Air Liquide published good performance figures for H1 2010. The share is suffering somewhat from the comparison with Linde which also announced its results today. The latter is more exposed to the economic cycle from which it benefited, although Air Liquide has done particularly well too. Prospects for 2010 remain unchanged and the CEO, Benoît Poitier, has confirmed his confidence in the future market trend. PLUS code maintained.
Air Liquide, our new PLUS recommendation, is a defensive investment offering stable and predictable growth. It does not benefit from operational leverage (in comparison with other companies in the chemicals industry), but does have a number of growth drivers (health, clean energy, new sites, emerging markets).