PITTSBURGH, PA--(Marketwired - January 20, 2015) - Koppers Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: KOP), announced today that it has reached an agreement to sell its U.S. utility pole business to Cox Industries, Inc. for an undisclosed sales price. Revenues for this business for year 2014 were approximately $43 million.
The transaction does not include the sale of Koppers wood treating facility located in Florence, South Carolina (Florence) which was the primary production facility for this business. The Florence facility, which also treats railroad crossties and other railroad products, will remain with Koppers and will continue to provide products and services for the company's railroad customers.
Tom Loadman, vice president of Railroad and Utility Products and Services, said, "After conducting a strategic review, we determined that a divestiture of our U.S. utility business was the best long-term alternative for Koppers. The focus of our U.S. Railroad and Utility Products and Services business over the past several years has been on growing our presence in the railroad maintenance-of-way market. This is evidenced by our acquisitions of the Portec rail joint business, the Ashcroft tie-treating business, and the Osmose Railroad Structures business. The continued allocation of shared resources to the U.S. utility business would not advance our current business strategy. I would like to thank our customers for trusting Koppers to serve you and our employees for your many contributions and years of dedicated service."
Leroy Ball, president and CEO of Koppers, said, "One of the most important attributes of Koppers is the leading market shares that we hold in almost every geographic region where we do business. The U.S. utility market is an exception to that attribute. We believe that the resources needed to achieve our desired level of success and the obstacles that we would need to overcome to achieve such success make growing this business a less than optimal strategy for Koppers. This transaction will allow us to take the financial, physical, and human capital that was used in this business and redeploy it within Koppers. We remain proud of our contributions to the industry and are pleased to find a good home for the business, our customers, and the Koppers employees who have served them so well for all these years. We remain committed to our utility business in Australia and expect that it will continue to remain a part of Koppers for many years to come."
About Koppers
Koppers, with corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is an integrated global producer of carbon compounds, chemicals, and treated wood products and services for the aluminum, railroad, specialty chemical, utility, rubber, concrete, steel, residential lumber, and agriculture industries. Including our joint ventures, we serve our customers through a comprehensive global manufacturing and distribution network, with facilities located in North America, South America, Australasia, China and Europe. The stock of Koppers Holdings Inc. is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "KOP." For more information, visit us on the Web: www.koppers.com. Questions concerning investor relations should be directed to Michael J. Zugay at 412 227 2231 or Michael W. Snyder at 412 227 2131.
Safe Harbor Statement
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on management's current expectations, estimates and projections. All statements that address expectations or projections about the future, including statements about the company's strategy for growth, product development, market position, expected expenditures and financial results are forward-looking statements. Some of the forward-looking statements may be identified by words like "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "intends," "projects," "indicates," and similar expressions. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors, including those discussed more fully elsewhere in this release and in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Koppers, particularly its latest annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q, as well as others, could cause results to differ materially from those stated. These factors include, but are not limited to, changes in the laws, regulations, policies and economic conditions, including inflation, interest and foreign currency exchange rates, of countries in which the Company does business; competitive pressures; the loss of one or more key customer or supplier relationships; customer insolvencies; successful integration of structural changes, including restructuring plans, acquisitions, divestitures and alliances; cost and availability of raw materials; and other economic, business, competitive, regulatory and/or operational factors affecting the business of Koppers generally.