This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 4:34 p.m. on Jun. 24, 2025.
French industrial gas company Air Liquide drew attention by making the shortlist of qualified preliminary bidders for DIG Airgas. Air Liquide is said to have offered the highest price in this acquisition race.
Air Liquide, which was also the original owner of DIG Airgas, has been looking for opportunities to enter the domestic industrial gas market. It is reported to have thrown its hat in the ring three years ago when Air First sold a minority equity stake.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 24th, Macquarie Asset Management, the largest shareholder of DIG Airgas, selected Air Liquide and Brookfield, among others, to the shortlist through bookrunners Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. They are said to have offered a price around 5 trillion won, which Macquarie is expecting.
Air Liquide is an industrial gas company headquartered in Paris, France. Last year's revenue was 27 billion euros (about 42.64 trillion won), ranking second after Germany's Linde (about 44.91 trillion won).
Air Liquide once held about half of the equity in Daesung Industrial Gases, the predecessor of DIG Airgas. In 1979, it joined hands with Daesung Industrial to establish Daesung Industrial Gases, held 44% equity, and co-managed the company, then sold its equity to Daesung in 2014 and has since operated only "Air Liquide Korea" in the Korean market.
However, Air Liquide Korea is at a level that is hard to compare with other industrial gas companies in terms of profit size. Last year's operating profit was 8.6 billion won. That is small compared to Linde Korea (292.7 billion won), Air Products Korea (149.2 billion won), DIG Airgas (139.5 billion won), and Air First (106.0 billion won).
Accordingly, Air Liquide has been seeking opportunities to raise its profile in Korea's industrial gas market. A representative case was its bid in 2023 to acquire a 30% minority equity stake in Air First. However, it reportedly offered a low price, and the sell-side judged that for a minority equity acquisition, a financial investor (FI) was more suitable than a strategic investor (SI) like Air Liquide, and thus the opportunity was taken by BlackRock. Air Liquide is also said to have proposed acquiring management control of Air First, but that too fell through over valuation.
Last year, when competitor Air Products decided to withdraw from the Korean market and moved to sell its entity, Air Liquide maintained a stay-the-course stance. It is interpreted as having kept its Korean entity, which generated only several billion won in annual operating profit, to watch for opportunities to expand business.
At the time, a headquarters official at Air Liquide, regarding whether it was pursuing a sale of the Korean entity, said to ChosunBiz, "We cannot officially confirm it, but we have not heard anything about (selling Air Liquide Korea)," denying it.
Air Liquide is reportedly pursuing the acquisition of DIG Airgas through EY Hanyoung. The cross-border deal team within EY Hanyoung is advising.