The transition represents the completion in Pakistan of a transaction that took place in September 2006, when the Linde Group, an engineering company that specialises in supplying gases, bought out its UK-based competitor BOC Group for about $14.4 billion.
“We mark a momentous milestone in the history of our company today. We are proud to become Linde in Pakistan, and aspire to double the size of our business here within the next five years,” said Yousuf Mirza, CEO of Linde Pakistan, at an event at Pearl Continental Hotel in Karachi that marked the announcement.
The change is the latest identity for a company that has been operating on the Indian subcontinent since 1938.
BOC had begun operations in Karachi in 1946, a year before independence, though it was then a liaison office of the Indian Oxygen and Acetylene Company. The company formally registered in Pakistan in 1949 at the Pakistan Oxygen and Acetylene Company.
After rebranding itself Pakistan Oxygen Ltd, the company was listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange in 1958, floating 40% of its shares to the public. In 1995, it changed its name again to BOC Pakistan.
The company specialises in the separation of air into its constituent gases. As the name suggests, one of its primary products is oxygen and nitrogen, though it also produces several other specialty gases.
The acquisition of BOC was a seminal event for its acquirer, the Linde Group, a Munich-based company that had been in many of the same lines of businesses as BOC. After the merger, the company became the single largest industrial gases supplier in the world.
As of 2010, the global company has revenues of $17.6 billion and profits of $1.4 billion. As of Friday, its market capitalisation stood at $23.6 billion.
Linde takes on a strong legacy from BOC in Pakistan. The company has had a strategic partnership with Lotte Pakistan PTA, one of the largest chemical manufacturers in the country, for the supply of nitrogen and hydrogen since 1997. The company is also one of the largest suppliers to Pak-Arab Refinery Company (Parco), the largest oil refinery in the country.
Linde Pakistan facilities include air separation plants in Lahore, Port Qasim and Taxila as well as carbon dioxide plants at Port Qasim and Multan. The company is also presently building a new state-of-the-art air separation (ASU) plant in Lahore at an investment cost of about Rs2 billion.
The company’s Pakistan division made Rs1.7 billion in the first two quarters of the current financial year, up 34% over the last year. Its net income was R145 million for the period, up 48.3% compared to last year.
The company stock closed at Rs104.36 in trading on the Karachi Stock Exchange on Monday, up 2.03% for the day.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 20th, 2011.
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