EBS building society may be sold by March, according to US billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, who is among the investors in the Cardinal private equity consortium, one of two final bidders in the sale.

Mr Ross is part of the consortium with Dublin firm Cardinal Capital and US private equity group Carlyle. The other bidder is Irish Life and Permanent.

He confirmed the Cardinal group had submitted a bid of more than €600 million for the building society.

He said he was hopeful a preferred bidder would “come out very quickly, and if it does, this could close by March”, he told Bloomberg Television yesterday.