Air Products Sends Letter to Shareholders Highlighting Reasons to Support Its Board Nominees

Strongly Disagrees with ISS' Opinion Published Today

Urges Shareholders to Vote "FOR" ONLY Air Products' Nominees on the WHITE Proxy Card

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., Jan. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Air Products' (NYSE: APD) Board of Directors today sent a letter to shareholders 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.

Air Products urges shareholders to vote "FOR" ONLY Air Products' nominees on the WHITE proxy card and warns investors that following ISS' voting recommendation could have a serious negative impact on the Company and their investment, as described in the letter to shareholders.

The full text of the letter to shareholders follows:

AIR PRODUCTS SHAREHOLDERS HAVE TWO CHOICES TO CONSIDER

ACHIEVE STABILITY, GROWTH, AND LONG-TERM VALUE CREATION WITH AIR PRODUCTS' FIT-FOR-PURPOSE BOARD

OR

RISK LIMITED GROWTH, LONG-TERM VALUE DESTRUCTION, AND AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE WITH MANTLE RIDGE'S NOMINEES WHO HAVE STALE OR INFERIOR EXPERIENCE AND LACK ANY GO-FORWARD PLAN

Dear Fellow Air Products Shareholders:

On January 23^rd, you will cast your vote to determine the future of your Company. On the ballot you can make one of two choices.

The stakes could not be higher. We think the choice is clear:

If Mantle Ridge were to unseat our CEO, Lead Independent Director or two other highly qualified directors from your Board, it could create extraordinary confusion among many of our stakeholders as to the future direction and leadership of the Company, and put our long-term performance at risk. Allowing Mantle Ridge to unwind our capital projects would needlessly cost shareholders billions of dollars, rather than trusting your Board – who with the addition of our two new nominees at our 2025 Annual Meeting will have six of nine directors appointed in the past five years if elected – to continue to sign off-take agreements and undertake an orderly CEO transition. 

There is no middle ground – appointing any of Mantle Ridge's nominees could impede our ability to deliver you the long-term shareholder value that the Company has been positioning for. Protect your investment and the future of the Company by voting the WHITE proxy card "FOR" ONLY Air Products' full slate of director nominees. Please discard any blue proxy card you may receive from Mantle Ridge.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

The Air Products Board of Directors

For more information regarding our Board nominees and strategy, please visit: www.voteairproducts.com.

YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT. Whether or not you plan to virtually attend the 2025 Annual Meeting, please take a few minutes now to vote by Internet or by telephone by following the instructions on the WHITE proxy card, or to sign, date and return the enclosed WHITE proxy card in the enclosed postage-paid envelope provided. Regardless of the number of Company shares you own, your presence by proxy is helpful to establish a quorum and your vote is important.

OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS UNANIMOUSLY RECOMMENDS A VOTE "FOR" ONLY AIR PRODUCTS' NINE NOMINEES AND PROPOSALS ON THE ENCLOSED WHITE PROXY CARD.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE:APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 80 years focused on serving energy, environmental, and emerging markets and generating a cleaner future. The Company supplies essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, medical and food. As the leading global supplier of hydrogen, Air Products also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world's largest clean hydrogen projects, supporting the transition to low- and zero-carbon energy in the industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors. Through its sale of equipment businesses, the Company also provides turbomachinery, membrane systems and cryogenic containers globally.

Air Products had fiscal 2024 sales of $12.1 billion from operations in approximately 50 countries and has a current market capitalization of about $65 billion. Approximately 23,000 passionate, talented and committed employees from diverse backgrounds are driven by Air Products' higher purpose to create innovative solutions that benefit the environment, enhance sustainability and reimagine what's possible to address the challenges facing customers, communities, and the world. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook or Instagram.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This communication contains certain financial measures that are not prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"), including adjusted EPS and adjusted EBITDA margin. On our website, at investors.airproducts.com, we have included reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. Management believes these non-GAAP financial measures provide investors, potential investors, securities analysts, and others with useful information to evaluate our business because such measures, when viewed together with our GAAP disclosures, provide a more complete understanding of the factors and trends affecting our business. The non-GAAP financial measures supplement our GAAP disclosures and are not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the most directly comparable measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. These measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies.

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication contains "forward-looking statements" within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management's expectations and assumptions as of the date of this communication and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including the risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024 and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based.

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SOURCE Air Products