Linde Groups sells AGA

Linde Group announced yesterday that it has sold AGA, its industrial and medical gases business in Mexico, to Praxair for an undisclosed fee.

Linde Group

has sold its industrial and medical gases business in Mexico to

Praxair

. Linde's Mexican business operates under the name of the subsidiary AGA S.A. de C.V. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The transaction excludes the Mexican assets of the BOC Group, which Linde acquired as part of its worldwide acquisition of BOC.

The transaction has been approved by Mexico's Federal Competition Commission and is expected to close in a few weeks.

The sale of Linde's Mexican business is part of a mutual agreement between Linde and Praxair under which Linde had acquired the Turkey based industrial gases producer Karbogaz in July 2006. Karbogaz was formerly a joint venture company between Ismail Aytemiz of Istanbul and Praxair.

AGA S.A. de C.V. was acquired by Linde in 1999 as part of its acquisition of Swedish gases producer AGA. The business operates throughout Mexico, generating sales of approximately €61 million in 2006.