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available or losses are sustained in excess of recorded amounts, adjustments are charged against income at that<br />
time. Management does not anticipate that in the aggregate such losses would have a material adverse effect on<br />
the company’s consolidated financial position or liquidity; however, it is possible that the final outcomes could<br />
have a material impact on the company’s reported results of operations.<br />
<strong>Praxair</strong> is subject to various claims, legal proceedings and government investigations that arise from time to<br />
time in the ordinary course of business. These actions are based upon alleged environmental, tax, antitrust and<br />
personal injury claims, among others (see Note 18 to the consolidated financial statements). Such contingencies<br />
are significant and the accounting requires considerable management judgments in analyzing each matter to<br />
assess the likely outcome and the need for establishing appropriate liabilities and providing adequate disclosures.<br />
<strong>Praxair</strong> believes it records and/or discloses such potential contingencies as appropriate and has reasonably<br />
estimated its liabilities.<br />
NEW ACCOUNTING STANDARDS<br />
See Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements for information concerning new accounting standards<br />
and the impact of the implementation of these standards on the company’s financial statements.<br />
Fair Value Measurements<br />
<strong>Praxair</strong> does not expect changes in the aggregate fair value of its financial assets and liabilities to have a<br />
material impact on the consolidated financial statements. See Note 13 to the consolidated financial statements.<br />
NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES<br />
The company presents the following non-GAAP financial measures in Items 6 and 7 of this annual report on<br />
Form <strong>10</strong>-K. These measures are intended to supplement investors’ understanding of the company’s financial<br />
information by providing measures which investors, financial analysts and management use to help evaluate the<br />
company’s financing leverage, return on net assets employed and operating performance. Special items which the<br />
company does not believe to be indicative of on-going business trends are excluded from these calculations so<br />
that investors can better evaluate and analyze historical and future business trends on a consistent basis.<br />
Definitions of these non-GAAP measures may not be comparable to similar definitions used by other companies<br />
and are not a substitute for similar GAAP measures.<br />
Year ended December 31, 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004<br />
After-tax return on capital (a) ................................... 15.3% 15.3% 14.5% 12.9% 12.5%<br />
Return on equity (a) ........................................... 26.8% 24.6% 23.1% 21.2% 20.4%<br />
Debt-to-capital ............................................... 53.8% 43.4% 39.9% 45.6% 47.9%<br />
(a) Effective in 2008, the company changed its methodology for calculating the ROC and ROE to use a trailing<br />
five-quarter average of the ending capital and shareholders’ equity balances, respectively. The company<br />
believes using the average ending balances for the previous five quarters more accurately reflects the<br />
changes in the capital and shareholders’ equity balances over the course of the year. Full year ROC and<br />
ROC calculations for prior periods have been restated to reflect the current methodology.<br />
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