WIESBADEN, Germany, March 6 (UPI) -- German engineering firm Linde Group is to buy British BOC, to become the world's leading industrial-gas manufacturer.
Linde offers $28 per share, amounting to a total cash offer of roughly $14 billion.
"The board of directors of BOC intends to recommend BOC shareholders to accept the offer," Wiesbaden-based Linde said in a statement.
Following the acquisition, Linde will be one of the world's leading industrial gases and engineering groups with sales of approximately $14.3 billion, surpassing French company Air Liquide, the current market leader.
Linde expects synergy effects and savings worth $300 million of the deal.
"Through this transaction, we will be positioned in highly attractive growth markets," Linde-head Wolfgang Reitzle said Monday. "The industrial gases market is expected to grow at 6 percent over the next four years, driven by new applications and improved product quality and productivity. ... Key growth markets will be, for example, Eastern Europe, South America and South East Asia and, you can assume, China."
Several weeks of negotiations preceded the takeover, which was agreed upon by BOC late Sunday night, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper said.
The deal must still be approved by U.S. and European Union anti-trust authorities.
British BOC Group employs 30,000 people and serves some 2 million customers in more than 50 countries. Linde has nearly 41,000 employees and is the largest builder of hydrogen-production facilities in the world.
