In the transaction, Airgas will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air Liquide. Combining Air Liquide and Airgas will bring together two highly complementary businesses to deliver greater value, service and innovation to customers in North America and around the world.
In the U.S., Airgas’ leadership in the packaged gases business and associated products and services and Air Liquide’s strong footprint in complementary activities will increase the scope and competitiveness of the combined companies’ product offering. This acquisition gives Air Liquide a greater presence in the U.S. market, the largest for industrial gases worldwide, and will ideally position Air Liquide for future growth.
In addition, there is potential for further growth using Airgas’ footprint to accelerate the deployment of Air Liquide’s technologies.The combination builds on Air Liquide’s longstanding track record of successfully operating in the U.S. and will benefit from Airgas’ unmatched national presence and its more than 1 million customers in the U.S., as well as from its leading customer-facing platform including e-commerce and telesales capabilities.
The combined entity will be able to better serve customers with the most advanced multi-distribution networks in the U.S. and more competitive product offerings thanks to an integrated upstream-downstream model.The acquisition will reinforce Air Liquide’s global leadership position, increasing Gas & Services sales by around + 30 %.
Upon completion of the acquisition, the combined company will be the leader in North America, complementing number one positions in Europe, Africa/Middle East and Asia-Pacific. It will also be number one in Industrial Merchant and Large Industries, and co-number one in Electronics, worldwide.