“‘[O]n Combat Arms, we don’t believe we did anything wrong, or Arrow didn’t do anything wrong.” – 3M Chief Financial Officer Monish Patolawala 3M Company CFO Monish Patolawala said this at the JP Morgan Industrial Conference. in New York, according to a transcript provided by AlphaSense. Wall Street seems a bit skeptical, however, as shares of consumer, industrial and healthcare products company MMM, which makes Post-It notes, Scotch brand adhesives and N95 masks, fell 0.7% to a 10-year low of $102.78. JPMorgan Chase analyst Stephen Tusa told Patolawalla that he believes the stock currently reflects “tens of billions of dollars” of risk surrounding combat arms liabilities. The company has been facing lawsuits related to Combat Arms earplugs for the past year. The plaintiffs allege that use of the earplugs, which 3M sold to the military, resulted in hearing loss and tinnitus. 3M recently published data that disputes the claims. In July 2022, 3M’s subsidiary Aearo Technologies, which made the earplugs and which 3M acquired in 2008, voluntarily filed for bankruptcy to set up a trust to settle all claims, and 3M pledged $1 billion to the trust. In February, attorneys for the plaintiffs filed to dismiss what they called a “contrived” bankruptcy. 3M stock closed Wednesday at its lowest price since February 2013. It has tumbled 15.5% over the past three months, making it the worst performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.87%.
