BOC rejects bid from Linde, says it has many pre-conditions

BOC rejects bid from Linde, says it has many pre-conditions

	Published : Wed, 25 Jan 2006 11:00 By : Amy Watts Print this Story

LONDON: Britain's BOC Group Plc. rejected an unsolicited bid from German rival Linde AG, on the grounds that it had several pre-conditions and its failure to value the exact growth potential of BOC. While BOC did not reveal the price quoted by Linde, sources indicated that it was 7.6 billion pounds in cash.

Linde may be required to sell part of its non-core businesses to raise this amount, according to analysts following the company. The company did not react to the news. The acquisition would make it to the No 1 position in the global industrial gases market, ahead of the current No 1, Air Liquide of France. Linde has a strong presence in Europe, especially in the growing eastern European markets. BOC is a major player in Asia.

BOC said the pre-conditions put forth by Linde included financing, clearance from competition regulators and an examination of its accounts.

BOC said its board had examined the offer along with its advisers and rejected it because of the pre-conditions and the valuation.

BOC had put itself for sale in 1999 and had accepted a 6-billion-pound joint offer from Air Liquide and Air Products. But regulators had refused to give permission for the merger.

Linde is led by Wolfgang Reitzle, an engineer, who was with the luxury car business of Ford, managing its premium Jaguar and other brands. Besides industrial gases, the company has a large engineering business, making equipment like forklift trucks.

Analysts say Linde can finance the takeover of BOC by divesting its engineering arm, and once it gets BOC, it could sell off the latter's logistics arm and the semiconductor business.

BOC's shares had gone up 20 per cent at 13.83 pounds after touching a high of 14.22 pounds. Linde shares were down 2.4 per cent at 62.80 euros after earlier falling to 61.21 euros. Its market value is around 5.2 billion pounds.