Water Pik Technologies sold

FORT COLLINS – Less than two years after making its initial purchase, private equity firm The Carlyle Group has sold its majority stake in Water Pik Technologies Inc.’s Fort Collins-based personal health-care products business.

Water Pik was picked up off the public market through a private equity buyout by Washington, D.C.-based The Carlyle Group last year. The January 2006 deal was valued at $380 million. EG Capital Group, a New York-based private equity firm focused on consumer products, purchased the Water Pik business from The Carlyle Group, not including the Jandy Pool Products line. Inquiries to Water Pik and EG Capital Group regarding the deal were not answered in time for publication.

“Water Pik holds a leading market position in both the dental water jet/oral irrigator and replacement showerheads categories,´ said Jay Eastman, a founder and principal of EG Capital, in a prepared statement. “We plan on assisting the company to implement a growth strategy through new product introductions and continue to strengthen the company’s relationships with leading North American and international retailers.”

The Carlyle Group will continue to hold the Jandy line, which will operate as an independent company. Water Pik The company shuttered its Loveland facility last year and recent sold the building for $3.3 million.

Water Pik traces its origins to Aqua Tec, a company founded in Fort Collins in 1962 with the invention of the oral irrigator. The company was purchased by Teledyne Inc. in 1967. Allegheny Teledyne, formed by the merger of Allegheny Ludlum and Teledyne Inc., spun off Water Pik Technologies Inc. in 1999 as a stand-alone public company. The initial public offering price for Water Pik was $8 per share.

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