July 25, 2008

Linde Q1 sales up by 7.5%

Linde Group in the first quarter of the 2008 financial year announced that it achieved an increase in sales of 7.5% after adjusting for exchange rate effects, to EUR 2.917 billion and an increase in operating profit after adjusting for exchange rate effects of 11.1% to EUR 602 million.

Linde’s operating profit therefore increased at a faster rate than sales. The operating margin at Group level rose by 70 basis points to 20.6 percent. Synergies arising from the acquisition of BOC contributed to this positive trend. Earnings before taxes on income at the end of March were EUR 239 million. However, this decrease is mainly due to the fact that the figure for the first three months of 2007 included a book profit of EUR 510 million on the sale of businesses.

Professor Dr Wolfgang Reitzle CEO of Linde AG said that "We have seen a solid start to the new financial year and are therefore confident about the remaining part of the year. We confirm our short term and medium term forecasts. We continue to assume that Group sales will increase in the current financial year and that earnings will increase at a faster rate than sales. By 2010, we are seeking to achieve a Group operating earnings of more than EUR 3 billion. We want to achieve a return on capital employed, our key performance indicator, of at least 13% by 2010."