Linde

Carl von Linde invented his refrigeration machine, an ammonia compression machine used to make ice, in 1875. The company was incorporated in 1879 as Gesellschaft für Linde’s Eismaschinen.⁠[1]

Brin’s Oxygen Company Ltd was founded in 1886 and renamed The British Oxygen Company Ltd in 1906.⁠[2]

Carl von Linde’s 1895 invention for producing liquid air led to the growth of the company’s process plant engineering business. In 1903 the company built the first production plant for purified oxygen.⁠[1]

In 1907 Carl von Linde founded the Linde Air Products Company in Cleveland to produce oxygen from air with a cryogenic process. In 1917 it joined four other companies to form Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation.⁠[3]

In 1992 Praxair was spun off from Union Carbide as an independent company, listed in New York under the symbol PX. Its name joined the Greek praxis, or practical application, with the name of its primary product.⁠[3]

Linde AG made a cash offer for the shares of BOC Group plc. The scheme was sanctioned by the English courts on September 4, 2006, and took effect on September 5, when BOC Group became a wholly owned subsidiary of Linde AG.⁠[4]

BOC describes the deal as Linde and BOC “join forces to become part of The Linde Group.”⁠[2]

On June 1, 2017, Linde AG and Praxair signed an all-stock merger-of-equals agreement under a new Irish-incorporated holding company, Zamalight PLC. The combined company would be named Linde and listed on the New York and Frankfurt stock exchanges. Steve Angel would become CEO and Wolfgang Reitzle chairman.⁠[5]

On July 5, 2018, Praxair signed a sale and purchase agreement to sell the majority of its businesses in Europe to Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation for €5.0 billion in cash.⁠[6]

On October 22, 2018, the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with Praxair and Linde over their roughly $80 billion merger, requiring divestiture of Linde’s U.S. bulk liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon business, plus carbon dioxide and hydrogen assets. One pre-identified buyer was MG Industries, a joint venture of Messer Group and CVC Capital Partners.⁠[7]

On October 29, 2018, Linde plc shares began trading in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and replaced the former Linde AG share class in the DAX index.⁠[8]

On October 31, 2018, Linde plc announced completion of the business combination of Praxair and Linde AG, and its shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LIN that day. The company had a market value of about $90 billion and about 80,000 employees in more than 100 countries. Until most divestitures were completed, Linde AG and Praxair had to operate separately.⁠[9]

On October 25, 2021, Linde’s board appointed Chief Operating Officer Sanjiv Lamba to succeed Steve Angel as CEO effective March 1, 2022, with Angel succeeding the retiring Wolfgang Reitzle as chairman. Lamba had spent more than 30 years with Linde, including leading its APAC and India businesses.⁠[10]

To comply with sanctions, all Linde Engineering agreements in Russia were suspended, including the Amur gas processing plant contracts on May 27, 2022. RusChemAlliance, 50% owned by Gazprom, won two Russian court decisions in 2024, while a Hong Kong court ruled in Linde’s favor in January 2024. As of September 30, 2025, Linde said it had recorded $1.9 billion in liabilities.⁠[11]

In November 2023 a Russian arbitration court ordered 13 Linde-owned liquid helium containers seized and placed under RusChemAlliance’s control, after earlier freezing nearly $500 million of Linde assets at its request. Linde had halted work on the Ust-Luga gas project in May 2022.⁠[12]

On March 1, 2023, Linde completed an intercompany reorganization that delisted its shares from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, with the new parent Linde plc listed solely on the New York Stock Exchange from March 2.⁠[13]

On October 26, 2023, Linde notified the New York Stock Exchange that it would voluntarily withdraw the listing of its ordinary shares and transfer it to the Nasdaq Stock Market. NYSE trading ended at the close on November 6, and Nasdaq trading began at the open on November 7.⁠[14]

Linde’s 2025 sales were $34.0 billion, up 3% from 2024, with diluted earnings per share of $14.61, operating cash flow of $10.4 billion and a project backlog of $10.0 billion. CEO Sanjiv Lamba said Linde “delivered another year of resilient performance.”⁠[15]

In its 2025 annual report Linde called itself the largest industrial gas company worldwide, and its shares trade on Nasdaq as LIN. Net income attributable to Linde plc was $6.898 billion in 2025, and it had 65,177 employees at year-end.⁠[16]

On July 31, 2026, Linde posted second-quarter sales of $9.3 billion, up 9% year over year, and diluted earnings per share of $4.15, and set full-year 2026 adjusted EPS guidance of $17.70 to $17.90. Lamba said employees “delivered another solid quarter, generating record sales and EPS.”⁠[17]