VALVOLINE INC

CRITICAL ACCOUNTING ESTIMATES

The preparation of Valvoline’s consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, sales and expenses, and the disclosures of contingent matters. Significant items that are subject to such estimates and assumptions include, but are not limited to, employee benefit obligations, business combinations, and income taxes.

Although management bases its estimates on historical experience and various other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, actual results could differ significantly from the estimates under different assumptions or conditions. Valvoline’s significant accounting policies are discussed in Note 2 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The Company believes the accounting estimates listed below are the most critical to aid in fully understanding and evaluating the reported financial results, and require the most difficult, subjective, or complex judgments, resulting from the need to make estimates about the effects of matters that are inherently uncertain.

Employee benefit obligations

Actuarial assumptions

Significant assumptions the Company must review and set annually and at each measurement date related to its pension and other postretirement benefit obligations are:

•Expected long-term return on plan assets — The expected long-term return on plan assets assumption reflects the long-term average rate of return plan assets are expected to earn. This assumption is determined considering each plan's asset allocation targets and overall expected performance, including evaluation of the most recent long-term historical returns, as applicable. The weighted-average long-term expected rate of return on assets assumption was 5.30% for fiscal 2024. The pension plan assets generated an actual weighted-average return of 16.50% in fiscal 2024 primarily driven by the market performance of the plan assets of the qualified pension plans based on the Company’s investment strategy to hedge the movement in liabilities related to changes in discount rates with investments of a matched duration that provide offsetting returns aligned with changes in interest rates. The expected return on plan assets is designed to be a long-term assumption, and therefore, actual returns will be subject to year-to-year variances. For fiscal 2025, the expected rate of return on assets assumption for the qualified pension plans will be 5.20%. The expected long-term return on plan assets assumption has no impact on the reported net liability or net actuarial gains or losses upon remeasurement but does impact the recurring non-service net periodic income recognized ratably throughout the year.

Valvoline’s pension plans hold a variety of investments designed to diversify risk. Plan assets are invested in equity securities, government and agency securities, corporate debt, and other non-traditional assets such as hedge funds. The investment goal of the pension plans is to achieve an adequate net investment return to provide for future benefit payments to its participants. Target asset allocation percentages as of September 30, 2024 for the qualified pension plans were 90% fixed income and 10% equity investments. The qualified pension plans are managed by professional investment managers that operate under investment management contracts that include specific investment guidelines, requiring among other actions, adequate diversification and prudent use of risk management practices such as portfolio constraints relating to established benchmarks. Holding all other assumptions constant, a hypothetical 1.00% change in the expected long-term return on plan assets assumption for the qualified pension plans would impact fiscal 2024 recurring non-service pension income by $13.0 million.

•Discount rate— Reflects the rates at which benefits could effectively be settled and is based on current investment yields of high-quality corporate bonds. Consistent with historical practice, the Company uses an actuarially-developed full yield curve approach, the above mean yield curve, to match the timing of cash flows of expected future benefit payments from the plans by applying specific spot rates along the yield curve to determine the assumed discount rate. Valvoline’s fiscal 2024 expense, excluding actuarial gains and losses, for pension plans was determined using the spot discount rates as of the beginning of the fiscal year. The interest cost discount rates for fiscal 2024 pension expense and other postretirement expense were each 5.92%. The weighted-average discount rate at the end of fiscal 2024 was 4.94% for the pension plans and 4.89% for the postretirement health and life plans.

The following table illustrates the estimated impact on hypothetical pension and other postretirement expense that would have resulted from a one percentage point change in discount rates in isolation of impacts on other significant assumptions in the years ended September 30:

•Mortality — The mortality assumption for Valvoline's U.S. pension and other postretirement plans is utilizes the Society of Actuaries PRI-2012 mortality base tables and a mortality improvement scale that follows the 2024 Trustees Report of the Social Security Administration Intermediate Alternative as reflected in the MSS-2024 improvement scale. Valvoline believes the updated mortality improvement scales provide a reasonable assessment of current mortality trends and is an appropriate estimate of future mortality projections.

Other assumptions, including the rate of compensation increase and healthcare cost trend rate, do not have a significant impact on Valvoline's pension and other postretirement benefit plan costs and obligations based upon current plan provisions that have generally frozen benefits and limited costs.

Business combinations and intangible assets

Income taxes