# A MESSAGE TO
OUR SHAREHOLDERS

_Source: `DeepSeekOCR_Ardian_pruned_1k/basic-materials-specialty-chemicals/NYSE_CBT_2022/NYSE_CBT_2022.mmd` · pages 2-8_

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A MESSAGE TO
OUR SHAREHOLDERS

Sean D. Keohane
President and Chief Executive Officer

Dear Fellow Shareholders,

As I reflect on the past year, our story at Cabot is one of resilience, transformation, and opportunity. Fiscal 2022 was certainly not without obstacles, as the world experienced the geopolitical shock of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, an associated energy crisis, particularly in Europe, and macroeconomic instability as inflation surged.

Building a resilient organization that can navigate this level of disruption is extremely difficult. However, our employees at Cabot did more than simply navigate the environment. Our team delivered record results and positioned our company to capitalize on transformational growth opportunities. Driven by the adaptability of our teams and leveraging our collaborative culture, we were able to support our customers and deliver innovation to meet their expectations, demonstrate leading shareholder returns, advance our sustainability agenda, and fuel investment in key growth vectors. In doing so, we enter fiscal year 2023 in a position of strength.

I am immensely proud of the accomplishments of our talented global team, and I want to thank them for their passion, perseverance, and commitment to excellence. Our people are unified behind our purpose, which is to improve daily life and enable a more sustainable future. This clarity of purpose, and the diverse range of backgrounds, skills, and experiences that our employees bring to work every day, are what make our company successful.

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"Driven by the adaptability of our teams and leveraging our collaborative culture, we were able to support our customers, innovate for the future, demonstrate improved shareholder returns, make progress on our sustainability journey and fuel investment in key growth vectors."

## DELIVERING A WINNING
GROWTH STRATEGY

At the beginning of the fiscal year, we introduced our 'Creating for Tomorrow' strategy which focuses on a new phase of growth and breakout value creation by leveraging our strengths to lead in performance and sustainability today and into the future. Our focus is on driving advantaged growth, delivering innovative chemistry to address our customer's most pressing application challenges, and relentlessly pursuing continuous improvement in everything that we do. We have made tremendous progress in executing our strategy and are currently tracking ahead of our long-term goals.

The power of our 'Creating for Tomorrow' strategy is evident in our financial performance. Despite a turbulent global environment, we achieved a record level of financial performance for our shareholders in fiscal year 2022.

24% year-over-year increase for Reinforcement Materials EBIT

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11% year-over-year increase for Performance Chemicals EBIT
In our business segments, Reinforcement Materials EBIT increased 24% year-over-year to a record high of $408 million and Performance Chemicals segment EBIT increased 11% year-over-year. Furthermore, we increased revenue by 74% in our Battery Materials product line and generated an 81% EBITDA increase year-over-year. These results were rewarded with total shareholder return of 30% in the fiscal year ended September 30, 2022 which was at the top of our proxy peer group for the 1-year period. Overall, we are very pleased with our performance, which reflects the resilience of our businesses and end-markets, our focus on execution, and the continued momentum in our high growth vectors.

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## CAPITALIZING ON ADVANTAGED
GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES

With 'Creating for Tomorrow,' we are focused on driving advantaged growth by building from our positions of strength and connecting our unique capabilities to end markets that have strong sustainability tailwinds. Over the past year, we have strengthened our industry leading businesses through a relentless focus on commercial and operational excellence. Additionally, we have invested in a pipeline of opportunities across all of our businesses that are driven by compelling growth fundamentals and support the world's sustainability transition.

