Abstract
The sun is setting on one of Britain's oldest and largest industrial firms. After weeks of haggling, the gases company BOC Group has agreed to be acquired and dismantled by Air Products & Chemicals of the U.S. and Air Liquide of France. The two firms will pay £14.60 (about $22.80) per share, or a total of about $11.2 billion, for the company, which had sales in its last fiscal year of about $5.5 billion. The offer is conditional on regulatory clearances, which are expected to take about six months. It's partly for regulatory reasons that the companies made the fairly unusual joint offer. Four companies—Air Liquide, BOC, Praxair, and Air Products—control nearly 60% of the global industrial gases business, and an acquisition of one by another would require substantial divestments to pass antitrust muster. Instead, Air Products and Air liquide plan to divide up BOC evenly, but in a way that avoids market concentration. For ...
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