Air Products’ board says ‘executing on a rigorous CEO succession plan’

Air Products (APD)’ board of directors issued the following statement: “Air Products is executing on a rigorous CEO succession plan, announced long before Mantle Ridge and D.E. Shaw started advocating for succession, while refreshing its Board with two highly qualified directors at the 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The Board has clearly articulated a CEO succession plan to ensure a smooth transition between Mr. Ghasemi and his successor and has committed to providing an announcement of a new President and related timeline for CEO succession no later than March 31, 2025. Just a few months ago, Mantle Ridge talked about its ‘…truly profound admiration, gratitude, and affection for Seifi.’ Now Mantle Ridge is attempting to impugn Mr. Ghasemi’s reputation with misinformation. We believe Mantle Ridge’s nominees have been selected, not because their experience is superior to or more relevant than our existing nominees, but rather because of pre-existing relationships with Mr. Hilal or status as loyal Hilal supporters in order to enact his short-term agenda. We cannot overlook multiple media reports that Mantle Ridge nominee, Dennis Reilley, reportedly shared confidential board materials with a neighbor while serving on three public company boards, or Mr. Hilal’s judgment in originally proposing Mr. Reilley to replace Mr. Ghasemi as CEO. None of Mantle Ridge’s nominees are as qualified as Air Products’ nominees, and the addition of any one of them could be to the detriment of our shareholders. Mantle Ridge continuously attempts to manipulate our strong financial results, inaccurately portraying Air Products’ appropriate and industry-standard financial reporting. As fully defined in our Company filings and other materials, Air Products presents profitability metrics in-line with business peers and in a way that enables comparison of our historical performance on a like-for-like basis. The fact remains that the company has industry leading margins and has created $44 billion of shareholder value and an 11% Adjusted EPS CAGR since 2014. The Air Products Board strongly urges shareholders to vote their shares “FOR” ONLY Air Products’ nominees.”