The Linde Group is a world-leading industrial gases and engineering group which operates in more than 70 countries and has over 51,000 employees. Following the acquisition of the British company The BOC Group, we restructured The Linde Group, and achieved sales in the 2006 financial year of €8.113 billion based on the new portfolio. This figure includes our interest in BOC from the date it was first consolidated on 5 September 2006 to the year-end.

Our strategy is geared towards earnings-based growth and focuses on the expansion of our international business, based on forward-looking gases applications and plant construction solutions. With our Gist Division, we are also one of the leading providers of logistics services.

Gases Division

The Linde Group is a world leader in the international industrial gases market. We offer a wide range of compressed and liquefied gases as well as chemicals, and we are therefore an important partner for a huge variety of industries. Linde gases are used, for example, in steel production, refining, chemical processing, environmental protection and welding, as well as in food processing, glass production and electronics. We are also investing in the expansion of our fast-growing Healthcare business, i.e. medical gases, and we are a leading global player in the development of environmentally friendly hydrogen technology.

Engineering Division

Our Engineering Division is successful throughout the world, with its focus on promising market segments such as olefin plants, natural gas plants and air separation plants, as well as hydrogen and synthesis gas plants. In contrast to virtually all our competitors, we are able to call on our own extensive process engineering know-how in the planning, project development and construction of turnkey industrial plants. Linde plants are used in a wide variety of fields: in the petrochemical and chemical industries, in refineries and fertiliser plants, to recover air gases, to produce hydrogen and synthesis gases, to treat natural gas and in the pharmaceutical industry.