Linde becomes third-most valuable company on DAX stock-exchange after Praxair fusion

Source: Xinhua | 2018-10-30

Industrial gas producer Linde jumped to the third place as the most valuable company listed on the German DAX stock exchange on Monday following the successful conclusion of its corporate merger with U.S. rival Praxair.

Linde was valued at around 147 euros (167 U.S. dollars) per share in Monday's trading on the Frankfurt-based blue-chip stock exchange, giving it a total market capitalization of 81 billion euros. The company was thus ranked in third place behind software producer SAP and Siemens industrial group and ahead of heavyweights such as the insurer Allianz, Volkswagen, and Deutsche Telekom.

Last Monday, Linde and Praxair revealed that they had won approval from anti-trust authorities on their planned merger after protracted negotiations. The two companies had been facing a looming legal deadline in Germany for the successful finalization of the merger on Oct. 24.

Linde and Praxair initially granted each other the right to cancel the deal to create the world's largest industrial gas producer at the last minute if anti-trust authorities demanded they divest business units worth more than 3.7 billion euros in revenue of 1.1 billion euros in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebidta).

Linde and Praxair will both achieve estimated combined gross annual revenue of 24 billion euros, making it the world's single largest industrial gas producer. The new entity, known as Linde plc, must now sell off some U.S. assets until the integration of the companies, and their 80,000 workers, can formally commence. (1 euro=1.14 U.S. dollars)