Forward-looking Statements
This Annual Report on Form 10-K (“Form 10-K”) includes statements that express our opinions, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or projections regarding future events or future results and therefore are, or may be deemed to be, “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “Act”). The following cautionary statements are being made pursuant to the provisions of the Act and with the intention of obtaining the benefits of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Act. The words “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “should” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short- and long-term business operations and objections, and financial needs. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements we make regarding our liquidity, including our belief that our current level of operations, cash and cash equivalents, cash flow from operations and borrowings under our credit facilities and other lines of credit will provide us adequate cash to fund the working capital, capital expenditure, debt service and other requirements for our business for the foreseeable future. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment and new risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed herein may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. Some of the key factors that could cause actual results to differ from our expectations include risks related to:
The forward-looking statements included herein are made only as of the date hereof. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this Form 10-K to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations.
On May 4, 2016, we consummated a series of transactions (the “Business Combination”) to reorganize and combine the businesses of PQ Holdings Inc. (“PQ Holdings”) and Eco Services Operations LLC (“Eco”) under a new holding company, PQ Group Holdings Inc. (“PQ Group Holdings” or the “company”), pursuant to a reorganization and transaction agreement, dated August 17, 2015, as amended, by and among PQ Group Holdings, PQ Holdings, PQ Corporation, Eco, Eco Services Holdings LLC, Eco Services Group Holdings LLC and certain investment funds affiliated with CCMP Capital Advisors, LLC (now known as CCMP Capital Advisors, LP; “CCMP”). We refer to the business of PQ Holdings prior to the Business Combination as “legacy PQ” and the business of Eco prior to the Business Combination as “legacy Eco.” Unless the context otherwise indicates, the terms “PQ Group Holdings Inc.,” “we,”, “us,” “our,” or “the Company” mean PQ Group Holdings Inc. and subsidiaries.
PQ Group Holdings was incorporated in Delaware on August 7, 2015. PQ Holdings, a manufacturer of catalysts, specialty materials and chemicals, was incorporated in Delaware on June 22, 2007. Eco, which acquired substantially all of the assets of Solvay USA Inc.’s sulfuric acid refining services business unit on December 1, 2014 (the “2014 Acquisition”), was incorporated in Delaware on July 30, 2014. Our principal executive offices are located at 300 Lindenwood Drive, Valleybrooke Corporate Center, Malvern, Pennsylvania 19355.
Our Company
We are a leading global provider of catalysts, specialty materials and chemicals, and services that enable environmental improvements, enhance consumer products, and increase personal safety. Our products and solutions help companies produce vehicles with improved fuel efficiency and cleaner emissions. Our materials are critical ingredients in consumer products that make teeth brighter, skin softer, and wounds heal faster. We produce highly engineered materials that make highways and airports safer for drivers and pilots. Because our products are predominantly inorganic and carbon-free, we believe we contribute to improving the sustainability of our planet.
We believe our products deliver significant value to our customers, as demonstrated by our profit margins. Our products, which are mostly additives, catalysts, and services, typically constitute a small portion of our customers’ overall end-product costs yet are critical to product performance. For example, our catalysts are highly technical, customized products that require customer collaboration and significant lead time, resources, and intellectual property to develop. Through this collaborative innovation process, we have developed zeolite-based catalysts that are an effective and efficient method to reduce pollutants in diesel engines and enable our customers to meet increasingly stringent vehicle emission standards worldwide. In personal care applications, we have collaborated with leading consumer products companies over a number of years to develop a family of gentle silica-based dentifrice abrasives that produce more effective cleaning toothpastes. These collaborative efforts with our customers continue to drive our product innovation process.
Our value-added products seek to address global issues that are often either the subject of significant regulations or are driven by consumer preferences, which we believe positions us to grow in excess of gross domestic product growth rates. Consumer preferences and global regulations requiring environmentally friendlier products are at the core of many of our value-added products and, we believe, provide us with high-margin growth opportunities. For example, our products and services facilitate improvement in vehicle fuel efficiency and emissions, enable vehicles to be lighter, and allow tires to roll and engines to run with less friction. The production of higher octane gasoline, which is needed for certain smaller turbocharged engines, has generated additional demand for the alkylation units that use our refinery services.
We have two reporting segments: (1) Environmental Catalysts and Services, and (2) Performance Materials and Chemicals. In our Environmental Catalysts and Services segment, we have three product groups: silica catalysts, zeolite catalysts, and refining services. We operate our zeolite catalyst product group through Zeolyst International and Zeolyst C.V. (our 50% owned joint ventures that we refer to collectively as our “Zeolyst Joint Venture”). In our Performance Materials and Chemicals segment, we have two product groups: performance materials and performance chemicals.
In 2017, we served over 4,000 customers globally across many end uses and, as of December 31, 2017, operated 72 manufacturing facilities which are strategically located across six continents. We believe we are a leader in each of our product groups, holding what we estimate to be a number one or number two supply share position for products that generated more than 90% of our 2017 sales. We believe that our global footprint and efficient network of strategically located manufacturing facilities provide us with a strong competitive advantage in serving our customers. We serve these customers both regionally as well as globally. We believe that we hold our leading supply share positions in the key regions that we serve while also benefiting from leading global presence and capabilities. Within our performance chemicals product group, we estimate that we had approximately three times the sodium silicate supply share of our closest competitor based on 2017 sales volume. This product group, which is the backbone across our additives and catalyst platform, is highly regionalized because of the expense of shipping sodium silicates extended distances due to their water content. Our refining services product group is also a highly regionalized business due to shipping costs and customer integration requirements, and in 2017 we estimate that we had a regenerated sulfuric acid supply share in excess of 50% in the United States, which we believe is substantially larger than our closest competitor. We recently reorganized our business to be market-based rather than product-based in order to better align our product groups with similar end uses to meet our customers’ needs.