Praxair and Linde terminate talks

Praxair and Linde have ended preliminary discussions regarding a potential merger.

Linde said: "While the strategic rationale of a merger has been principally confirmed, discussions about details, specifically about governance aspects, did not result in a mutual understanding."

The German industrial gases company and its US peer Praxair had confirmed back in August that they were in talks.

Olivetree Securities said: “This would appear to be yet another planned ‘merger of equals’ which has failed on elements much softer than the headline financials – a reminder that such structures are complicated to execute and make all parties happy.

“It would seem that specifically this time that topics such as the location of NewCo HQ, and associated governance topics, led to the failure of this plan. We can quickly eyeball what potential break prices could be for both Linde and Praxair shares, conclusions being that Linde is likely to trade around€ 138 (-7%) and Praxair around $114 (-3%) today.”

At 0830 BST, Linde shares were down 7.7% to €137.20.