Reckitt Benckiser buys Schiff Nutrition in $1.4bn deal The consumer goods company, which makes household products including Cillit Bang, Nurofen, and Dettol, trumped an earlier bid by German rival Bayer AG. Reckitt said the deal, which will springboard the company into the higher-margin health business, would enable it to work with the American company to build on its US healthcare business, where it already sells brands such as Durex. The German drugmaker later said that it did not want to engage in a bidding war for the company. Reckitt said the deal, which is subject to shareholder approval, will be financed with cash and existing credit facilities. It added that it expected to complete the deal by the end of the year. Reckitt recently said that growth in western markets had stalled amid falling sales of laundry detergents and fabric softeners in southern Europe, while growing middle classes in countries such as China had fuelled demand for more hygiene and health products.