Air Products recently announced it has signed a definitive agreement to sell the Performance Materials Division (PMD) of its Materials Technologies segment to Evonik Industries AG for $3.8 billion in cash.

Under the terms of the agreement, operational facilities, supplier contracts, labs, contracts, customers, and employees and certain legal entities associated with PMD would transfer to Evonik. Evonik reportedly intends to continue to run PMD from Allentown, Pa. The sale is expected to close before the end of 2016.

In addition, Air Products reportedly intends to spin off its Electronic Materials Division (EMD) to shareholders as a separate public company, called Versum Materials. Air Products is on track to separate EMD by the end of September and will continue to evaluate whether debt and equity market conditions are favorable for a tax-free spin-off.

"The sale of PMD is consistent with the long-term strategy for Air Products that we announced in September 2014," said Seifi Ghasemi, chairman, president and CEO. "I am very pleased that PMD has a great future ahead of it as a core business of a company which is even larger than Air Products.

"As for the balance of our Materials Technologies segment, I am also very excited about the future of EMD, which we currently intend to spin-off as a new, world-class public company named Versum Materials. Guillermo Novo will be the CEO of the new company, and I will be non-executive chairman of Versum Materials while maintaining my current roles at Air Products.

For more information, visit www.airproducts.com.