Air Liquide Sees 2016 Profitability Rising on Airgas Acquisition
August 01 2016 - 2:57AM
Dow Jones News
By Inti Landauro
PARIS--French industrial gas supplier Air Liquide SA (AI.FR) on
Monday said its profitability would be lifted this year by its $10
billion acquisition of U.S. rival Airgas.
The company said its earnings-per-share in 2016 will be higher
than the 5.12 euros ($5.72) reported in 2015, including the impact
of its planned sale of up to EUR3.5 billion worth of new shares
later this year.
In the first half of the year, Air Liquide's net profit fell
4.5% to EUR811 million, mainly because of costs of EUR92 million
related to the Airgas merger. Revenue rose 2.2% to EUR8.30 billion,
which included five weeks of sales from Airgas valued at EUR511
million.
Air Liquide said the capital gains it expects to make on some
Airgas assets being sold for anti-trust reasons will more than
offset costs related to the acquisition.
Air Liquide said most of its business lines grew during the
first half of the year.
In 2015, it offered to buy Airgas for $10 billion in a deal that
valued the U.S. company at $13 billion when factoring its debt. The
French company said it will finance the acquisition with debt and
the sale of between EUR3 billion and EUR3.5 billion in new
shares.
-Write to Inti Landauro at inti.landauro@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 01, 2016 02:42 ET (06:42 GMT)
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