Linde has detailed its plans for the future following its merger with The BOC Group. The new company will trade under the name The Linde Group, although on the operating level, the Linde and BOC brands will remain unchanged. The merger of Linde and BOC into "The Linde Group" creates a world-leading industrial gases and engineering company with an annual pro forma turnover of approximately 12.7 billion euro, operating profit (EBIT) of 1.6 billion euro and approximately 53,000 employees worldwide.
On the completion of the merger, Professor Wolfgang Reitzle, President and Chief Executive Officer of Linde AG, said: "This is an historic day for Linde and BOC. Both companies have a proud history streching back 100 years, and our paths have crossed many times before. Today we are finally coming together to form a world market leader, a true global player. We will approach the upcoming integration process in partnership with BOC, in order to create all the conditions necessary to extract the maximum potential from what is a perfect combination of companies."
Following the successful acquisition of the BOC Group, Linde intends to review strategic options for the divestment of the equipment businesses of the subsidiary BOC Edwards - a leading designer and manufacturer of vacuum pumps, as well as instrumentation and systems for the semiconductor industry. Linde will retain the bulk and electronic gases elements of BOC Edwards and integrate them into The Linde Group organisation, but has hinted that the remaining equipment businesses of BOC Edwards will be sold. The total revenues of the equipment businesses were approximately 800 million euro for the financial year ending September 2005.
"The BOC Edwards equipment businesses have strong positions in their chosen markets, are successful businesses in their own right and will, we believe, prosper whatever their future ownership structure," Professor Reitzle said.
