# To Our Shareholders

_Source: `DeepSeekOCR_Ardian_pruned_1k/basic-materials-specialty-chemicals/NYSE_NEU_2020/NYSE_NEU_2020.mmd` · pages 4-10_

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To Our Shareholders:

It is my pleasure to share with you my thoughts on the state of our company as we finish 2020. While it was a challenging year, our global team once again demonstrated its resiliency and tenacity in the face of adversity to make it another successful year for the company, and I am proud to see the continued progress as we execute on our long-range strategy. Our "One Team, One Goal" culture resonated across the team as we managed through a very difficult economic environment.

Our company was stress-tested in 2020, as it has been many times in our long history. The COVID-19 pandemic presented a multitude of challenges, from both safety and economic perspectives, specifically. We managed to keep our employees safe and healthy as we continuously ran all of our operations without disruption throughout the entirety of the year, while providing unparalleled offerings and services to our customers. Our "Actively Caring" safety mindset delivered results through positively influencing safety behavior across our global network. Staying true to our long-term philosophy, we continued to invest to ensure we met our customers' expectations with our solutions. We are extremely proud of the operational performance we achieved given the volatility that the COVID-19 pandemic introduced into the global economy.

We had another strong year financially in 2020 and finished the year with modest leverage while putting our strong cash flow to work. In addition to increased investment in our business for future growth, we paid dividends of \(83 million and repurchased over \)100 million of stock. Our priorities for the use of cash remain the same: 1) fund our internal growth needs, 2) pursue acquisitions in petroleum additives, and 3) return cash to our shareholders by paying a healthy dividend and, when appropriate, repurchasing stock. Over the long run, this approach has helped us meet our goal of providing a double-digit return for our shareholders.

As we look forward to 2021, we will continue to monitor government restrictions on the movement of people, goods, and services as well as the status of vaccination programs that are being implemented globally. We are hopeful the vaccinations will help to provide for more stability in the global economy in 2021. Our business decisions will continue to be focused on the long-term success of our company, including emphasis on satisfying customer needs, generating solid operating results, and promoting the greatest long-term value for our shareholders, customers, and employees. We believe the fundamentals of how we run our business – a long-term view, safety and people first culture, customer-focused solutions, technology-driven product offerings, and a world-class supply chain capability – will continue to be beneficial for all our stakeholders.

All in all, 2020 was another good year for our company and our shareholders. We are very proud of how our team performed, and I am proud to be a member of this team. We look forward to another good year in 2021.

Sincerely,

Thomas E. Gottwald
Chairman and CEO

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