Air Products(NYSE: APD) announced that it has made an offer to acquire Airgas, Inc. (NYSE: ARG) for $60.00 per share in cash. The offer was made in a letter to Airgas' Board of Directors yesterday after the CEOs of the two companies had previously discussed Air Products' interest in acquiring Airgas and after Air Products had made two written offers, and these offers and Air Products' requests to discuss them were rejected by Airgas.
At $60.00 per share, the offer provides a 38% premium to Airgas shareholders based on yesterday's closing price of $43.53 and is 18% above Airgas' 52-week high. The total value of the transaction is approximately $7.0 billion, including $5.1 billion of equity and $1.9 billon of assumed debt. The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to Air Products' earnings per share on both a GAAP and cash basis, excluding expected one-time costs.
空气产品“提供充分价值Airgas”的补充能力和有吸引力的长期前景。合并后的公司总部位于宾夕法尼亚州，将是北美最大的工业天然气公司，也是世界上最大的工业天然气公司，在所有地理位置和所有三个分销渠道中都具有独特的优势：包装的气体，液体散装和吨位。两家公司的结合将在财务和战略上引人注目，到第二年底，成本的协同作用为2.5亿美元，以及通过利用Airgas的广泛的美国销售部队和在国内和国际上加速增长的能力，并在国际上加速增长。空气产品的全球业务和基础设施的基础。
Air Products is fully committed to pursuing this transaction, and has secured committed financing from J.P. Morgan to complete the offer. Air Products is prepared to make appropriate divestitures to address regulatory issues.
John E. McGlade, Air Products' chairman, president and chief executive officer, said, "This is an extremely compelling transaction with undeniable strategic and industrial logic that would benefit shareholders, customers and employees of both companies. Bringing together these two highly complementary companies would create substantial value. We highly value the talented operating team at Airgas, and believe they would benefit greatly from the expanded opportunities and resources available to them as part of a larger and stronger global U.S. company with significantly greater long-term growth prospects than a stand-alone Airgas. While we are disappointed that Airgas has thus far prevented its shareholders from receiving a substantial premium and immediate liquidity, we have repeatedly communicated to the Airgas Board our willingness to improve our offer to reflect any incremental value they can demonstrate. While it remains our strong desire to reach an agreement with Airgas on a friendly basis, we are fully committed to pursuing this transaction and are prepared to take all necessary steps to complete it, including making an offer directly to Airgas shareholders."