(AOF) – Air Liquide, the Portuguese bus manufacturer CaetanoBus and Toyota Motor Europe have signed a memorandum of understanding to offer integrated offers for hydrogen mobility. This includes the development of infrastructure and vehicle fleets aimed at accelerating the deployment of hydrogen, for both light and heavy vehicles. This partnership reflects the common ambition of the three partners to contribute to the decarbonization of transport and to accelerate the development of local hydrogen ecosystems for many uses in terms of mobility.
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Key points
– Second in the world behind Linde-Praxair in industrial and medical gases, born in 1902;
– Sales of €23.3 billion structured in 3 branches: gas and industrial services for 96%, engineering and construction then GMT -global markets and technologies;
– Balance of revenues by geographical area – the Americas for 38%, Europe for 33%, Asia-Pacific for 22%;
– Business model based on multi-year contracts (1/3 of revenue generated by twenty-year contracts) and long-term industrial partnerships offering good visibility of future results and an operating margin of more than 20%;
– Open capital, with 33% individual shareholders and 2.5% for employees; François Jackow is the new Group Managing Director from June 2022;
– Healthy balance sheet, with net debt rated A, reduced to €10.4 billion, or 58.5% of shareholders’ equity.
Challenges
– Advance 2015 strategy with 3 priorities 1 – financial performance: annual increase of 5 to 6% in turnover, profitability of more than 10% of capital employed and reduction of absolute CO2 emissions from 2025, via investment decisions €16 billion between 2022-2025, half of which devoted to energy transition – 2 – decarbonisation of industry, via the supply of low-carbon industrial gases, CO2 capture & management – 3 – technological innovation addressed to 5 professions: hydrogen mobility, electronics, health, industrial merchant and high technologies – space, cryogenics, quantum…;
– Innovation strategy funded to the tune of +€300m, aiming for operational excellence, openness to core business or disruptive technologies, through: global network of 6 innovation campuses, with +400 partnerships academic innovation centers / dedicated laboratories: Digital factory for data expertise, Alizent for IoT, m-Lab for molecules, i-Lab for deciphering trends, 60% of which for energy transition…/ funds venture capital ALIAD, in alliance with the Chinese fund CSE and Accelair fund;
– Environmental strategy aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050 with 2 intermediate objectives, 2025 (start of absolute reduction in emissions) and 2035 (33% decline compared to 2015), through: CO2 capture, production of hydrogen by electrolysis and use of biomethane / €8 billion invested by 2035 in the hydrogen value chain / partnership with Rothschild & CO and Solar Impulse in a fund endowed with €200 million to support SMEs offering solutions for the environment and participation in the global decarbonized hydrogen financing fund (€1.2bn invested in the short term, with Baker Hughes, Charg Industries, Plug Power, TotalEnergies and Vinci, for a leverage effect of €15bn) ;
– Ability to pass on higher energy prices to customers;
– Industrial investment opportunities of €3.3 billion at the end of 2021, of which 40% in the energy transition.
French chemistry in full acceleration
After France relaunch (2 billion euros devoted to 135 chemical projects), the State presented the France 2030 plan, which gives pride of place to chemicals. This recognition supports the visibility of the sector, which plans to recruit 120,000 people over the next five years. This corresponds to a significant increase taking into account the total workforce (approximately 200,000 employees). It responds to the aging of active ingredients in chemicals. The objective is also to support the dynamics of the sector, which has enjoyed growth of 1.4% per year on average for fifteen years, against a decline of 1.2% for industry in general. The rise of new sectors (materials for batteries, biosourced and biotechnology products, activities linked to the circular economy, etc.) is reconfiguring the market.