US private equity groups Bain Capital, Carlyle and Thomas H Lee have formed a consortium to study a takeover bid for Warner Chilcott, the Belfast-based pharmaceuticals group.
The consortium is the third potential bidder for the group, which announced two weeks ago that it had received an approach that could lead to an offer of 800p a share, worth about £1.5 billion (€2.2 billion).
Warner Chilcott had already announced it had received two bid approaches, raising the prospect of a £1.5 billion takeover battle. Its shares traded unchanged yesterday at €11.86 in Dublin and up fractionally to 821p sterling in London.
Last week Warner Chilcott - formerly known as Galen Holdings - had opened its books to a buyout consortium which made an approach worth around £1.5 billion in September.
The company subsequently announced on Friday that another party had entered into a confidentiality agreement and was also beginning due diligence enquiries, but both approaches remained "preliminary in nature".
Warner Chilcott has not identified either set of prospective bidders but people familiar with the situation said the initial approach was from a consortium comprising Goldman Sachs's private equity arm, Blackstone Group and Texas Pacific. There has subsequently been speculation that Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the US buy-out specialists, has joined this group.
Fund managers and analysts said the second potential bidder could be a group led by Credit Suisse First Boston's private equity arm.
There has also been market speculation that Barr Laboratories, which was linked to the group last year, could again be seeking an involvement.
- Financial Times Service, Additional reporting: Irish Times business staff
