Praxair confirms resumption of merger talks with Linde AG

Merger talks between industrial gases titans Praxair Inc., based in Danbury, and Munich, Germany”™s Linde AG, called off in September, are back on.

Confirming that it had approached Linde, Praxair released a brief statement saying: “There can be no assurance that this will result in a transaction, or on what terms any transaction may occur. Praxair does not intend to comment further at this time.”

Linde was equally terse, confirming that it had received a “revised proposal” from Praxair and saying that its executive board would be reviewing the offer, most likely at its next meeting on Dec. 7.

When discussions ended in September, the merger would reportedly have been worth about $60 billion. Disagreements over who would run the merged company and where its headquarters would be located have been cited as key sticking points in the original talks; Linde”™s Chief Financial Officer Georg Denoke exited the company shortly after those talks collapsed, with CEO Wolfgang Buechele announcing less than 30 minutes later that he would not extend his contract beyond April 2017.

In October, Linde announced a restructuring to achieve annual cost savings of about €370 million ($392 million) a year from 2019, which would include layoffs around the world.