The Linde Group has seen a solid start to the new financial year. After adjusting for exchange rate effects, sales increased by 7.5 percent in the first quarter to €2.917 billion. Operating profit, after adjusting for exchange rate effects, rose 11.1 percent to €602 million. Therefore, the operating margin improved by 70 basis points to 20.6 percent. Synergies arising from the acquisition of BOC contributed to this positive trend.

If exchange rate effects are not taken into account, the increase in sales in the first quarter was 2.0 percent (2007: €2.860 billion). On this basis, operating profit rose 5.8 percent (2007: €569 million).

The €35 million improvement in the net financial expense to €79 million (2007: €114 million) is evidence of the successful debt reduction in the past few quarters.

Earnings before taxes on income of €239 million were lower than the figure for the comparable prior year period of €647 million. However, this is mainly due to the fact that the figure for the first three months of 2007 included a book profit of €510 million from the disposal of businesses.

Earnings after tax were €172 million (€458 million). Earnings attributable to Linde AG shareholders were €160 million (2007: €445 million), giving earnings per share of €0.96 (2007: €2.76). On an adjusted basis, i.e. after adjusting for the effect of the purchase price allocation in the course of the BOC acquisition and the book profit on the sale of businesses, earnings per share increased by 20.6 percent from €1.07 to €1.29.