Ecolab Closes CoolIT Acquisition and Expands AI Cooling Platform as Global High Tech Business Targets $4 Billion by 2030

trusted partner for millions of customers, Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) is a global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services that protect people and the resources vital to life. For more than a century, Ecolab has advanced innovation by integrating science‑based solutions, data‑driven insights, AI technology and world‑class service. This unique combination enables Ecolab to partner with customers to define what best‑in‑class looks like and scale it across their operations, helping them achieve peak performance. Today, Ecolab has $16 billion in annual sales, 48,000 associates and customers in more than 170 countries and 40 industries. The company helps protect one‑third of the world’s food production and a quarter of the power generated while delivering innovative solutions across food, healthcare, data centers, microelectronics, life sciences and hospitality. Ecolab’s comprehensive approach protects what’s vital, aiming by 2030 to help protect 2 billion people from infections and enough drinking water for 1 billion people while enhancing business performance.

www.ecolab.com

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This news release contains certain statements relating to future events and our intentions, beliefs, expectations and predictions for the future which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words or phrases such as “will likely result,” “are expected to,” “will continue,” “is anticipated,” “we believe,” “we expect,” “estimate,” “project,” “may,” “will,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “target,” “forecast” (including the negative or variations thereof) or similar terminology used in connection with any discussion of future plans, actions or events generally identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding macroeconomic conditions and our financial and business performance and prospects, including sales, earnings, special gains and charges, raw material costs, margins, pricing, currency translation, productivity, investments, acquisitions and new business. These statements are based on the current expectations of management of the company. There are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements included in this news release. In particular, the ultimate results of any restructuring initiative depend on a number of factors, including the development of final plans, the impact of local regulatory requirements regarding employee terminations, the time necessary to develop and implement the restructuring initiatives and the level of success achieved through such actions in improving competitiveness, efficiency and effectiveness.

Additional risks and uncertainties that may affect operating results and business performance are set forth under Item 1A of our most recent Form 10-K, and our other public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), and include the impact of economic factors such as the worldwide economy, interest rates, foreign currency risk, reduced sales and earnings in our international operations resulting from the weakening of local currencies versus the U.S. dollar, demand uncertainty, supply chain challenges and inflation; the vitality of the markets we serve; exposure to global economic, political and legal risks related to our international operations, including international trade policies, geopolitical instability and the escalation of armed conflicts; our increasing reliance on artificial intelligence technologies in our products, services and operations; information technology infrastructure failures or breaches in data security; difficulty in procuring raw materials or fluctuations in raw material costs; our ability to successfully execute organizational change and management transitions; the occurrence of severe public health outbreaks not limited to COVID-19; our ability to acquire complementary businesses and to effectively integrate such businesses; our ability to execute key business initiatives; our ability to successfully compete with respect to value, innovation and customer support; pressure on operations from consolidation of customers or vendors; restraints on pricing flexibility due to contractual obligations and our ability to meet our contractual commitments; the costs and effects of complying with laws and regulations, including those relating to the environment, climate change standards, and to the manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and use of our products, as well as to the conduct of our business generally, including labor and employment and anti-corruption; potential safety incidents; potential chemical spill or release; potential to incur significant tax liabilities or indemnification liabilities relating to the separation and split-off of our ChampionX business; the occurrence of litigation or claims, including class action lawsuits; the loss or insolvency of a major customer or distributor; repeated or prolonged government and/or business shutdowns or similar events; acts of war or terrorism; natural or man made disasters; water shortages; severe weather conditions; our commitments, goals, targets, objectives and initiatives related to sustainability, and our public statements and disclosures regarding them; changes in tax laws and unanticipated tax liabilities; potential loss of deferred tax assets; our indebtedness, and any failure to comply with covenants that apply to our indebtedness; potential losses arising from the impairment of goodwill or other assets; and other uncertainties or risks reported from time to time in our reports to the SEC. In light of these risks, uncertainties, assumptions and factors, the forward-looking events discussed in this news release may not occur. We caution that undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Ecolab does not undertake, and expressly disclaims, any duty to update any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information, future events or changes in expectations, except as required by law.

This news release includes financial measures that have not been calculated in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. (“GAAP”), including organic sales, organic gross margin and adjusted diluted earnings per share. We provide these measures as additional information regarding our operating results. We use these non-GAAP measures internally to evaluate our performance and in making financial and operational decisions, including with respect to incentive compensation. We believe that our presentation of these measures provides investors with greater transparency with respect to our results of operations and that these measures are useful for period-to-period comparison of results.

Our non-GAAP financial measures for organic sales and organic gross profit are at fixed currency and exclude the results of our acquired businesses from the first 12 months post acquisition and the results of divested businesses from the 12 months prior to divestiture. Organic gross margin is the ratio of organic gross profit to organic sales. Our non-GAAP financial measures for adjusted diluted earnings per share exclude the impact of special (gains) and charges and discrete tax items. We include items within special (gains) and charges and discrete tax items that we believe can significantly affect the period-over-period assessment of operating results and not necessarily reflect costs and/or income associated with historical trends and future results.

These non-GAAP financial measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative to, GAAP and may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies. Investors should not rely on any single financial measure when evaluating our business. We recommend that investors view these measures in conjunction with the GAAP measures included in this news release.

We do not provide reconciliations for non-GAAP estimates on a forward-looking basis (including those contained in this news release) when we are unable to provide a meaningful or accurate calculation or estimation of reconciling items and the information is not available without unreasonable effort. This is due to the inherent difficulty of forecasting the timing and amount of various items that have not yet occurred, are out of our control and/or cannot be reasonably predicted, and that would impact reported sales, reported gross profit and reported earnings per share, the most directly comparable forward-looking GAAP financial measures to organic sales, organic gross profit and adjusted diluted earnings per share. For the same reasons, we are unable to address the probable significance of the unavailable information.

(ECL-A)

Source: Ecolab Inc.