Lone Star, private equity consortium join BAWAG in bidding for Irish bank PTSB

DUBLIN, March 30 (Reuters) - Irish bank Permanent TSB PTSB.I on Monday said Lone Star and a consortium comprising fellow U.S. private equity funds Sixth Street and Centerbridge Partners were participating in its formal sale process, vying with Austrian bank BAWAG Group AG BAWG.VI to acquire the lender.

BAWAG confirmed earlier this month that it had submitted a non-binding proposal for the mortgage-focussed bank, which put itself up for sale in October. BAWAG said the proposal could lead to an offer but that was still undecided.

PTSB said that it expects to continue to engage with the relevant parties in the coming weeks.

PTSB is by some way the smallest of the three Irish banks that emerged from the euro zone's biggest state rescue over 15 years ago. The sale, if successful, would result in the government exiting its 57.5% stake.

The bank, which had a 20% share of the Irish mortgage market last year and is preparing to pay its first dividend since the 2008 crisis, had a market value of 1.57 billion euros ($1.81 billion) at the close of trading on Friday.

($1 = 0.8686 euros)