Linde Materials Handling Australia says the restructure of parent company Linde AG into the Kion Group has been a "positive move".

On 5 September 2006 Linde AG announced a merger with BOC Group plc, creating an industrial gas and engineering company trading as the Linde Group (Forkliftaction.com News #276).

Coinciding with the merger, Linde announced it would separate its materials handling business into another company, Kion Group.

Kion Group is a holding company that groups three brands, Linde, Still and OM.

A Linde Australia statement said the restructure would allow Linde to "focus on the aggressive market share growth targets set for coming years".

Linde Materials Handling Australia managing director Carl Smith said the move was positive for Australia.

"The Linde branding will continue in Australia in its own right and the restructure will only help improve the remarkable progress Linde Australia has made in the past two years," he said.

Linde Australia was formed in 1991 after Linde took control of Australian-based Linde Lansing.

Linde AG CEO Professor Wolfgang Reitzle said separating the materials handling business provided focus.

"By focusing on a clearly-defined business area, it will be possible to bundle strengths even more efficiently and better extract the potential of the individual brands," he said.

Bidding for Linde's forklift division has begun. According to Financial Times Deutschland, the latest bid was EUR3-3.5 billion (USD3.8-4.4 billion).

In 2005 the three brands, Linde, Still and OM, recorded a total turnover of EUR3.6 billion (USD4.6 billion) and an operating profit of EUR223 million (USD283 million). A total of 19,323 employees worked for the three brands worldwide. Kion Group is based in Wiesbaden.