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Navikas Discusses PPG Business, Financial Performance at Citi Basic Materials Symposium


WEBWIRE

PITTSBURGH, – PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer David B. Navikas yesterday discussed PPG’s business and financial performance at the 2012 Citi Basic Materials Symposium in New York City.

Navikas covered topics such as the transformation of PPG’s business portfolio; growth of PPG’s coatings and specialty materials businesses; acquisitions; growth in emerging regions; separation of PPG’s commodity chemicals business, and its merger with Georgia Gulf Corp.; and PPG’s strong “footprint” in the global coatings industry. He also participated in a question-and-answer session.

Following are excerpts from the presentation:

“We are in the midst of a portfolio transformation ... We’ve taken a series of strategic actions to move our overall portfolio away from a diversified, more commodity-oriented industrial company toward a much more focused coatings and specialty materials company. The strategic actions have included about 50 acquisitions over that time period, mainly in the coating space.”

“As a result of those strategic actions, our coatings and specialty materials businesses have more than doubled in the time period from ’01 to 2011. And they’ve grown significantly as a percentage of our total portfolio, and now those businesses that are our core focus represent 80 percent of our sales.”

“PPG has one of the strongest global footprints in the coatings industry and is the only major coatings company to have a position in each of the major coatings end markets. As a matter of fact, PPG has the No. 1 or No. 2 position in all markets globally with the exception of architectural, where we have a No. 3 position.”

“We also have an excellent global footprint with about one-third of our sales currently in the U.S. and Canada, one-third in Europe, and one-third in the emerging regions of the world. This ... provides us with the opportunity to pursue the best growth prospects around the world.”

“PPG is a margin leader among the major global coatings companies. This is a sustainable advantage, due in part to our strong market positions in the special-purpose coatings end-use markets such as aerospace, automotive OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and refinish, which in the spectrum of margin performances are at the high end of the overall global coatings portfolio. These are the markets which value technology and innovation and typically have higher barriers to entry.”

“Our improved coatings earnings performance is one of the major factors in the record financial performance that we have delivered coming out of the recession, as we have posted nine consecutive quarterly adjusted earnings per share records.”

Visit the Investor Center section of PPG’s website for a webcast replay of Navikas’ presentation.



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