Pfizer Agrees to Sell Schick to Energizer for $930 Million

Pfizer Inc., New York, NY, said it agreed to sell its Schick-Wilkinson Sword shaving-products business for $930 million in cash to battery maker Energizer Holdings Inc.

The deal, which ends a months-long auction for the nation’s second-largest shaving-products company, was approved Monday by Energizer’s board. In a prepared statement Tuesday, Pfizer said the transaction is subject to the usual regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the first half of this year.

Pfizer announced in December that it would divest the Schick-Wilkinson Sword business, which was acquired as part of Pfizer’s purchase of Warner-Lambert in 2000. Schick had sales of about $650 million in 2002. Energizer reported sales of $1.74 billion for its fiscal year ended Sept. 30.

With the Schick deal, Energizer will go head-to-head in another core business with razor titan Gillette Co., which also owns the Duracell battery brand. Schick, Milford, CT, has a global market share of about 18% in the wet-shaving business, compared with about 70% market share for Boston-based Gillette.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Schick had been in advanced talks with Anglo-Dutch consumer-products company Reckett Benckiser PLC, but those talks recently stalled.