traded as fwb lin industry chemicals health care energy engineering founded 1879 ; 137 years ago 1879 founder carl von linde headquarters munich germany key people dr wolfgang b chele president and ceo manfred schneider chairman of the supervisory board products industrial gas production alkene natural gas and air separation plant engineering logistics services revenue 17.944 billion 2015 1 operating income 4.131 billion 2015 1 profit 1.149 billion 2015 1 total assets 27.445 billion 2015 1 total equity 15.449 billion 2015 1 number of employees 64 538 2015 1 website www.linde.com linde gas hamburg wilhelmsburg the linde group registered as linde ag fwb lin is a multinational industrial gases and engineering company founded in germany in 1879 . it is the world s largest industrial gas company by market share as well as revenue . linde shares are traded on all the german stock exchanges and also in z rich and the linde share price is included in the dax 30 index . the group is headquartered in munich bavaria germany . the linde group has over 600 affiliated companies in more than 100 countries 2 with customers in the industrial retail trade science research and public sectors . in september 2006 the company acquired its uk based competitor the boc group and subsequently disposed of its non gas interests . linde s former materials handling business was rebranded as kion group in september 2006 and sold in november 2006 to kkr and goldman sachs for 4bn . in march 2007 the boc edwards semiconductor equipment business was sold to ccmp capital for 685m . 3 linde s revenue in 2015 were 17.9 billion with 64 500 employees . 4 following the boc acquisition the linde group has become the world s largest industrial gas company . in 2005 linde ag and boc together had 21 % of the world s market in industrial gases followed by air liquide with 19 % praxair with 13 % air products & chemicals with 10 % taiyo nippon sanso corporation with 4 % airgas with 3 % and messer group with 1 % . 5 contents 1 business activities 2 history 3 operations 3.1 subgroups and service companies 3.1.1 industrial gases & health care 3.1.2 linde engineering 3.1.3 gist 4 see also 5 references 6 external links business activities edit the linde group today has two principal business areas gas industrial gases and medical gases and engineering . in the industrial gas area the group trades under a number of established brand names including linde aga boc tig mox afrox and pangas . hiq is used as an identifier for high purity and premium specialty gases across all of these business brand names . in the medical gas area linde is known with the following names linde gas therapeutics aga medical ino therapeutics linde homecare farmadomo and life gas . linde gas supplies industrial gases medical gases speciality gases refrigerants and other chemicals . depending on the gas and the quantity required these may be supplied in portable high pressure gas cylinders in liquefied form by road tanker from on site gas generators or in gaseous form via pipeline to large customers . linde engineering designs and builds large scale chemical plants for the production of industrial gases including oxygen nitrogen argon hydrogen and carbon monoxide as well as large plants associated with the processing of natural gas lng lpg and the manufacture of olefins . history edit uranium used to produce the united states first atom bombs from 1942 to 1948 was processed by linde air products in tonawanda new york . 6 the new york times reported in 1981 that 37 million u.s. gallons 140 million liters of radioactive caustic wastes from the manhattan project was dumped into nearby shallow wells specifically chosen to hide the source of the contamination . 7 on 21 june 1879 professor doctor carl von linde founded the gesellschaft f r linde s eismaschinen aktiengesellschaft to develop further his work in developing mechanical refrigeration systems for the brewing and food industries . following success in this market he moved on to developing lower temperature systems resulting in 1895 in a patent covering the liquefaction of air . out of this work his company developed equipment for the separation of air and other gases . one of the first large scale air separation plants was installed in h llriegelskreuth near munich in 1903 . in addition to plants air separation in 1906 linde engineers started working with other on processes to separate the constituents of water gas . this work developed into capabilities in the manufacture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide which were further key feedstocks for the emerging chemicals industry . in addition to his interests in refrigeration carl von linde had also partnered with hugo g ldner and others in 1904 to form the g ldner motoren gesellschaft mbh in aschaffenburg . linde took full ownership of the company in 1929 and from this origin developed a business manufacturing first engines and tractors and then from the 1950s onwards a range of mechanical handling equipment such as fork lift trucks . the linde group also acquired the corporation for industry gas utilization german aktiengesellschaft f r industrie gas verwertung commonly referred to as the heylandt works . linde sued another company in 1950 for violating their patent on a welding process by simply substituting a similar material . in graver tank & manufacturing co. v. linde air products co. the united states supreme court established the doctrine of equivalents which found that while not in the literal scope of the patent the concept discovered by linde was still being unfairly encroached upon without compensation . 8 a complex history of takeovers mergers and divestments occurred and in 2000 completed the acquisition of aga ab of sweden . this was followed in 2004 with the divestment of the original core of the linde business the refrigeration division to carrier corporation of the usa . 9 in march 2006 linde made a proposal to acquire the boc group for 11.7 billion in cash . 