The complete history of the development of The - The Linde Group

80
1998 1999
Gerhard Schröder (SPD) unseats Helmut Kohl
(CDU) after 16 years as German Chancellor.
Takeover of AGA
The most lasting business decision of the recent past was the
December 1999 takeover, under the leadership of Gerhard Full,
of the Swedish gas company Aktiebolag Gasaccumulator AB
(AGA), which was finally approved by the European Commission
in February 2000.
This acquisition has brought the company a decisive step
closer to the strategic goal of strengthening its gas business
outside Europe. Linde thus became the world’s fourth-largest
gas supplier. It maintains a total of 17,420 employees (as of
2003) in this area in 45 countries.
Linde had been holding purchase negotiations with both
Messer Griesheim and AGA since mid-1999. When the EU Commission
was unwilling to approve a takeover of Messer Griesheim,
Linde concentrated on the Swedish AGA AB, whose gas
business – primarily in Scandinavia, the US and Latin America –
represented an ideal addition.
The two companies were a good fit with one another, and
not only in their regional focal points. They also had a similar
history and corporate culture. This helped to make the merger
go as smoothly as possible. AGA brought 1.7 billion euro in
sales and 9,500 employees to Linde.
After the takeover was approved by the EU Commission –
with certain conditions – trading of AGA shares was officially
ended. Since July 1, 2000, AGA, has been fully integrated in the
Linde Group. This brought about a rise in sales for the Technical
Gases division in 2000 of some 134 percent, from 1.6 billion
to 3.8 billion euro.
Group sales revenues increased 36.4 percent to 8.45 billion
euro during the first fiscal year after the takeover. After the
successful integration, the Executive Board of Linde AG merged
the two former segments Technical Gases and Facilities Engineering
into the Gas and Engineering Business Segment, thus
creating the conditions needed to efficiently use the various synergies
between these two areas, such as in expanding on-site
business. The value of this close connection can be seen in the
project surrounding the new helium production plant in Skikda,
Algeria, which is being built by Linde Engineering while Linde
Gas handles the marketing of the helium produced there.
Growth market: healthcare
Vladimir Putin becomes Russian
President, unseating Boris Yeltsin.
With the AGA takeover, Linde also strengthened its position in
a market segment that will become more and more important
to the company in the years to come: the healthcare sector, or
sales of medical gases.
AGA was successful in this area since as early as the 1930s,
above all in the institutional segment, which means especially
in supplying hospitals with medical gases. Linde too was active
early on with a similar program, but this sector had not been a
priority within the Gas Division for some time.
Today, Linde is one of the world’s leading suppliers of medical
gases in this market, which, with annual growth rates of 10
to 15 percent, is among the highest-growth markets in the gas
industry. We do business in four areas: Institutional, Respiratory
Homecare, INO Therapeutics und GEMI (Gas Enabled Medical
Innovations). In the institutional segment, the company supplies
clinics, physicians’ practices and rescue services with medical
gases such as oxygen and nitrous oxide as well as the corresponding
services. Respiratory Homecare means supplying patients
who have respiratory disorders with medical oxygen at home
along with the required technical equipment. In its subsidiary
INO Therapeutics, Linde consolidates all activities related to the
product INOmax, a special gas product that is an effective tool
for treating newborns with respiratory failure.