The chances are they will float off the FLT division to fund the BOC takeover. Even if this isn't true it makes a nice rumour!!!!
Here is a recent press article from scotsman.com
"We want to create a pure-play gases company," Chief Executive Wolfgang Reitzle told reporters at a press conference in Frankfurt, adding that Linde was weighing all strategic options for its Material Handling, or forklifts, business.
....
He deflected repeated questions about the fate of Material Handling, declining to say whether he preferred a trade sale to an industrial buyer, a deal with a private-equity consortium or spinning it off through an initial public offering.
Another article on mnbc.com
..As part of the deal, Linde will sell its fork-lift trucks division to help create a pure gas company. A sale could fetch about €3bn and would help the smaller German group pay for the deal. Financing has been provided by Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank - two of Linde's core shareholders together with Allianz - as well as Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Scotland and will be a mixture of debt and equity.
Linde will also make a cash injection to BOC's £362m total pensions deficit.
Linde will also agree to pay a break fee in case the deal runs into anti-trust difficulties, but both it and analysts are optimistic that it would have no problems.
Please see a past Forkliftaction.com News article on this topic:
http://www.forkliftaction.com/news/newsdisplay.asp?nwid=2995
Forkliftaction.com News will publish two Linde articles this week - their 2005 financial results and their higher offer for Linde shares.
From what I read in the news is the possible sale of Linde´s material handling division based on speculation. If Linde buys BOC, which rejected their first bid, they will probably sell their material handling division to fund the aquisition and focus on just their gas business.Also read somewhere that Toyota as a result is already looking into the possible aquisition this Linde division. I guess will now for sure whats going to happen when Linde presents their annual report and future strategy in the next couple of weeks.
Have somebody news about Linde Material Handling sale ?
Not seen this on Ebay ! I bid a Quid !