough markets had led it to slash its flotation price by over 25%.

Sports kit supplier Umbro today said tough markets had led it to slash its flotation price by a third.

FOOTBALL brand Umbro yesterday unveiled plans to float on the London stock market in a move set to value the England kit supplier at around stg£200 million.

Football brand Umbro today unveiled plans to float on the London stock market in a move set to value the England kit supplier at around £200m (€299.3m).

The European Commission today approved the £270m (€385m) purchase by British-based private equity firm Doughty Hanson of French telecommunications equipment supplier Alcatel’s battery division Saft.