First six months of 2010: Linde continues upward trend and expects operating profit to exceed record year 2008

Munich, 2 August 2010 - Capitalising on the general economic upturn, the technology group The Linde Group has continued the positive trend seen in the first quarter into Q2. In the first half of 2010, the Group achieved significant growth in sales and operating profit. "The upward trend is continuing. In the course of the second quarter, we have increasingly seen a rise in demand worldwide," said Professor Dr Wolfgang Reitzle, Chief Executive Officer of Linde AG. "Once again we have improved our profitability and we look with confidence to the months ahead.

We reaffirm our objective, which is to reach a higher level of Group sales and Group operating profit in the 2010 financial year than in 2009. We are well on the way to achieving a faster rate of growth in Group operating profit than in Group sales and exceeding the Group operating profit of record year 2008."