NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross said his WL Ross & Co. is one of two final bidders for EBS Building Society, an Irish bank.

The attempt to acquire the bank is "probably the strongest demonstration of our belief that Ireland will turn around and will come back out of this perhaps not as the same Celtic Tiger that it had been but as a good strong country", Ross said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

Irish Life & Permanent PLC and a group led by Cardinal Capital are the final two bidders for EBS Building Society, Ireland's Finance Ministry said last month. The Cardinal group of bidders includes Carlyle Group and WL Ross.