Air Liquide expects better Q4, confirms margin goal

By Olivier Cherfan

(Reuters) -French industrial gases group Air Liquide expects a better performance in the fourth quarter than in the previous one, its chief executive Francois Jackow said on Tuesday after the company confirmed its margin outlook.

The company, which supplies oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen to factories and hospitals, expects momentum to continue in the Americas overall, Jackow added.

"We do expect Q4 to be above Q3, but ... in the current environment we have to be cautious," chief executive Francois Jackow said in a call with analysts.

Air Liquide still expects to further raise its margin and deliver recurring net profit growth at constant exchange rates this year, and to increase its operating margin by +460 basis points cumulated by end-2026, it said.

Shares in Air Liquide were up 1.8% at 1210 GMT.

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J.P. Morgan deemed the update "decent", while noting that the new investment project backlog, a proxy for mid‑term growth, hit a record level of 4.9 billion euros, up from 4.6 billion euros at the end of the second quarter.

Air Liquide is capitalizing on the AI boom, agreeing in August to buy South Korea's DIG Airgas for €2.85 billion, its largest deal since Airgas in 2016, and committing $250 million to an Idaho plant for Micron's advanced memory lines, as peers like Linde expand semiconductor gases as data centers built for generative AI drive global demand for ultra‑pure gases.

German peer Linde is due to report its third-quarter update on October 31.

Air Liquide reported a 1.9% rise in comparable sales to 6.60 billion euros ($7.70 billion) for June–September, driven by growth in the Americas, healthcare and industrial Merchant.

That was in line with analysts polled by Vara Research.

($1 = 0.8575 euros)

(Reporting by Olivier Cherfan in Gdansk, editing by Matt Scuffham)