P&G; to Buy Water Filter Company Recovery

Procter & Gamble Co., the largest U.S. maker of household products, agreed to buy Recovery Engineering Inc. for $265 million in cash and assumed debt to enter the fast-growing market for home water filters. The maker of Tide detergent and Crest toothpaste will pay $35.25 a share for Recovery Engineering, whose PUR water filters are No. 2 in sales, and assume $17 million in debt. Recovery’s shares zoomed $17.13 to close at $34.75 on Nasdaq. P&G; shares fell $2.38 to $100.25 on the New York Stock Exchange. The purchase could help P&G; Chief Executive Durk Jager reach his goal of tripling sales growth from last year’s sluggish 2.6% rate. Minneapolis-based Recovery reported a $10.6-million loss and sales of $77 million for its fiscal year ended Jan. 3. Cincinnati-based P&G; had $38.1 billion in sales in its fiscal year ended June 30.