S&P upgrades Linde

Standard & Poor's said it raised to A- from BBB+ the long-term issuer credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on Linde AG and on its hybrid instruments to BBB from BBB-.

The A-2 short-term issuer credit rating was affirmed.

S&P also assigned A-/A-2 long- and short-term issuer credit ratings to financing vehicle Linde Finance BV.

The outlook is stable.

"The upgrade reflects Linde's earnings resilience, in our view, in the challenging 2009 environment, and it also factors in our expectation that in 2010 the company will likely achieve sustainable credit metrics in line with our rating, owing in part to its leverage policy, which we now see as more clearly conservative," S&P analyst Emmanuel Dubois-Pelerin said in a statement.

Linde's stronger financial profile hinges on the company's leverage policy, targeting in the medium term the lower end of the 2x-3x net-debt-to-EBITDA range, the agency said.

An assessment of Linde's business profile as excellent reflects the company's position as the world's second-largest, geographically diversified manufacturer of industrial gases and its strong market position in special engineering, the agency noted.

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