10 the acquisition was completed on 5 september 2006 . 11 following the acquisition the combined gas and engineering group was rebranded as the linde group and the materials handling activities separated and rebranded as kion group . it was also announced that the boc edwards equipment business was to be sold . 12 in june 2011 pt linde indonesia a subsidiary of the linde group announced its plan to build an air separation plant worth rp .1 trillion 117.33 million in cilegon banten to supply industrial gas to pt karakatau posco s steel plant . 13 linde gas hamburg wilhelmsburg tank for liquid hydrogen of linde museum autovision altlu heim trailh2 linde e20 linde air separation plant in washington west virginia in january 2012 the company acquired the continental european homecare business of the industrial gases company air products at an enterprise value of 590 m. citation needed this business achieved annual sales of eur 210 m in 2011 . citation needed the transaction comprises air products homecare operations in belgium france germany portugal and spain with around 850 employees . in june 2012 the company acquired lincare holdings inc. a healthcare gas provider in the usa for us 4.6 billion . citation needed lincare holdings had sales of us 1.8 billion in 2011 . citation needed in august 2012 the linde group completed the acquisition and became the largest home care gas supplier in north america . citation needed operations edit subgroups and service companies edit linde ag comprises three subgroups . the largest division gases has four operating segments western europe the americas asia & eastern europe and south pacific & africa . these segments are subdivided into eight regional business units rbus . the gases division also includes the two global business units gbus healthcare medical gases and tonnage on site and the two business areas bas merchant & packaged gases liquefied and cylinder gases and electronics electronic gases . industrial gases & health care edit linde industrial gases produces and distributes the atmospheric gases oxygen nitrogen and argon all of which are manufactured in linde s air separation plants . the product portfolio includes hydrogen acetylene carbon monoxide carbon dioxide shielding gases for welding applications noble gases and specialty gases . in addition linde develops and distributes procedures and systems for gas applications in several technological application centres . linde is the world s largest supplier of welding and safety products . citation needed linde healthcare provides pharmaceutical and medical gas products and services for healthcare professionals . linde healthcare is present in 70 countries . citation needed pharmaceutical and medical gases are used in the diagnosis or treatment of a number of clinical conditions . in addition to oxygen therapy aerosol therapy and anaesthesia linde healthcare provides medical gas solutions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease asthma sleep apnoea and pain . linde engineering edit the engineering division develops process plants in the engineering procurement and construction epc business worldwide . linde engineering focus on market segments such as plants for the production of hydrogen and synthesis gas oxygen and olefins as well as plants for natural gas treatment . the group has more than 1 000 process engineering patents and 4 000 completed plant projects . 14 the product portfolio includes air separation plants lng and natural gas processing plants hydrogen and synthesis gas plants chemical and petrochemical plants adsorption plants cryogenic plants ccs and co2 plants furnaces incinerators and heaters plant components 15 gist edit gist offers supply chain services including end to end management and customer fulfilment . the company employs about 5 000 people in 40 locations in great britain continental europe and america with customers including marks & spencer starbucks eat british airways carlsberg group bakkav r uniq and dairy crest . see also edit companies portal boc group references edit a b c d e f annual report 2015 pdf . linde . retrieved 11 march 2016 . http resources.linde.com international web linde like35lindecom.nsf docbyalias nav locations ad hoc linde sells component business of boc edwards to ccmp capital news and events adhoc news linde ag linde annual report 2015 . linde conference presentation january 2007 archived september 26 2007 at the wayback machine . linde air products . national institute for occupational safety and health . march 31 2011 . blumenthal ralph february 1 1981 . big atom waste site reported found near buffalo . new york times . jackson robert h. 29 may 1950 . graver tank & mfg. co. inc. et al. v. linde air products co. . legal information institute . cornell law school . retrieved 10 july 2013 . linde corporate heritage bbc 6 march 2006 linde corporate homepage linde corporate website http www.thejakartapost.com news 2011 06 11 linde indonesia build rp 1 trillion air separation plant.html http www.linde engineering.com en about linde engineering index.html retrieved on june 6 2016 http www.linde engineering.com en index.html retrieved june 6 2016 external links edit linde group linde north america inc. linde canada ltd. linde canada ltd. e commerce site v t e dax companies of germany adidas allianz basf bayer beiersdorf bmw commerzbank continental daimler deutsche bank deutsche b rse deutsche post deutsche telekom e.on fresenius fresenius medical care heidelbergcement henkel infineon technologies k s linde lufthansa merck munich re rwe sap siemens thyssenkrupp volkswagen vonovia retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title the linde group & oldid 740670348 categories chemical companies of germanymultinational companies headquartered in germanymanufacturing companies based in munichcompanies established in 1879chemical companieshidden categories articles with wayback machine linksarticles containing 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