The consortium of private equity firms interested in buying Warner Chilcott is understood to include Texas Pacific, the private investment group headed by Ryanair chairman Mr David Bonderman.
Informed sources said the consortium, which has approached the Northern Irish pharmaceutical company with a £1.47 billion offer, is being led by the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs and also includes The Blackstone Group, another leading US private investment firm.
The board of Warner Chilcott, which was formerly known as Galen, is considering the approach, the second received by the company in little over a year. Last July, Barr Laboratories pulled out of talks after news of its interest leaked, driving the share price higher.
The latest approach is pitched at 800 pence sterling per share, below the high of 874 pence hit in March but at a 23 per cent premium to Friday's closing price.
Shares in Warner Chilcott added a further 20.5 pence, or 2.7 per cent, to 767.5 pence in London yesterday, in addition to Monday's gain of 15 per cent. In Dublin, they closed 16 per cent higher at €11.13 as they played catch-up with London.
It is not Mr Bonderman's first foray into the Irish market. In 1996, Mr Bonderman took a 20 per cent stake in Ryanair, paying €1.27 million as well as providing loans of around €30 million for his investment under a complex restructuring which saw the Ryan family receive more than €60 million.
Over the years, Mr Bonderman's group has gradually decreased its shareholding in Ryanair and now owns only a small share of the airline.
In addition to Ryanair, the company's other Irish interests have included AerFi, the former Guinness Peat Aviation. An attempt two years ago to acquire Jefferson Smurfit Group was unsuccessful when Texas Pacific lost out to another US private equity firm, Madison Dearborn.
