Air Products Highlights Successful Track Record of Delivering Significant Shareholder Value – Air Products’ first mover advantage in clean hydrogen is producing results
LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., Dec. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Air Products (NYSE: APD) today announced that it has filed its definitive proxy statement and WHITE proxy card with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) in connection with its upcoming 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the “Annual Meeting”), which will be held at 8:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time on January 23, 2025. All Air Products shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 27, 2024 will be entitled to vote at the Annual Meeting. Shareholders should visit voteairproducts.com for additional information on voting.
In conjunction with the filing of the definitive proxy statement, Air Products’ Board of Directors issued a letter to shareholders, which highlights critical information for shareholders to consider ahead of the Annual Meeting, including:
- Air Products is the most profitable industrial gas business in the world. Today our core industrial gas business is producing all-time high, industry-leading adjusted EBITDA margins and driving EPS growth. We are continuing to grow our core industrial gas business—with more than 50 percent of total capital investment in the last four years in the core industrial gas business—while capitalizing on the clean hydrogen market.
- Air Products’ first-mover advantage in clean hydrogen is producing results. The scale of the shareholder value creation opportunity in clean hydrogen is significant, with an estimated total market revenue opportunity of more than $600 billion by 2030 and over $1.0 trillion by 2050, according to studies from Deloitte1. The Company is seeing significant demand in the immediate term – as evidenced by our recently announced 15-year contract to supply TotalEnergies with 70,000 tons of green hydrogen annually beginning in 2030.
- Air Products continues to prudently allocate capital and effectively return capital to shareholders. Our prudent approach to capital allocation has allowed us to take steps to de-risk the hydrogen business and invest in new projects that we believe will meet or exceed internal return targets, while increasing our dividend per share by a 9% CAGR under the leadership of our CEO, Mr. Ghasemi. As our capital expenditure moderates, we expect to increase our return of capital to shareholders, including through dividend increases, share repurchases, or other means.
- The Board is conducting a thoughtful search for a potential CEO successor. In August, Air Products announced that it is conducting a search for a President to serve as a qualified CEO successor to Mr. Ghasemi. To ensure the new President is set up for success, he or she will sit on the Company’s Board. The Company is on track to announce the President and related timelines for CEO succession no later than March 31, 2025.
- The Air Products Board is already meaningfully refreshed, independent, and well-suited to its oversight responsibilities. As of the Annual Meeting, six of nine directors will have been appointed in the last five years, including two new director nominees, Bhavesh V. “Bob” Patel and Alfred Stern, who bring significant experience leading and overseeing public companies.
- Mantle Ridge’s demand to dictate the composition of the Board and senior management would be destabilizing and value destructive. Mantle Ridge is attempting to unilaterally seize full control of Air Products without paying a control premium, with no new ideas and with a level of representation that is incongruent with its ownership stake. Mantle’s Ridge’s demands have provided no basis for engagement.
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Air Products Highlights Successful Track Record of Delivering Significant Shareholder Value – Air Products’ first mover advantage in clean hydrogen is producing results, source
