Regulatory News:

Air Liquide (Paris:AI) has just decided on three investments in France to help accelerate the Group’s innovation and explore new markets. These three initiatives represent an investment of nearly €100 million.

The Group will extend and modernise its Paris-Saclay research centre, near Versailles, which is its main Research & Development centre in the world. A single building will house the 350 current researchers and the 46 laboratories and will have pilot platforms with equipment for designing and testing technologies in industrial-scale conditions. It will allow Air Liquide to reinforce its "open innovation" strategy through academic and industrial research partnerships with players from the Paris-Saclay innovation ecosystem. Air Liquide thereby reinforces its presence in this ecosystem, which now includes 10,500 researchers and 48,000 students, and which by 2020 will be one the 10 biggest innovation hubs in the world.

Moreover, Air Liquide will also create a centre for the development of gas packaging for Industry and Health on its Paris-Saclay site. This centre will gather the Group's expertise in this field. Its mission will be to develop and industrialise new gas packagings for Industry and Health, while ensuring optimum safety, simplicity of use, traceability, and including digital technologies and new materials, allowing Air Liquide to launch new offers with a faster time-to-market.

And finally, building on the investments carried out by the Group in cryogenics for over a century, Air Liquide will create a technical centre of excellence for cryogenic production technologies in Vitry-sur-Seine, near Paris. Within the Engineering & Construction unit, this centre will be responsible for developing and industrialising innovative and high added-value technologies for the production of oxygen, as well as bringing together expertise in this field, while ensuring training, the protection of know-how, and the transfer of innovation within the Group's global engineering network.

François Darchis, member of Air Liquide's Executive Committee, commented: "The Group's innovation is based on our comprehensive knowledge of our markets, on the mastery of our technologies and on our capacity to interact with the innovation ecosystem. These major projects, which bring together diversified expertises, will allow us to sustain our innovation activity in France, and will contribute to Air Liquide's profitable growth over the long term. France is a key country in terms of innovation for Air Liquide as it has a critical mass of talent.

Our strategy relies on competitiveness in our operations, targeted investments in growing markets, and innovation to create new markets and opportunities."

Innovation at the heart of the Group's strategy

  • €265 million innovation expenses in 2013
  • 321 new patents filed in 2013
  • 6,200 employees contribute to innovation around the world, mostly in three entities: Research & Development, advanced Business & Technologies (aB&T), and Engineering and Construction (Global E&C Solutions). They explore new territories, business models, technologies, and services, and they support innovation from the idea to market maturity.

Technologies of the future tested in France

It is in France, in Notre-Dame de Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime), that the Group is implementing the Cryocap H2 project (a technology for the "cold capture" of CO2 emissions) for the first time, in one of its hydrogen production plants.

In Moissy-Cramayel, in the Paris region, Air Liquide tests - for each new development - the technologies that allow the improvement of the energy efficiency for its cryogenic production plants.

In Healthcare, in 2013 Air Liquide rolled out a solution in France for the remote monitoring of data relating to compliance with treatment intended for patients suffering from sleep apnea.

Air Liquide is also a key player in the "Hydrogen Mobility France" initiative, which aims to develop scenarios for the synchronised rolling out of hydrogen vehicles and filling stations in France. Air Liquide registered the two first hydrogen-powered vehicles in France, in 2013.

World leader in gases, technologies and services for Industry and Health, Air Liquide is present in 80 countries with more than 50,000 employees and serves more than 2 million customers and patients. Oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen have been at the core of the company’s activities since its creation in 1902. Air Liquide’s ambition is to be the leader in its industry, delivering long-term performance and acting responsibly.

Air Liquide ideas create value over the long term. At the core of the company’s development are the commitment and constant inventiveness of its people.

Air Liquide anticipates the challenges of its markets, invests locally and globally, and delivers high-quality solutions to its customers and patients, and the scientific community.

The company relies on competitiveness in its operations, targeted investments in growing markets and innovation to deliver profitable growth over the long-term.

Air Liquide’s revenues amounted to € 15.2 billion in 2013, and its solutions that protect life and the environment represented around 40% of sales. Air Liquide is listed on the Paris Euronext stock exchange (compartment A) and is a member of the CAC 40 and Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 indexes.

www.airliquide.comFollow us on Twitter @AirLiquideGroup

Air LiquideCorporate CommunicationsAnette Rey, + 33 (0)1 40 62 51 31Garance Bertrand, + 33 (0)1 40 62 59 62orInvestor relationsVirginia Jeanson, +33 (0)1 40 62 57 37Annie Fournier, +33 (0)1 40 62 57 18orInnovation CommunicationsCorinne Estrade-Bordry, +33 (0)1 40 62 51 77

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