Company Announcements

Emmanuel Ligner, Seasoned Leader with Proven Track Record of Value Creation in Life Sciences, to Begin Role as CEO Next Week

RADNOR, Pa. , Aug. 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Avantor, Inc. (NYSE: AVTR), a leading global provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in the life sciences and advanced technology industries, today issued the following statement in response to the letter issued by Engine Capital: 

The Board of Directors is actively engaged in overseeing the setting and execution of the Company's strategy and is committed to always acting in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders. As such, we regularly review the Company's strategic priorities with an eye towards driving growth, expanding margins, and creating sustained shareholder value.

Avantor is uniquely positioned for success based on the breadth of our portfolio to address the research and production environment, our global distribution platform, and our long-standing customer relationships across the life sciences industry.

We are acting with urgency to strengthen growth and profitability in both Laboratory Solutions and Bioscience Production. Over the past 18 months, the Board has overseen the change to a new Chief Executive Officer and a new leader in Lab Solutions, the successful launch of a $400 million cost transformation program, increased transparency and accountability through the resegmentation of the business, and continued portfolio optimization. Further, the Board has overseen a focused capital allocation strategy to reduce leverage by nearly $1.5 billion over the past 18 months.

We are confident in our ability to accelerate execution of our value creation initiatives under the leadership of Emmanuel Ligner, who will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer on August 18, 2025. We look forward to an ongoing dialogue with all our shareholders, including Engine Capital.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Gordon Dyal & Co. are serving as Avantor's financial advisors and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is serving as legal counsel. Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher is serving as strategic communications advisor.

About Avantor

Avantor® is a leading life science tools company and global provider of mission-critical products and services to the life sciences and advanced technology industries. We work side-by-side with customers at every step of the scientific journey to enable breakthroughs in medicine, healthcare, and technology. Our portfolio is used in virtually every stage of the most important research, development and production activities at more than 300,000 customer locations in 180 countries. For more information, visit avantorsciences.com and find us on LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Facebook.

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created thereby under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements discuss our current expectations and projections relating to our financial condition, results of operations, plans, including our cost transformation initiative, objectives, future performance and business. These statements may be preceded by, followed by or include the words "aim," "anticipate," "assumption," "believe," "continue," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "goal," "guidance," "intend," "likely," "long-term," "near-term," "objective," "opportunity," "outlook," "plan," "potential," "project," "projection," "prospects," "seek," "target," "trend," "can," "could," "may," "should," "would," "will," the negatives thereof and other words and terms of similar meaning.

Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions; they are not guarantees of performance. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events. Although we believe that our assumptions made in connection with the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure you that the assumptions and expectations will prove to be correct. Factors that could contribute to these risks, uncertainties and assumptions include, but are not limited to, the factors described in "Risk Factors" in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, as such risk factors may be updated from time to time in our periodic filings with the SEC.

All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. In addition, all forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligations to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise other than as required under the federal securities laws.

Investor Relations Contact
Allison Hosak
Senior Vice President, Global Communications
Avantor
908-329-7281
Allison.Hosak@avantorsciences.com

Media Contact
Eric Van Zanten
Head of External Communications
Avantor
610-529-6219
Eric.Vanzanten@avantorsciences.com 

Joe Sala / Melissa Johnson
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
(212) 355-4449
jsala@joelefrank.com or mjohnson@joelefrank.com 

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