Grace Announces Five-Year Financial Framework; Sets $2 Billion Adjusted Free Cash Flow Target

COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

W. R. Grace & Co. GRA announced that the company will provide a five-year financial framework for growth and shareholder returns at its investor day, to be held today in New York City. This framework will provide investors with the company's long-term view on sales, earnings and cash flow growth, capital allocation, and shareholder returns.

Leading the investor day presentation will be Fred Festa, chairman and chief executive officer. Festa noted, “We want to provide investors with our five-year framework for continuing to drive shareholder value. We are a high-performing company that benefits from a global market presence with highly valued technologies important to our customers' success. Our strong cash flow and balance sheet support our continued investments in our businesses and a high return to investors.”

Investor Day Presentation on the Web

A live video webcast of Grace's investor day presentation will be held today at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time on the Investors page of www.Grace.com and will be available for replay for six months. Shortly following the event, a transcript will be posted on the Investors page of the website under the Investor Day 2014 navigation tab.

About Grace

Grace is a leading global supplier of catalysts; engineered and packaging materials; and, specialty construction chemicals and building materials. The company's three industry-leading business segments—Grace Catalysts Technologies, Grace Materials Technologies and Grace Construction Products—provide innovative products, technologies and services that enhance the quality of life. Grace employs approximately 6,700 people in over 40 countries and had 2013 net sales of approximately $3.1 billion. More information about Grace is available at www.grace.com.

This announcement contains forward-looking statements, that is, information related to future, not past, events. Such statements generally include the words “believes,” “plans,” “intends,” “targets,” “will,” “expects,” “suggests,” “anticipates,” “outlook,” “continues” or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, expected financial positions; results of operations; cash flows; financing plans; business strategy; operating plans; capital and other expenditures; competitive positions; growth opportunities for existing products; benefits from new technology and cost reduction initiatives, plans and objectives; and markets for securities. For these statements, Grace claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Like other businesses, Grace is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause its actual results to differ materially from its projections or that could cause other forward-looking statements to prove incorrect. Factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements include, without limitation: risks related to foreign operations, especially in emerging regions, including currency exchange rate changes, the cost and availability of raw materials and energy, the effectiveness of its research and development and growth investments, acquisitions and divestitures of assets and gains and losses from dispositions, developments affecting Grace's funded and unfunded pension obligations, its legal and environmental proceedings, costs of compliance with environmental regulation and those additional factors set forth in Grace's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly report on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K, which have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are readily available on the Internet at www.sec.gov. Reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on Grace's projections and forward-looking statements, which speak only as the date thereof. Grace undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revision to the projections and forward-looking statements contained in this announcement, or to update them to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this announcement.