Warner Chilcott considers buyout

Northern Ireland drug maker Warner Chilcott has opened its books to a buyout consortium which made a bid approach worth around £1.5 billion earlier this month.

Warner, a specialist in women’s health and urology, said yesterday it had entered into a confidentiality agreement with the consortium and the group was now undertaking due diligence.

The company, formerly called Galen Holdings, did not identify the consortium, but people familiar with the situation said it comprised Goldman Sachs’s private equity arm, together with US private equity firms Blackstone and Texas Pacific.