Paramount among these growth opportunities is battery materials. Led by the transition to electric vehicles, we see a unique opportunity to capitalize on the shift in mobility from internal combustion engines to electric. Our conductive carbon additives play a critical role in

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lithium-ion battery chemistry by efficiently transporting electrons in the charging and discharging of the battery and by enabling greater energy density. We have made a variety of strategic investments over the years to position Cabot to capture the explosive growth of this application and broaden our offerings and capacity in this space. In fiscal year 2020, we acquired a leader in carbon nanotube (CNT) production, which broadened our customer offering beyond conductive carbons. In fiscal year 2022, we completed the first phase of a CNT dispersion capacity expansion at this facility and initiated a capital project to double capacity by 2024. We also completed technical upgrades and commenced operations at our Xuzhou, China specialty carbons plant, which allows us to optimize our production and support the growth of battery materials. We acquired a new facility in Tianjin, China with plans to upgrade this facility with technology to produce battery material products to enable a fast and capital efficient capacity expansion to meet our battery customers' growth expectations. I believe that our strategic investments, strong global footprint, technical expertise, and track record of performance give us a strong "right-to-win" in the battery materials space.

As we look to the future, we see that sustainability-driven macro trends will continue to drive a transformation in the way we invest, innovate, and operate.

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## DRIVING OUR
SUSTAINABILITY AMBITIONS

Sustainability is central to our 'Creating for Tomorrow' strategy, and this past year has been about evolving and further integrating our sustainability agenda into our business processes. We recognize that the way we do business and the actions we take are important for the future strength of Cabot and we are committed to continued leadership in this respect.

As a company, we have long been focused on reducing our environmental impact and this commitment is reflected in our 2025 sustainability goals. Fiscal year 2022 marked another year of important progress towards these goals and I encourage our shareholders to learn more about our accomplishments in our most recent sustainability report. While our focus is on achievement of our 2025 goals as a foundation for long-term progress, we strive to continue to elevate our aspirations. To this end, we announced our ambition to achieve net zero emissions globally by 2050. This aspiration requires a long-term strategic view of our business, partnership with customers and suppliers across our value chains, and a multi-faceted approach to technology development.

The progress we are making on our sustainability journey has been recognized by a range of third-party organizations. For the second consecutive year, we earned a platinum rating from EcoVadis, the highest recognition available. EcoVadis is the world's largest provider of business sustainability ratings and many

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GROW
Investing
for advanced
growth.
OUR STRATEGY
Creating for Tomorrow
We will leverage our strengths to lead in performance and sustainability – today and into the future.

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INNOVATE
Developing innovative
products and processes
that enable a better future.
OPTIMIZE
Driving continuous
improvement in
everything we do.

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of our customers rely on the organization to measure the sustainability progress of their supply chain partners. We were also named to the "America's Most Responsible Companies 2022" list by Newsweek for the third consecutive year, and to Investor's Business Daily's (IBD) "100 Best ESG Companies" for the second consecutive year.

We do not consider a focus on sustainability as an isolated activity, but as an integral part of our daily work and management practices. We will continue to innovate and develop new ways of integrating sustainability practices into our business and strategic objectives by developing sustainable solutions to meet ever-evolving customer needs, collaborating across our supply chains, and reducing the environmental impacts of our operations. Our sustainability priorities are informed by engagement with our stakeholders. Through regular dialogue, education, and continuous improvement, we aim to create a sustainability program that is well positioned to anticipate and react to economic, social, environmental, and regulatory changes.

## CREATING FOR TOMORROW

At Cabot, success is defined by living our purpose and executing on our strategy. With investments in new products and technologies, we plan to not only further increase our presence in high growth, high value markets, such as lithium-ion batteries, which are supported by positive sustainability tailwinds, but also continue to win in our core markets.

Our people and our culture are the driving force behind everything we do, and I am honored to lead a company that is comprised of such passionate and committed people. As I reflect on the accomplishments of the past year, I am convinced that we have the right strategy in place to deliver growth and breakout value creation for our shareholders. I am excited about what lies ahead for Cabot as we work toward "Creating for Tomorrow."

I would like to close by thanking our customers for their continued support of our company and our shareholders, for your continued trust and confidence in Cabot, our strategy, and our team.

I look forward to what we will accomplish in 2023 and beyond.

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