Air Liquide Delivers Robust Performance in H1 2025, Driven by Growth Engines and Margin Expansion
Air Liquide continues to demonstrate strong financial momentum in the first half of 2025, reflecting the resilience and adaptability of its business model. The Group’s diversified growth engines, particularly in electronics and energy transition, played a key role in sustaining performance despite a volatile macroeconomic environment.
Steady Growth Across Core Businesses
Group sales reached €13.72 billion in H1 2025, marking a +2.6% increase on a published basis and +1.8% on a comparable basis. Gas & Services, which represents 97% of the Group’s revenue, also grew +1.8% comparably, showing balanced growth across geographies. Sales in the Americas rose by +2.9%, supported by strong performances in Large Industries and Healthcare. Asia Pacific sales increased +2.1%, boosted by new unit start-ups, while Europe, Middle East & Africa remained stable (+0.5%).
Healthcare continued its solid trajectory, posting +5% growth, with strong contributions from both Medical Gases and Home Healthcare. Electronics, though facing softer equipment sales, held steady thanks to over +10% growth in Carrier Gas volumes. Industrial Merchant grew +1.3%, benefiting from a strong pricing environment (+2.6%) despite flat gas volumes and weaker hardgoods sales in the U.S. Large Industries revenue increased slightly (+0.9%), driven by new production capacities and stable demand.
Margin Expansion and Operational Efficiency
Air Liquide advanced its transformation agenda, achieving significant operating margin improvement. The Group’s recurring operating income (OIR) rose to €2.74 billion, up +5.2% reported and +7.2% excluding currency impact—outpacing sales growth. The operating margin reached 19.9%, rising by +100 basis points, and by +130 basis points for Gas & Services excluding the energy effect.
Efficiencies reached a record €287 million in H1 2025, a +23.3% increase over the previous year. These gains underscore the success of the Group’s cost discipline and continuous optimization efforts.
Strong Profitability and Cash Generation
Recurring net profit (Group share) rose +10.3% excluding currency effects to €1.84 billion, while reported net profit stood at €1.80 billion (+7.2%). Earnings per share climbed +6.8% to €3.12.
Cash flow from operating activities before working capital changes amounted to €3.25 billion, growing +4.2% excluding currency effects and certain exceptional items. Despite paying nearly €2 billion in dividends in May, net debt fell €362 million year-over-year to €9.79 billion. The net debt-to-equity ratio stood at 33.5%, remaining stable.
Return on Capital and Investment Strategy
Recurring ROCE reached 11%, exceeding the ADVANCE plan’s 10% target and increasing +30 basis points from the prior year. This improvement highlights the effectiveness of Air Liquide’s capital allocation and its continued focus on profitable growth.
In H1 2025, the Group made record investment decisions totaling €2.3 billion, a +39% increase over H1 2024. The investment backlog reached a new high of €4.6 billion, distributed across roughly 80 projects globally. Of this, €1.6 billion is dedicated to Electronics and over €2 billion to energy transition initiatives.
The 12-month portfolio of investment opportunities remained stable at €4.1 billion, while the overall project pipeline exceeded €10 billion, underlining the Group’s robust future growth prospects.
Sector Highlights
Industry and Decarbonization:
In the U.S., Air Liquide is investing up to $200 million in Louisiana to expand its pipeline and modernize a plant in partnership with Dow. In Japan, a new Air Separation Unit will support Mitsubishi Materials and growing semiconductor and energy transition demand. In the Netherlands, two major green hydrogen projects were launched: the 200 MW ELYgator electrolyzer, and a 250 MW electrolyzer joint venture with TotalEnergies.
Electronics:
In Germany, the Group announced a €250+ million investment to build cutting-edge gas units for a semiconductor client—its largest electronics investment in Europe. In the U.S., a $50 million investment will add a new ultra-pure gas facility. In South Korea, a new molybdenum plant will supply critical semiconductor materials. In Singapore, Air Liquide signed a €70 million long-term contract with VSMC and will construct a new gas unit to support chip manufacturing.
Healthcare:
In Germany, Air Liquide expanded its Home Healthcare business with the acquisition of two intensive care companies, strengthening its position in assisted living services.
Sustainable Development:
Air Liquide completed a €500 million green bond issue to finance key energy transition projects. Notable sustainability efforts include major electrolyzer investments, renewable hydrogen certification in Germany, a new biogenic CO₂ plant in Australia, and low-carbon production across Healthcare and Electronics.
Engineering & Technologies Performance
Revenue from Engineering & Technologies totaled €412 million, up +1.8% comparably. Order intake rose sharply to €1.3 billion, a +38% increase from H1 2024, reflecting strong global demand, particularly in energy transition technologies.
