Linde plc (LIN) Q1 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

first quarter earnings calling webcast. I'm Juan Pelaez, head of investor relations, and I'm joined this morning by Sanjeev Landa, chief executive officer, and Matt White, chief financial officer. Today's presentation materials are on our website at the lindy.com in the investor section. Please read the forward-looking statement disclosures on page two of the slides and note that it applies to all statements made during this talk conference. The reconciliations of the adjusted numbers are in the appendix to this presentation. Sanjeev will provide some opening remarks, and then Matt will give an update on Lindy's first quarter financial performance and outlook, after which we will wrap up with Q&A. Let me now turn the call over to Sanjeev. Thanks, Juan, and very good morning, everyone. Last quarter, we took a fairly cautious view on the economy, and unfortunately, things mostly played out as anticipated. Yet, despite those headwinds, Lindy employees once again delivered resilient results by growing APS XFX by 8%, expanding operating margins 120 basis points to 30.1%, and maintaining industry-leading ROC at 25.7%. It's during volatile and uncertain times like today when the Linde operating model truly stands out. To demonstrate that, slide three provides an overview of the defensive nature of our business. Some of you may recall this slide. That is because we presented a version of it in April 2020, another period when financial markets were gripped with fear and uncertainty. Lindy managed through a challenging 2020 and demonstrated its resiliency by growing EPS 12% that year. And I fully expect this defensiveness to be on display for 2025 and beyond. Now, we define defensive sales as businesses which contain at least one of the three categories. The first category rep...