Ashland Inc., incorporated on March 15, 2004, is engaged in specialty chemicals, and through Valvoline, is a consumer-branded lubricant supplier. The Company provides products, services and solutions to customers in various industries in over 100 countries. The Company operates in three segments: Ashland Specialty Ingredients (Specialty Ingredients), Ashland Performance Materials (Performance Materials) and Valvoline. Its chemistry is used in various markets and applications, including architectural coatings, adhesives, automotive, construction, energy, food and beverage, personal care and pharmaceutical.

Ashland Specialty Ingredients

The Company’s Specialty Ingredients segment is engaged in providing cellulose ethers, vinyl pyrrolidones and biofunctionals. Its Specialty Ingredients uses natural, synthetic and semisynthetic polymers derived from plant and seed extract, acrylic polymers, as well as polyester and polyurethane-based adhesives. The Specialty Ingredients segment includes two divisions: Consumer Specialties and Industrial Specialties. These divisions offer solutions for consumer and industrial applications. Its customers include pharmaceutical companies; makers of personal care products, food and beverages; manufacturers of paint, coatings and construction materials; packaging and converting, and oilfield service companies.

The Consumer Specialties division includes the oral care, hair care, skin care, home care, and pharmaceutical and nutrition portfolios. Its portfolio of oral care products delivers active ingredients in toothpaste and mouthwashes; provides bio adhesive functionality for dentures; delivers flavor, texture and other functional properties, and provides product binding to ensure form and function throughout product lifecycle. Its portfolio of hair care products includes advanced styling polymers, fixatives, conditioning polymers, emulsifiers, preservatives and rheology modifiers. Its portfolio of skin care products helps to firm, nourish, revitalize and smooth skin. The Skin Care line also provides sun care products, including ultraviolet (UV) filters, water-resistant agents and thickeners. Its portfolio of products and technologies is used in various cleaning applications, including fabric care, home care and dishwashing. Its products are used in various applications for viscosity enhancement, particle suspension, rheology modification and stabilization. The Company also supplies excipients and tablet coating systems to the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries. The excipients division offers a range of polymers for use as tablet binders, superdisintegrants, sustained-release agents and drug solubilizers, as well as a portfolio of tablet coating systems for immediate-, sustained- and delayed-release applications. Its nutrition portfolio provides functional benefits in areas, such as thickening, texture control, thermal gelation, structure enhancement, water binding and clarification. Its core products include cellulose gums and vinyl pyrrolidone polymers, which are used in a range of offerings for bakery, beverage, dairy, desserts, meat products, pet food, prepared foods, sauces and savory products.

The Industrial Specialties division includes coatings, construction, energy, adhesives and performance specialties. Coatings Specialties offers rheology solutions for waterborne architectural paint and coatings. Its products include hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC), which provides thickening and application properties for interior and exterior paints, and nonionic synthetic associative thickeners (NSATs), which are liquid synthetics for paint and industrial coatings. It also offers performance foam-control agents, surfactants and wetting agents, dispersants and potential of Hydrogen (pH) neutralizers. Construction Specialties is a producer and supplier of cellulose ethers and companion products for the construction industry. These products control properties, such as water retention, open time, workability, adhesion, stabilization, pumping, sag resistance, rheology, strength, appearance and performance in dry-mortar formulations. Energy Specialties is a manufacturer of guar-, synthetic- and cellulosic-based products for drilling fluids, oil-well cement slurries, completion and workover fluids, fracturing fluids and production chemicals. Specialty Ingredients offers the oil and gas industry solutions for drilling, stimulation, completion, cementing and production applications. Adhesives Specialties manufactures and sells adhesive solutions to the packaging and converting, building and construction, and transportation markets, and manufactures and markets specialty coatings and adhesive solutions for use across multiple industries. Its technologies and markets include acrylic polymers for pressure-sensitive adhesives; urethane adhesive for flexible packaging applications; aqueous and radiation-curable adhesives and specialty coatings for printing and converting applications; emulsion polymer isocyanate adhesives for structural wood bonding; elastomeric polymer adhesives for commercial roofing applications; acrylic, polyurethane and epoxy structural adhesives for bonding fiberglass reinforced plastics, composites, thermoplastics and metals in automotive, marine, recreational and industrial applications, and specialty phenolic resins for paper impregnation and friction material bonding. Performance Specialties provides products and services to over 30 industries. The Company offers a range of organo- and water-soluble polymers that are derived from both natural and synthetic resources. Its product lines include derivatized cellulose polymers, synthetics, guar and guar derivatives.

Ashland Performance Materials

The Company’s Performance Materials segment is engaged in providing unsaturated polyester resins and vinyl ester resins. It is also engaged in providing gelcoats, maleic anhydride, butanediol, tetrahydrofuran, N-Methylpyrrolidone and other intermediates and solvents. Its customers include manufacturers of residential and commercial building products; industrial product specifiers and manufacturers; wind blade and pipe manufacturers; automotive and truck original equipment manufacturer (OEM) suppliers; boat builders; engineered plastics and electronic producers, and specialty chemical manufacturers. It markets and distributes its products directly and through third-party distributors in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

The Company’s Performance Materials segment consists of two divisions: Composites and Intermediates/Solvents. The Composites division manufactures and sells a range of unsaturated polyester and vinyl ester resins, gelcoats and low-profile additives for the reinforced plastics industry. Its markets include the transportation, construction, marine and infrastructure end markets. Performance Materials’ composite products provide an array of functional properties, including corrosion resistance, fire retardance, ultraviolet resistance, water and chemical resistance. In addition, the division also manufactures and sells molten maleic anhydride for the manufacture of a range of products, such as unsaturated polyester resins, copolymers, lubricating oil additives, alkenyl succinic anhydrides, malic acid, fumaric acid and numerous derivative chemicals.

The Intermediates/Solvents division is a producer of 1,4 butanediol and its derivatives, including tetrahydrofuran and n-methylpyrrolidone. These products are used as chemical intermediates in the production of engineering polymers and polyurethanes, and as specialty process solvents in a range of applications, including electronics, construction and active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacture. Butanediol is also supplied to Specialty Ingredients for use as a raw material.

Valvoline

The Company’s Valvoline segment is engaged in producing and distributing automotive, commercial and industrial lubricants, and automotive chemicals. The brand operates and franchises approximately 940 Valvoline Instant Oil Change centers in the United States. It also markets Valvoline lubricants and automotive chemicals; MaxLife lubricants created for higher-mileage engines; SynPower synthetic motor oil, and Zerex antifreeze. Its customers include retail auto parts stores and mass merchandisers who sell to consumers; installers, such as car dealers, repair shops and quick lubes; commercial fleets, and distributors.

The Valvoline segment is composed of various markets, including Do It Yourself (DIY), Installer Channels, Valvoline Instant Oil Change and Valvoline International. The DIY unit sells Valvoline and other branded and private label products to consumers. Installer Channels unit sells branded products and services to installers, such as car dealers, general repair shops and quick lubes through a network of independent distributors and its direct market operations, as well as national accounts. Valvoline Instant Oil Change provides Valvoline with a presence in the installer channels segment of the passenger car and light truck motor oil market. Valvoline International markets Valvoline, Zerex and other branded products through affiliates, joint ventures, licensees and independent distributors in over 140 countries, and markets products for both consumer and commercial vehicles, and equipment and is served by its plants in the United States, Australia and the Netherlands and by numerous third-party warehouses and toll manufacturers across the world.