03-01-2017

Air Products completes $3.8B performance materials division sale to Evonik

Air Products, a world-leading industrial gases company, announced today it has completed the sale of its Performance Materials Division (PMD) to Evonik Industries AG for $3.8 billion in cash. The agreement to sell PMD to Evonik, a world leader in specialty chemicals, was initially announced in May, 2016.

“I am pleased that we completed the sale of PMD in the time frame we promised and congratulate both the Air Products and Evonik teams who worked hard to achieve this goal,” said Air Products’ Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Seifi Ghasemi. “Combined with the other actions we have already taken, we are now fully focused on industrial gases in alignment with our strategic Five-Point Plan. Since implementing this plan, Air Products has been and now has further improved, our great position to seek out and take advantage of exciting investment opportunities to grow our core industrial gases business.”

“I want to thank the PMD employees who worked very hard for Air Products and who made PMD a very successful business, and I know they are motivated to continue their success as Evonik employees. They have a great future ahead of them as part of the core business of that company,” Ghasemi said.

In closing the deal, and under the terms of the agreement, operational facilities, supplier contracts, labs, contracts, customers, and employees and certain legal entities associated with PMD have been transferred to Evonik.

Air Products has consistently executed against its strategic Five-Point Plan, which includes focusing on industrial gases and taking actions on non-core businesses. In September 2015, the Company announced plans to separate Materials Technologies, which included PMD and the Electronic Materials Division. EMD was successfully spun-off to shareholders as a separate public company, called Versum Materials, Inc, that began trading on October 3, 2016.