Fossil fuel footprints will be reducing in future and will gave way to clean energy fuels and technologies. Global trend is increasingly evident and is becoming stronger with the time. Major companies across the world are announcing their plan to go carbon neutral in coming future. Electric vehicles are reality and applications of hydrogen based vehicles as well as plants are in the process.
Linde AG and Praxair have merged to become world’s largest global industrial gases and engineering company. It is a global leader in industrial gases and engineering company, providing high-quality solutions, technologies and services, in terms of production, processing, storage and distribution of hydrogen to its customers, and have a topline $27 billion (€24 billion), according to 2020 sales volume. Linde India is a subsidiary and listed entity in India.
Linde is at the forefront in the transition to clean hydrogen and is operating one of the largest liquid hydrogen capacity and distribution system in the world, including the world’s first high-purity hydrogen storage cavern plus pipeline networks totaling approximately 1,000 kilometers globally and providing latest electrolysis technology through its world class engineering organization, including key alliances and partnerships. Industrial gases have usage in various applications ranging from high-purity & specialty gases for electronics manufacturing and hydrogen for clean fuels to life-saving oxygen for hospitals.
Linde is working for minimizing environment impact and has a sustainable development management system which manage performance of global operations and value chain through KPIs and targets. Company is taking significant steps for building clean hydrogen initiative by forging alliances and partnership with fuel cell electric vehicle manufacturer, renewable power companies, energy companies etc. and have signed ground breaking projects in Germany, China , Us etc for serving clean energy mobility applications.
Company has a strong governance record and is working in India under the leadership of Mr. Abhijit Banerjee is MD of India. Company is working Globally under the leadership of Mr Sanjiv Lamba, who have succeed Steve Angel.
In the past Company has tried for delisting in India. The BOC Group Ltd, along with Praxair, Inc. and Linde Holdings Netherlands B.V. made an open offer during 2019 to acquire 25% of the voting capital of Linde India, represented by 21,321,056 fully paid up equity shares of Rs.10/- each. The shareholding of The BOC Group Ltd. increased to 63,988,443 equity shares, by acquiring 25,276 equity shares under the said Open on 27 September 2019. The Acquirer subsequently sold 25,276 equity shares through the stock exchange mechanism on 27 April 2020, for the purpose of complying with the minimum public shareholding requirement under the provisions of Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules and, SEBI Listing Regulations. As a result of the same, shareholding of the promoter group now stands at 75% of its total voting capital.
Indian Government has announced its ambition and aspiration to become a USD 5 trillion economy by 2025. Atmanirbhar Bharat programs can provide great opportunities for growth, as the Government is providing a big boost to the manufacturing sector through its Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which involves Government spend of lakhs of crore under the program in coming years in key sectors such as electronics, automobiles/auto components, pharma, telecom and textiles to enhance domestic manufacturing capacities, including Government’s aspiration for monetizing multimillion-dollar National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP).Key sectors e.g. energy , roads, urban development, and railways, will account for around 70% of the projected spend and will be the major beneficiary of the project.
In order to achieve a vision of USD 5 trillion economy by fiscal year 2025, India needs a significant spend in infrastructure segment, which according to certain estimates ma go up to USD 1.4. The growth is expected to boost domestic steel demand in the coming years, ramp up manufacturing of BS VI complying vehicles, giving a major boost to the automotive sector. These developments will benefit the gases industry. Linde is a global player in Hydrogen and Industrial gases application and Indian entity may benefit from the changes in the global energy trends impacting India including the Government of India’s Atmanirbhar Bharat programs.
Bureau Galactik Views