Air Liquide 1H26 - Speed bump, but remain Outperform

Research evidence excerpt

Air Liquide 1H26 - Speed bump, but remain Outperform

29 July 2026

James Hooper

+44 20 7676 6995

European Chemicals james.hooper@bernsteinsg.com

Sebastien AfoyAir Liquide SA +44 207 762 1032

Rating sebastien.afoy@bernsteinsg.com

Outperform Specialist Sales

James Brady

Price Target +44 20 7762 5272

james.brady@bernsteinsg.com

AI.FP 202.00 EUR (189.00 OLD)

We identified the potential for Air Liquide’s 1H26 results to be a speed bump, and the market

Close Date 27 Jul 2026

has taken issue with a tricky print but limited impact on longer-term fundamentals, in our view

AI.FP Close Price (EUR) 177.18

(Quick Take: Air Liquide 1H26 - Complicated, but not thesis-changing). After perhaps a slight

Price Target (EUR) 202.00

expectations reset, we believe the road gets easier from here. The backlog remains at record

Upside/(Downside) 14%

levels, we remain optimistic on further growth acceleration, and the 5 October CMD remains a

52-Week Range 182.26/140.78

catalyst. We remain Outperform, and see 1H26 weakness as an entry point.

EDME --

We actually raise our comparable growth forecasts for 2H26 by 40 bps, upgrading FYE Dec

expectations in Electronics and Industrial Merchant. Although we maintain our Large Div Yield 1.9%

Industries conservatism, we follow management guidance of sustainable 8-9% growth in Market Cap (EUR) (M) 110,198

Electronics and forecast a sequential 50bps improvement in Industrial Merchant based EV (EUR) (M) 126,141

on easing helium supply constraints and stable qoq pricing. Overall, we forecast FY26 Performance YTD 1M 6M 12M

comparable growth of +3.2% in line with various consensus sources (FY26 estimates of Absolute (%) 18.5 (0.1) 21.1 10.2

+3.0% for Vara, and +3.4% for VA). This implies 2H growth is sequentially 90bps above EDME (%)

1H, but only +20bps vs.