Ashland has signed of a final agreement for the sale of Ashland Water Technologies to a fund managed by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, i.e. a private investment company which aims at generating financial returns through the identification of the strongest and most profitable business areas. Since its establishment in 1978, CD & R has managed the investment of over 19 billion dollars in 59 companies for a total transaction value of over 90 billion dollars. The transaction is worth about 1.8 billion dollars and might be finalized by the end of Ashland fiscal year, i.e. 30th September 2014 with the corresponding legal approvals. From the sale the company expects net revenues worth about 1.4 billion dollars in total, whereby this amount will first be used to return capital to shareholders through share buy-back. In line with this goal, the company board of directors immediately authorized a programme for share buy-back worth 1.35 billion dollars. The new share buy-back programme will expire on 31st December 2015.
