(Last Revised 04/26/01)

Ashland’s performance has been disappointing, significantly trailing the S&P 500 and its own peer group. The conglomerated structure of Ashland has yielded no meaningful administrative cost savings or industrial synergies, and further has made the company difficult to understand and analyze by investors in the financial markets. More importantly, Ashland has no significant core around which to focus, build competencies, and grow shareholder value. Indeed, the company appears to lack direction, shifting focus from oil distribution to specialty chemicals to highway construction in recent years.

In the 1999 proxy statement, Ashland’s management wrote, “In December 1996, Ashland announced an ambitious multi-point plan to improve profitability and strategic focus. . . . Ashland's strategy is to operate a related array of businesses, with a goal to deliver top-quartile total returns to shareholders.”  Unfortunately, Ashland’s multi-point plan and its strategy of conglomeration have failed to deliver shareholder returns that are even positive, let alone “top-quartile.”  In fact, $100 invested in Ashland on the date of the announced plan (12/9/96) would have fallen in value to $88 (7/31/99); whereas $100 would be worth $124 if invested at the average return of the company’s comprising Ashland’s peer group and $185 if invested in the S&P 500 Index.

LENS has file a Shareholder Resolution with Ashland calling for the Board to "immediately engage the services of a nationally recognized investment banker specifically to explore all alternatives to enhance the value of the company, including, but not limited to, possible sale, spin-off, merger, or other transaction for any or all assets of the company."

LENS Letter to Ashland - 8/12/99

LENS Shareholder Resolution - 8/11/99

LENS Letter to Ashland - 4/24/97