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French industrial gases company supplying oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and specialty gases to industry, healthcare and electronics.
French industrial gases company supplying oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and specialty gases to industry, healthcare and electronics.
Sells gas mainly under long-term contracts with minimum payments, from plants built on or next to the customer's site, with electricity costs passed through in the price. Smaller customers buy by tanker or cylinder. It bought Airgas of the US in 2016, which widened its reach there.
In one line: France's Linde/Air Products peer..
Moat: wide (scale, switching costs, installed base). On-site plants and pipeline networks tied to customers' processes for decades create very high switching costs.
Headquarters: Paris, France · Founded: 1902 · Employees: 65,168
Size Air Liquide (AI.PA) is a France Materials company (Chemicals: Specialty) with a market value of $134B, the 8th largest of 206 France companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at €187.78 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 15.4%, against +3.8% for the median peer and -0.4% for the France market (cap-weighted) — 2nd highest of 6 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 1.3% over the last twelve months (peer median +5.1%); the operating margin is 21.2% (peer median 24.3%).
Valuation It trades at 29.0× forward earnings against a peer median of 21.2× (2nd most expensive of 6).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 18% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +6%, so the hurdle is +12 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 1.0 points above its cost of capital (8.8% WACC).
Credit Air Liquide has 17 bonds outstanding ($11.2B), rated A by the agencies and trading like AA at a weighted spread of 68 bp.
Next results Next results expected around 17 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | €27.0B | €26.9B | €27.1B | €27.6B | €29.9B |
| Revenue growth | — | 0% | -2% | -8% | — |
| Gross profit | €9.82B | €9.64B | €9.38B | €8.88B | €8.69B |
| EBITDA | €8.34B | €8.15B | €7.90B | €7.55B | €7.33B |
| Net income | €3.54B | €3.52B | €3.31B | €3.08B | €2.76B |
| Free cash flow | €1.52B | €2.51B | €2.60B | €2.66B | €2.31B |
| Capital expenditure | €3.84B | €3.84B | €3.53B | €3.39B | €3.27B |
| Total debt | n/a | €13.6B | €12.4B | €12.1B | €13.5B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Liquide AI.PA | $134B | +15% | -1% | 21% | 29.0× | 18.1% |
| Linde LIN | $237B | +5% | +8% | 27% | 27.0× | 14.4% |
| Air Products APD | $67.9B | +4% | +5% | 24% | 21.2× | n/a |
| Nippon Sanso 4091.T | $15.3B | +1% | +10% | 15% | 16.9× | 7.8% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | AI.PA | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +11.8% | +6.7% | highest of 6 |
| 6-month return | +15.4% | +3.8% | 2nd highest of 6 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -1.6% | -5.9% | highest of 6 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -1.3% | +5.1% | 2nd lowest of 6 |
| Operating margin | 21.2% | 24.3% | 3rd lowest of 6 |
| Forward P/E | 29.0× | 21.2× | 2nd most expensive of 6 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 18.1% | 11.7% | 2nd most demanding of 5 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +5.6% | +5.5% | 3rd highest of 5 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +12.5 pp | +7.7 pp | 2nd most demanding of 5 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +1.0 pp | +2.0 pp | 3rd lowest of 6 |
| EV / EBITDA | 16.3× | 19.1× | 3rd cheapest of 6 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.8× | 2.0× | 3rd least indebted of 6 |
| Bond spread | 68 bp | 65 bp | 3rd tightest of 5 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Liquide AI.PA | France | $134B | +15% | -1% | 21% | 29.0× | 18.1% | +5.6% |
| Ecolab ECL | United States | $84.3B | +19% | +9% | 18% | 33.6× | 19.7% | +6.4% |
| Linde LIN | United States | $237B | +5% | +8% | 27% | 27.0× | 14.4% | +4.5% |
| Air Products APD | United States | $67.9B | +4% | +5% | 24% | 21.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Shin-etsu Chemical 4063.T | Japan | $66.5B | -27% | +5% | 25% | 17.2× | 8.9% | +11.4% |
| Basf BAS.DE | Germany | $52.6B | +2% | -4% | 7% | 16.8× | 5.7% | +0.2% |
Air Liquide has 17 bonds outstanding with $11.2B face value. The agencies rate it A; its bonds trade like AA. Weighted yield 3.76%, a spread of 68 bp over government bonds.