Merck, the US-listed pharmaceuticals company, is spinning off its subsidiary, Medco Health Solutions, to shareholders after aborting attempts to publicly offer the unit.

Merck filed the initial public offering of Medco in April last year, aiming to sell a 20% stake and raise up to $1bn (€913m) in a deal led by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. It was due to price in July, but it cut its offer price, then postponed the offer and finally withdrew its IPO altogether because of market conditions.