Air Liquide and Messer “Swap” Assets

Two European industrial gases producers, France’s Air Liquide and Germany’s Messer Group will acquire assets from each other. In Turkey, Air Liquide is buying Messer Aligaz Sanayi Gazlari, and in Hungary Messer is taking over Air Liquide Hungary Ipari Gáztermelő, a subsidiary of Air Liquide Eastern Europe.

With sales of around €9 million in 2014, Messer Aligaz supplies industrial, medical and specialty gases to a range of Turkish industries in the highly industrialized regions of the Marmara and the Aegean and is mainly focused on the Industrial Merchant segment.

The acquisition will position Air Liquide in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir. The Turkish company owns and operates an air separation unit (ASU) for production of liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon, along with three cylinder filling centers.

In Hungary, the Messer purchase – which is subject to antitrust approval – is being wrapped up through subsidiary Messer Hungarogáz. With it, the German group will take over more than 50 employees, along with tangible assets and customer relationships.

The Ipari Gáztermelő assets include an on-site air separation unit, two nitrogen generators, a filling plant for gas cylinders in addition to road tankers, customer tanks, and steel cylinders. Stefan Messer, owner and CEO of the Messer Group, said the German and Hungarian companies “ideally complement” each other.