Quick Take: Air Liquide 1H26 - Complicated, but not thesis-changing

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Quick Take: Air Liquide 1H26 - Complicated, but not thesis-changing

28 July 2026

European Chemicals

Quick Take: Air Liquide 1H26 - Complicated, but not thesis-

changing

Overall we believe there is little in Air Liquide’s 1H26 print to change the longer-term James Hooper

+44 20 7676 6995 investment case. However, this was a complicated report with several temporary impacts.

james.hooper@bernsteinsg.com High headline comparable Electronics growth was supported by some pull-forward in Korea.

But helium also weighed on sales and margins, and disappointing cash generation was

Sebastien Afoy impacted by the end of the factoring programme. And while the stock could be volatile today,

+44 207 762 1032

sebastien.afoy@bernsteinsg.com none of this should detract from a record backlog, up another +€500m to €6bn, nor Air

Liquide’s evident pricing power from the merchant acceleration, nor their ability to deliver the

Specialist Sales targeted margin improvement despite the helium headwind. We reiterate our Outperform

rating.

James Brady

+44 20 7762 5272

james.brady@bernsteinsg.com 1H26 was a beat on growth but group profitability slightly lags (Exhibit 1, Exhibit 2).

2Q Comparable growth at group level was 3.5%, 70bps above consensus. This was driven

by strong growth in the Americas (+5.2% c.c. growth) and APAC (+4.7%). Air Liquide saw

strong growth in Electronics (+9.5%) with double-digit growth in carrier gases sales, albeit

results would have been closer to +8% without some pull-forward in Advanced Materials.

Merchant Pricing also improved sequentially despite helium headwinds. While growth was

better than consensus, 1H26 Group and G&S OIRs is a slight miss of -0.5%. The culprit is

again helium, with APAC’s margins declining 50bps yoy excluding the energy impact.