Ancora Releases Presentation Highlighting the Opportunity for a Value-Maximizing, Competitive Sale Process at Ashland Inc.

Key Terms

ev/ebitda financial

EV/EBITDA is a valuation ratio that compares a company’s total market value including debt and cash (enterprise value) to its operating cash profit before financing and accounting adjustments (EBITDA). It tells investors how many years of that operating cash profit would be needed to pay for the whole business, making it useful for comparing how cheaply or expensively different companies trade regardless of size or financing. Think of it like comparing the price of a rental property to its annual rent to judge value.

sum-of-the-parts valuation financial

A sum-of-the-parts valuation breaks a company into its separate businesses or assets, assigns a value to each one as if it were standalone, and adds those values together to estimate the company’s overall worth. Investors use it like totalling individual items at a garage sale to see whether the market price reflects the combined value, helping spot hidden value, potential spin-offs, or when one division is masking another’s performance.

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Believes Ashland’s High-Margin, Strategically Scarce Assets Are Being Undervalued by the Public Markets in the Face of Near-Term Growth and Execution Issues

Urges Ashland’s Board to Conduct a Full Review of Strategic Alternatives, Including Evaluating Sale Options Following Apparent Interest from Standard Industries as Well as Other Strategic and Private Equity Buyers

Releases Presentation Outlining How a Sale Could Yield ~$76 Per Share or More, Representing a More Than 33% Premium and Likely the Best Risk-Adjusted Path Forward

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Ancora Holdings Group, LLC (collectively with its affiliates, “Ancora”) today released a presentation (available here) detailing what it believes is a near-term opportunity to realize the intrinsic value of Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH) (“Ashland” or the “Company”) through a sale of the Company. Ancora plans to engage in a constructive and open dialogue with Ashland to gauge the Board of Directors’ willingness to evaluate the Company’s standalone prospects versus a potentially value-maximizing sale to one of the many logical strategic or private equity acquirers in the space.

Highlights of the presentation include:

• Significant Mismatch Between Business Quality & Current Valuation: Ashland has the ultimate scarcity value of an established platform with diversified end market exposure, high-margin assets, long qualification cycles and high switching costs. The Life Sciences and Personal Care segments are Ashland’s crown jewels, representing ~75%-80% of the Company’s total EBITDA and generating stable EBITDA margins in the high-20s. These are differentiated, hard-to-displace ingredient businesses in resilient consumer end markets where Ashland holds both technology leadership and market share, providing the Company with deep customer relationships and product stickiness. Despite these fundamental strengths, the public markets continue to value Ashland at a conglomerate discount – the Company currently trades at ~9.6x EV/EBITDA, substantially below its historical median of ~11.0x and the ~13.8x median of comparable precedent transactions.

• Existing Strategic Pressure: Chief Executive Officer Guillermo Novo transformed the business into a pure-play specialty chemical company during the first three years of his tenure via the sale of non-core assets, targeted cost rationalization efforts, deleveraging and share repurchases. However, the Company then pivoted to an investment-led organic growth strategy that has failed to deliver any volume benefits over the past three and a half years. Execution has deteriorated seemingly every quarter as Ashland has missed consensus estimates in four of the last five quarters. In the 24 hours following the disclosure of Ashland’s disappointing 2Q26 earnings, the Company’s share price fell by nearly 15%, demonstrating that investors have little confidence in Ashland’s standalone path forward.¹

• Clear Path to a Competitive Sale Process: Standard Industries’ investment arm already owns ~9.9% of the Company and has a history of accumulating small stakes before subsequently taking companies private, including W.R. Grace in 2021. Ancora’s due diligence indicates there is also currently meaningful interest in Ashland from other potential strategic acquirers and sponsors, which could set the stage for a competitive process.

• Potential for a Value-Maximizing Outcome: We estimate a take-out of Ashland could be executed at a base case 11.5x multiple, representing at least $76.47 per share or a 33.1% premium to the current share price.² Our sum-of-the-parts valuation of $81.39 per share (41.6% upside) corroborates the take-out base case and provides an independent anchor for Ashland being fairly valued at above $80 during a competitive process.

About Ancora

Founded in 2003, Ancora Holdings Group, LLC offers integrated investment advisory, wealth management, retirement plan services and insurance solutions to individuals and institutions across the United States. The firm is a long-term supporter of union labor and has a history of working with union groups and public pension plans to deliver long-term value. Ancora’s comprehensive service offering is complemented by a dedicated team that has the breadth of expertise and operational structure of a global institution, with the responsiveness and flexibility of a boutique firm. Ancora Alternatives is the alternative asset management division of Ancora Holdings Group, investing across three primary strategies: activism, multi-strategy and commodities. For more information about Ancora Alternatives, please visit www.ancoraalts.com.

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1 FactSet. The Company’s share price closed at $57.00 on 4/28/26 before it reported 2Q26 earnings after market close. The Company’s share price closed at $49.15 on 4/29/26, the day following 2Q26 earnings,

2 Company’s share price was $57.46 as of 6/8/26 market close.

 

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260609836160/en/

Longacre Square Partners LLC
ancora@longacresquare.com

Source: Ancora Holdings Group, LLC