OREANDA-NEWS. Ashland Inc. ("Ashland") today announced the launch of the Valvoline Inc. ("Valvoline") initial public offering of 30,000,000 shares of Valvoline's common stock. The offering is being made pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Valvoline expects to grant the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 4,500,000 shares of its common stock to cover over-allotments, if any. After the completion of the offering, Ashland will own 170,000,000 shares of Valvoline's common stock, representing 85% of the total outstanding shares of Valvoline's common stock (or approximately 83% if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full). Valvoline has applied for its common stock to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "VVV."

BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering and representatives of the underwriters. Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan are also acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Scotiabank is acting as senior co-manager for the offering and BTIG, Mizuho Securities, PNC Capital Markets LLC and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey are acting as co-managers for the offering.

About Ashland
Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH) is a global leader in providing specialty chemical solutions to customers in a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including adhesives, architectural coatings, automotive, construction, energy, food and beverage, personal care and pharmaceutical. Through our three business units - Ashland Specialty Ingredients, Ashland Performance Materials and Valvoline - we use good chemistry to make great things happen for customers in more than 100 countries.