Linde Issues More Than EUR 2.4 bn Senior Benchmark Bonds

Linde Finance BV, guaranteed by Linde AG (Baa1 stable/BBB stable) has today successfully placed more than EUR 2.4bn in a three-tranche transaction in both, EUR and GBP. The overall transaction comprises a EUR 1bn 5y Fixed Rate offering priced at plus 24 bps over MidSwaps, a EUR 1bn 10y Fixed Rate offering priced at plus 45 bps over MidSwaps and a GBP 300mn 16 y Fixed Rate offering priced at plus 109 bps over the UKT 5%, 2025. The transaction was more than three times oversubscribed with a huge demand from high quality debt investors and retail intermediaries. The transaction is Linde's only intended public benchmark offering in 2007.

The Linde Group is a world leading industrial gases and engineering company with more than 51,000 employees working in around 70 countries worldwide. Following the acquisition of The BOC Group the company has gases and engineering sales of approximately 12 billion euro. The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards earnings-based growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services. For more information, please see The Linde Group online at http://www.linde.com

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