PPG Marks Successful 2016, Reports Strong Financials at Annual Meeting

PPG held its annual meeting of shareholders in Pittsburgh, where Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael H. McGarry reviewed the company’s continued strategic progress and highlighted its strong financial performance.

“PPG had a successful year in 2016, achieving 7 percent year-over-year growth in adjusted earnings per diluted share despite a challenging economic environment,” McGarry said. “We deployed $1.4 billion to grow our businesses and reward shareholders, delivering on our two-year cash deployment commitment. In 2015 and 2016 combined, we deployed more than $2.5 billion on acquisitions and share repurchases, achieving the top end of our cash deployment target.”

At the meeting, McGarry highlighted several strategic actions by PPG to make the company stronger and more resilient. This included divesting the flat glass and European fiber glass businesses and PPG’s ownership interest in two Asian fiber glass joint ventures, resulting in approximately $1.1 billion of total cash proceeds. In addition, McGarry noted that PPG completed four acquisitions in 2016 and early January 2017, increasing PPG’s geographic and product scope. He also highlighted PPG’s continued focus on new product development, which includes nearly $500 million in research and development investment in 2016.

McGarry discussed several key sustainability and social responsibility achievements by PPG in 2016, including:

• Safety performance improvement;
• Achievement of goals to reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions four years ahead of 2020 targets, and PPG’s sustainability committee is establishing new goals to drive further results in these key areas;
• A continued increase in the demand for PPG products that provide an environmental benefit to customers; and
• Completion of more than 40 COLORFUL COMMUNITIES projects as part of PPG’s community engagement initiative to bring color and vitality to its communities around the world.

Looking ahead, McGarry said, “We anticipate deploying at least $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion of cash on acquisitions and share repurchases in years 2017 and 2018 combined, as we remain focused on shareholder value creation and we continue to identify acquisition opportunities to strengthen our company. This includes our interest in AkzoNobel. We continue to believe that a combination of PPG and AkzoNobel would result in enhanced financial growth prospects for the combined company in the coming years, which also would accrue to the benefit of all stakeholders of both companies.”

At the meeting, shareholders re-elected directors Stephen Angel, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of Praxair, Inc.; Hugh Grant, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Monsanto Company; Melanie Healey, former group president, North America, of The Procter & Gamble Company; and Michele Hooper, president and chief executive officer of The Directors’ Council and former president and chief executive officer of Voyager Expanded Learning, Inc. Additionally, shareholders passed a non-binding resolution to approve the compensation of the company’s named executive officers, and they ratified the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company’s independent registered public accounting firm for 2017. Finally, shareholders voted to have future advisory votes on executive compensation each year.