European Commission approves Linde's acquisition of BOC
The European Commission has approved the acquisition by Linde AG, Wiesbaden, of The BOC Group plc, Windlesham, UK. The approval is subject to certain conditions. The conditions require the divestiture of Linde's gas business in the UK, BOC's gas activities in Poland and contracts with Linde's ethylene oxide customers in the UK and Ireland. These divestitures correspond to a sales volume of approximately 160 million euros.
In addition, Linde committed to transfer certain contracts with helium suppliers and to sever, to an extent agreed with the Commission, joint ventures between BOC and Air Liquide in the Asia/Pacific region, either by selling BOC's shareholding or by acquiring Air Liquide's shareholding.
The US Federal Trade Commission's investigation is well advanced. Linde believes that a positive decision will be issued within the next several weeks and is confident to be able to close the transaction according to plan in the third quarter of 2006.
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