Praxair, Linde merger clears hurdle
Linde AG and Praxair Inc. won conditional European Union approval for their $45 billion merger, as they scramble to win over U.S. antitrust authorities for a deal that combines two of the biggest suppliers of industrial gas.
The European Commission said its competition concerns were addressed after the companies agreed to sell Praxair’s entire gas business in Europe as well as the Danburybased company’s stake in an Italian joint venture and several helium sourcing contracts.
“Gases — like oxygen and helium — are crucial inputs for a large variety of products we need and use in our everyday life,” EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement Monday. “With this decision, we make sure that the merger of Praxair and Linde will not result in further concentration in Europe and that customers will continue to benefit from competition in these markets.”
After the EU’s decision, Linde and Praxair still have one major hurdle in their quest for regulatory approvals. The companies were caught off guard earlier this month by a notice from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to sell more assets in order to gain antitrust approval even after they had agreed to roughly $9 billion worth of disposals in Europe and North America.
The latest requests from U.S. regulators are “more onerous than previously expected,” Linde said earlier this month. It generates about 23 percent of its revenue in the country. Praxair and Linde representatives did not immediately re- spond to requests for comment Monday.
The Linde-Praxair pledge allows Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp. to gain a foothold in Europe after the merging companies agreed last month to sell several industrial-gas plants to the Japanese firm to answer EU concerns about reduced rivalry in the industrial-gases market. Linde is also considering the sale of additional assets in the U.S. that would mark a near-complete retreat from industrial gas operations in the country, people said earlier this month.