Linde AG

Linde launches wide-ranging efficiency programme/ 9-month figures in line with expectations

DGAP-Media / 28.10.2016 / 07:36

Linde launches wide-ranging efficiency programme/
9-month figures in line with expectations

- Plan to achieve additional cost savings of around EUR 370 m per annum
from 2019

- Group revenue of EUR 12.967 bn affected by exchange rate effects

- Group operating profit of EUR 3.066 bn, slightly higher than in first
nine months of 2015 after adjusting for exchange rate effects

- Operating margin continues to improve

- 4.7 percent increase in operating cash flow

- Group outlook for 2016 confirmed

Munich, 28 October 2016 - The Linde Group is launching "LIFT", a Group-wide
efficiency programme, to ensure that it can act more rapidly and more
efficiently in the global competitive environment of industrial gases. From
this three-year programme together with measures introduced from 2015
onwards, Linde wants to achieve cost savings of around EUR 550 m per annum
from 2019. "LIFT" alone should generate cost savings of around EUR 370 m
per annum. In 2016 and 2017, one-off restructuring costs relating to this
programme totalling around EUR 400 m will be incurred.

Dr Wolfgang Büchele, Chief Executive Officer of Linde AG, said "We have
conducted a review of the strategic focus and structures of the entire
Group across all organisational units. Overall, the company is on the right
track. By applying a variety of additional measures, the LIFT programme
will enable us to deliver greater efficiency. Our clear vision for Linde is
to ensure that we become one of the most profitable suppliers in the
industrial gases and engineering business, a preferred partner for
customers and that we sustain this over the long term. We will continue to
pursue a growth trajectory."

By improving its internal processes and reducing complexity and
hierarchies, Linde wants to increase significantly both the speed of its
decision-making and its efficiency. Linde will remain committed to its very
solid balance sheet structure and its attractive dividend policy.
Therefore, as in the past, it intends to continue with its policy of
increasing its dividend when compared with the prior year.

January to September 2016: Business performance in line with expectations
The technology company The Linde Group generated Group revenue in the first
nine months of 2016 of EUR 12.967 bn, 4.3 percent below the revenue of the
prior-year period of EUR 13.552 bn. Operating profit dropped by 2.3 percent
to EUR 3.066 bn (2015: EUR 3.137 bn). Linde confirms the outlook for the
whole year.
These decreases were due to the lower contribution made to revenue and