Praxair to Buy Linde for $35 Billion in Industrial-Gas Deal
Praxair Inc. agreed to buy Linde AG for about 33.9 billion euros ($35.1 billion) to create the world’s largest supplier of industrial gases, three months after a previous attempt failed on concern over job losses in Germany.
Shares of Danbury, Connecticut-based Praxair will be converted one for one into stock in a new company that will begin an offer to buy Munich-based Linde, the companies said Tuesday in a statement. Linde holders will receive stock that values the company at about 182.66 euros a share, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s about 31 percent higher than where Linde traded in mid-August, before reports the companies were in talks.
Praxair won over Linde’s board by agreeing to keep operations in Munich and preserve jobs. Linde guaranteed no forced layoffs until 2022, according to a union statement last week. The companies described the deal as a merger of equals, and took steps to avoid the appearance of a Praxair acquisition of Linde. The combined entity will bear the Linde name and its stock will be listed in New York and Frankfurt. Praxair Chief Executive Officer Steve Angel and Linde Chairman Wolfgang Reitzle will keep the same titles.
Praxair has a handful of facilities in the Houston area, while Linde recently moved into the Houston Energy Corridor in the newly named Linde Plaza — previously Jacobs Plaza. Linde moved more than 150 workers to the new space, including some from Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. Linde and Praxair are both top competitors of France-based Air Liquide, which expanded last year into its new, two-building Americas headquarters in the Memorial City area of Houston.
Read more: http://fuelfix.com/blog/2016/12/20/praxair-to-buy-linde-for-35-billion-in-industrial-gas-deal/
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