A H Robins Co

Beleaguered A. H. Robins Co., maker of the Dalkon Shield intrauterine device, filed a financial reorganization plan Thursday that sets up a $1.75-billion trust fund to pay women who claim to have been injured by the shield. However, quick payment of claims and resolution of Robins' nearly 2-year-old bankruptcy proceedings appeared clouded by disclosures that Rorer Group--the pharmaceutical company that makes Maalox--was seeking to acquire Robins, which is based in Richmond, Va.

American Home Products Corp. extended the bidding war for A. H. Robins Co. Tuesday by offering to pay shareholders $700 million in stock as well as pay claims more quickly to women who say they were injured by Robins' Dalkon Shield birth control device. A committee representing shareholders in Robins' Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization immediately endorsed the bid, which is $150 million more than American Home's initial offer and also higher than bids from two other suitors.

American Home Products, in a victory over two rivals in the battle to acquire A. H. Robins Co., Tuesday broke a 2 1/2-year stalemate over the Richmond, Va., firm's future. The New York conglomerate's winning move was to increase the amount of cash that would be paid quickly to tens of thousands of women who claim injuries from the Dalkon Shield intrauterine contraceptive device.

A. H. Robins Co., the health-care maker mired in bankruptcy proceedings brought on by its Dalkon Shield contraceptive, said Friday that it received a stock-swap merger proposal from the Rorer Group drug company valued at a minimum of $725 million. It was the second merger offer by Rorer in four months, but analysts said the family-owned Robins' fierce desire to remain independent appeared to give this offer no better chance of succeeding than the first failed attempt.

Sanofi S.A. officials said Thursday that they were willing to boost the value of their company's offer to merge with A. H. Robins Co. if necessary to beat out other suitors for the pharmaceutical giant. Separately, the committee representing Robins' shareholders in the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization indicated that it was continuing negotiations with all three suitors and hoped to endorse a plan on Friday.

A federal judge confirmed a reorganization plan for the A. H. Robins Co. on Tuesday, nearly three years after the pharmaceutical concern filed for bankruptcy in the face of thousands of lawsuits from women claiming they were injured by the Dalkon Shield birth control device. The plan, which was endorsed by lawyers for both the claimants and the company after years of often bitter wrangling, includes a $2.475-billion trust fund to compensate Dalkon Shield victims.

A. H. Robins Co., which has agreed to be acquired by Sanofi S.A. of France, may attract another bid in part due to resistance from shareholders and Dalkon Shield claimants, analysts said Monday. Since the bid was announced by Robins over the weekend, shareholders and the women claiming injuries from Robins' Dalkon Shield contraceptive devices have refused to back the plan.

A. H. Robins Co.'s acceptance of a merger offer from French drug company Sanofi S.A. drew a hostile reaction over the weekend from the committee representing victims of the Dalkon Shield intrauterine contraceptive device and from the losing suitors in the three-way bidding war. And an attorney representing outside shareholders of the Richmond, Va.-based pharmaceutical company said he is still evaluating the French offer.

A lawyer for women allegedly injured by the Dalkon Shield birth control device said Thursday that settling their claims could cost the A. H. Robins Co. up to $7 billion, five times what the company estimated. Robins, which filed for protection from creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in 1985 in the face of mounting claims, places the value of the claims between $700 million and $1.2 billion. It has proposed a $1.

Prudential-Bache Securities has made an unsolicited proposal to raise nearly $2 billion for a trust fund to handle Dalkon Shield claims against A. H. Robins Co. and enable the pharmaceutical company to emerge from bankruptcy under control of its present management, sources say. The $2 billion in cash would be raised primarily by borrowing and the issuance of new securities, sources said Friday.