Air Liquide, the French industrial-gases company, announced on Thursday that its first-half profits surpassed expectations, despite a slight decline in revenue. The company’s net profit for the first six months of the year reached EUR1.72 billion ($1.91 billion), reflecting an increase from the EUR1.30 billion reported during the same period last year.
Although revenue dipped by 1.6% to EUR13.98 billion, the company’s gas-and-services business, which constitutes 96% of its total revenue, experienced a marginal decrease of 1.4% to EUR13.41 billion. In the second quarter, overall revenue declined by 7.0% year-on-year to EUR6.81 billion.
Despite these figures, Air Liquide’s results outperformed analysts’ predictions of EUR1.59 billion in net profit and EUR13.95 billion in revenue for the first half of the year.
Moreover, Air Liquide highlighted its strong investment momentum and confirmed a project backlog worth EUR3.5 billion as of now. Looking ahead to 2023, the company remains optimistic about its ability to further enhance its operating margin and achieve recurring net profit growth at constant exchange rates.
