Moody’s upgrades the Air Liquide Group credit rating

Air Liquide welcomes Moody’s credit rating agency’s decision to upgrade the Group’s long term rating to “A2”, versus “A3” previously, as well as its short term rating to “P1”, as opposed to “P2” before. The outlook associated with the ratings is stable. These ratings relate to all debt instruments issued by Air Liquide SA and Air Liquide Finance.

To explain its decision to upgrade its long-term rating, Moody’s highlights the stability and the resilience of the Group’s earnings and cash flow generation. The upgrade of the short-term rating reflects in particular Air Liquide’s strong liquidity profile.

This upgrade is in line with the Group’s 2025 strategic plan, called ADVANCE. Within the context of this plan launched in March 2022, the group is committed to strongly increase its investment while keeping a particularly strong balance sheet, in line with an “A” range rating.

Jérôme Pelletan, Chief Financial Officer of Air Liquide Group, said :

Moody’s decision to upgrade the credit rating of Air Liquide is all the more remarkable as it is taking place in a more difficult macroeconomic and geopolitical environment. It underlines the Group’s capacity to maintain a high level of cash flow despite the fluctuations of the economy. Following Standard & Poor’s decision to upgrade Air Liquide’s credit rating, this decision recognizes the Group’s level of debt, which has been brought back to its pre-Airgas 2016 acquisition level in five years. It also reflects the largely demonstrated resilience of the Group’s business model.