This article was published on June 24, 2025, at 4:34 p.m. on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove site.
French industrial gas company Air Liquide is gaining attention as it has made the shortlist for the acquisition of DIG Air Gas. Air Liquide has reportedly offered the highest price in this bidding war.
Air Liquide, which is also the original owner of DIG Air Gas, has been looking for opportunities to enter the domestic industrial gas market. It is said that they challenged when Air First sold a minority equity stake three years ago.
According to investment banking (IB) industry sources on the 24th, Macquarie Asset Management, the largest shareholder of DIG Air Gas, selected Air Liquide and Brookfield as finalists through its lead underwriters Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. They reportedly offered a price in the range of 5 trillion won, as expected by Macquarie.
Air Liquide is an industrial gas company headquartered in Paris, France. Last year, it recorded sales of 27 billion euros (approximately 42.64 trillion won), ranking second after Germany's Linde (approximately 44.91 trillion won).
Air Liquide also previously held about half of the equity of Daesung Industrial Gas, the predecessor of DIG Air Gas. In 1979, it established Daesung Industrial Gas in partnership with Daesung Industrial, holding 44% equity and co-managing the company until selling its equity to Daesung in 2014, since when it has only operated under the name Air Liquide Korea in the Korean market.
However, Air Liquide Korea's profit scale is difficult to compare with that of other industrial gas companies. Last year, its operating profit was 8.6 billion won. This is small compared to Linde Korea (29.27 billion won), Air Products Korea (14.92 billion won), DIG Air Gas (13.95 billion won), and Air First (10.6 billion won).
Therefore, Air Liquide is said to have been seeking opportunities to increase its presence in the Korean industrial gas market. A representative example of this was its attempt to acquire a 30% minority equity stake in Air First in 2023. However, due to a low bid, the selling side determined that financial investors (FI) were more suitable than strategic investors (SI) like Air Liquide for the minority stake acquisition, resulting in losing the opportunity to BlackRock. It is reported that Air Liquide also proposed to acquire the management rights of Air First, but this was also frustrated due to issues related to the company's valuation.
Air Liquide maintained its stance to stay during last year's decision by its competitor Air Products to withdraw from the Korean market and push for the sale of its corporation. This is interpreted as Air Liquide looking for business expansion opportunities while keeping a Korean subsidiary with an annual operating profit of only a few billion won.
At the time, an official from Air Liquide's headquarters denied reports of the sale of its Korean subsidiary by stating, "I cannot officially confirm this, but I have heard nothing regarding the sale of Air Liquide Korea."
Currently, Air Liquide is said to be pursuing the acquisition of DIG Air Gas through Han Young Accounting Corporation, with the cross-border deal team within Han Young providing advisory services.