Industrial gas major Air Products has set a target to improve the operating margin of its core merchant gas business over time from about 24% today to a best-in-class 30% or more – that’s an uplift of a quarter.
The company, which held an earnings call last week where it posted a $1.7bn second-quarter 2025 loss after taking a write-down of up to $3.1bn on three cancelled large-scale projects, has had a lot to grapple with in recent months. But its newly appointed CEO Eduardo Menezes, who was installed in February along with other new board members after investor pressure for a boardroom refresh and change of direction, highlighted how the core operations retain a lot of potential.
“The core business has about $12bn in sales and an [adjusted] operating margin of 24%,” said Menezes. “We are confident we can improve margins and unlock significant value through discipline on cost, productivity, and pricing, [allied to] operational excellence.”
He said driving efficiency in core operations was “the largest opportunity we have, considering the $35bn in capital we have invested.”
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