Air Liquide completes the refinancing of its Airgas acquisition with a successful capital increase of 3.3 billion euros

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Air Liquide completes the refinancing of the Airgas acquisition in 3 steps:

  • A 3 billion euro bond issue placed on June 6, 2016
  • A 3.3 billion euro share capital increase with preferential subscription rights for existing shareholders (the “Rights Issue”), launched on September 13, 2016, the results of which are communicated today
  • A 4.5 billion US dollar bond issue placed on September 22, 2016

Air Liquide (the “Company”) announces today it has completed the refinancing of the acquisition of Airgas, one of the main industrial gases and related products and services suppliers in the US.

The final gross proceeds of the Rights Issue, which was the 2nd step of the refinancing, amount to 3,283 million euros and will result in the issuance of 43,202,209 new shares (the “New Shares”).

Following the subscription period, which ended on September 28, 2016, total subscription orders amounted to approximately 6.3 billion euros, representing a total subscription rate of 191.2%:

  • 40,334,395 New Shares were subscribed on an irreducible basis;
  • 42,266,306 New Shares were requested on a reducible basis and will only be satisfied with respect to 2,867,814 New Shares.

Commenting on the success of this refinancing, Benoît Potier, Chairman and CEO of Air Liquide, said: “We are delighted by the success of this capital increase, which allows us to complete the refinancing of our acquisition of Airgas within a very short timeframe. In less than one year, we were able to complete the entire acquisition and refinancing processes. The integration of Airgas, which was initiated right after closing, is proceeding according to our plan.
We would like to thank our shareholders, both individual and institutional, for their ongoing support.”

Settlement, delivery and start of trading on Euronext Paris (Segment A) of the New Shares will take place on October 11, 2016. The New Shares, which will carry dividend rights and will entitle their holders to any dividends declared by the Company from the date of issue, will be, as from their issue date, fully fungible with the Company’s existing shares and will be traded under the same ISIN code as the Company’s existing shares, ISIN code FR0000120073. As from October 11, 2016, the share capital of L’Air Liquide SA will amount to €2,138,509,373.00, consisting of 388,819,886 shares.

Note: The English version of this press release may differ from the French version for regulatory reasons.