Investing in Air Liquide

Creating value over the long term

Air Liquide’s ambition is to be a leader in its industry, deliver long term performance and contribute to sustainability - with a strong commitment to climate change and energy transition at the heart of its strategy. The company’s customer-centric transformation strategy aims at profitable, regular and responsible growth over the long term. It relies on operational excellence, selective investments, open innovation and a network organization implemented by the Group worldwide. Through the commitment and inventiveness of its people, Air Liquide leverages energy and environment transition, changes in healthcare and digitization, and delivers greater value to all its stakeholders.

Delivering profitable growth over the long term

In 2021, net profit (Group share) amounted to €2,572 million euros, the net earnings per share was 5.45 euros, resulting in a 55% pay-out ratio. Air Liquide is listed on the Paris Euronext stock exchange (compartment A) and is a member of the CAC 40, EURO STOXX 50 and FTSE4Good indexes.

CAGR over 30 years¹

2022 key figures

Group

Innovation (2022 data)

Finance (2022 data)

ISR (2022 data)

At Air Liquide, as our investment cycle is long, we believe in long term commitment. So, we encourage long term shareholders. Air Liquide believes in promoting and encouraging long term share ownership, through transparent investor relations, strong respect of all shareholders, regular dividend growth, thanks to regular growth in earnings and loyalty bonuses for long term shareholders.

Dividend policy

Air Liquide was created in 1902 thanks to individual shareholders. The company paid its first dividends in 1907 and never ceased since. Air Liquide was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1913. For more than 10 years, the pay-out ratio is stable, at around 50% of the Group net profit. Over the last 30 years, dividends kept increasing regularly or were at least maintained. 

To find out more about our dividend policy, please consult our dedicated factsheet: 

 A strong share ownership culture

A differentiating feature of Air Liquide is the high proportion of individual shareholders: together, more than 470,000 individual shareholders hold some 33% of the share capital at the end of 2020. Their loyalty is attributable to a long history of steady earnings growth, resulting from the constant development of Air Liquide’s markets and the solidity of its economic model.

 Free share attribution: scrip issues

Air Liquide regularly does a scrip issue, usually every other year. The last one, 1 free share allocated for 10 shares, took place on October 9, 2019. These attributions are proposed by the Board of Directors and require the General shareholders meeting approval. Free shares receive the same voting rights, dividends and loyalty bonus as the shares held to receive them.

To find out more about the free share attribution, please consult our dedicated factsheet: 

Loyalty bonus

All shareholders, individual and institutional, who have held registered shares (either direct or intermediary) for more than two full calendar years, can benefit from the loyalty bonus, which results in a 10% dividend increase and 10% more free shares. Shares must be held until dividend payment and free share attribution dates (generally in May-June).

To find out more about your loyalty bonus, and other benefits, please consult our dedicated page.

The “Intermediary registered” form

For institutional investors, intermediary registered shares are a good compromise. You can enjoy the advantages of registered shares and the convenience of maintaining the shares in your normal portfolio. You receive all the documentation directly, in particular the documents relative to the General Shareholders meeting (Notice of meeting, voting form…) and are entitled to the loyalty bonus if you hold your shares for more two full calendar.

Note: According to French Law, the number of shares entitled to the loyalty bonus is limited, for anyone shareholder, to 0.5% of the Company’s capital.

To find out more about shareholding options, please consult our dedicated factsheet: 

TSR: Total Shareholder Return

The TSR is an annualized rate of return for a shareholder who buys his shares at the beginning of the period and resells them at the end of the period. This calculation takes into account the evolution of the share price, the dividends reinvested in shares as well as the allocations of free shares, both increased by the loyalty bonus, and includes the impact related to the increase capital of 2016.

Average annual growth of the portfolio as of December 31, 2019: