Politics
Linde: Temporary suspension of the review period for the business combination with Praxair
Linde AG announced that the European Commission suspended the review period for the merger clearance regarding the business combination of Linde and Praxair with retroactive effect as of February 24, 2018, until information requested by the European Commission will be provided. Later, the European Commission announced that it will publish its decision on the merger clearance on August 9th, 2018.
According to Linde´s news release, the merger partners continue to work on completing the business combination as planned in the second half of 2018. The stakes are high. The combination with the smaller US-competitor would create a global market leader for this industry, and most market participants look forward to a successful completion of the transaction. However, the suspension of the review drew the attention towards a risk probably underestimated by many investors. The time left to complete the merger is limited. It needs to be completed soon, since the one-year-period to protect investors as prescribed by German law will end on October 24th.