Air Products Will Exit Energy-from-Waste Business

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., April 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Air Products (NYSE: APD) has announced that the Company will exit its Energy-from-Waste (EfW) business.  As a result, the EfW business segment will be accounted for as a discontinued operation effective in the Company's second fiscal quarter.  Also in the second quarter, Air Products expects to record a pre-tax charge in the range of $900 million to $1.0 billion in discontinued operations, primarily to write down assets associated with the EfW business to their realizable value.

In previous public comments, Air Products' management has communicated the challenges with the Tees Valley, UK projects.  Testing and analysis completed during the Company's fiscal second quarter indicated that additional design and operational challenges would require significant time and cost to rectify.  Consequently, the Board of Directors has decided that it is no longer in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders to continue the Tees Valley projects.  Air Products will work to optimize the cash value of its investments.  Exiting the EfW business will allow the Company to direct its resources to its core business of Industrial Gases.

The Board of Director's decision to exit EfW is expected to have the following impacts on the Company's financial reporting and metrics:

• On a historical basis, the impact of moving the EfW segment to discontinued operations will increase EPS from continuing operations by about 3 to 4 cents for FY14 and FY15, as there was a small operating loss reported in the EfW segment.
• The EfW asset write-down is expected to result in an increase in the Company's Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) from continuing operations by approximately 80 basis points, driven by removing the asset value from the denominator in this calculation.
• A modest future cash tax benefit is expected from the write-off.
• Additional details on these financial impacts will be available with the Company's fiscal Q2FY16 earnings announcement on April 28.

"Air Products is focused on our core Industrial Gas business.  We pushed very hard to make this new EfW technology work and I would like to thank the team who worked so diligently.  We appreciate the hard work of our employees and contractors at the site, and certainly understand their disappointment in this decision.  We are also disappointed with the outcome," said Seifi Ghasemi, chairman, president and CEO of Air Products.

About Air Products 

Air Products (NYSE:APD) is a world-leading Industrial Gases company celebrating 75 years of operation. The company's core Industrial Gases business provides atmospheric and process gases and related equipment to manufacturing markets, including refining and petrochemical, metals, electronics, and food and beverage. Air Products is also the world's leading supplier of liquefied natural gas process technology and equipment. The Company's Materials Technologies business serves the semiconductor, polyurethanes, cleaning and coatings, and adhesives industries. 

The Company had fiscal 2015 sales of $9.9 billion and was ranked number 284 on the Fortune 500 annual list of public companies. Approximately 20,000 employees in 50 countries strive to make Air Products the world's safest and best performing Industrial Gases company, providing sustainable offerings and excellent service to all customers. For more information, visit www.airproducts.com.

NOTE: This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 concerning the expected amount and timing of charges and cash expenditures. These forward-looking statements are based on management's reasonable expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release. Actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors not anticipated by management, including the risk that the charges or cash expenditures may be in excess of the estimated amounts or may occur in different fiscal periods than expected, the Company's inability to complete actions to exit the EfW business within the time periods anticipated, and other risk factors including those described in the Company's Form 10K for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2015.

 

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SOURCE Air Products

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