Air Liquide’s Q1 revenue falls 3% to €3bn on poor global demand

28 April 2009 09:09  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--French industrial gases company Air Liquide has reported first-quarter revenue of €2.99bn ($3.88bn), a 3% fall from the same quarter in 2008, the company said on Monday.

The dip in revenue was caused by the decline in global demand and consumption in individual sectors, the company said.

“The sectors and countries in which the group is active were impacted in substantially different ways,” the company said.

“Certain sectors were rapidly affected by the slowdown in consumption cycles, such as construction in Spain or electronics in Asia, but are now showing signs of recovery,” it said.

Revenue in the gas and services sector fell 3.8% to €2.55bn, while diving and specialty chemicals shrunk 4.1% to €93m.

However, the engineering and construction sector witnessed revenue growth of 30.4% to €247m.

In its outlook, company chairman and CEO Benoît Potier said: “The positive signs first observed at the end of the quarter do not yet provide indications of a trend. Thus, the recovery in our markets could take longer.”

“Under these conditions, we have repositioned our objective for the whole of 2009 for revenue and net income to be close to the 2008 levels,” he said.

($1 = €0.77)

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By: Terence Teo
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