Linde and Praxair merger (2018)
Germany's Linde and U.S.-based Praxair completed a $90 billion all-stock merger to form the world's largest industrial gas company. Regulators in the U.S., Europe, and China forced asset sales worth roughly $5 billion before clearing the deal.
The combined Linde became the global market leader in industrial gases with operations in more than 100 countries.
The deal set a template for stock-funded mergers between complementary industrial suppliers and pushed peers like Air Liquide to chase scale through their own acquisitions.
CECO and Thermon use the same playbook at a smaller scale: combine two complementary industrial suppliers with overlapping customers to win bigger contracts.
