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A lifelong dream has come true for Stefan Messer in the past two years.

The head of the gas manufacturer Messer has expanded his family business into a globally active group by purchasing the American activities of world market leader Linde.

Sales have doubled to around 2.8 billion euros (2019).

According to information from WELT AM SONNTAG, the almost 66-year-old is now about to set the next course.

The conversion into a Europa-AG (SE) is being examined to provide for the future.

In order to prepare for the move, the appropriate legal corporate shell was recently put in the drawer.

"A decision could be made in the first quarter," said a spokeswoman.

With the change in legal form, the family company would achieve two goals.

The image of a stock corporation has more international reputation than the current GmbH form of the Messer Group.

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In addition, in a special legal variant, no employee representatives would have to sit on the supervisory body in the future.

Other important German family groups also have this legal form, such as the shoe retailer Deichmann SE or the paint group DAW SE (Caparol / Alpina).

An IPO of Messer is not planned, it is said on request.

CEO Stefan Messer as the grandson of the company founder has repeatedly emphasized that after a checkered company history he now wants to keep the company in family ownership.

Sudden expansion

The fourth generation of the family is now gradually becoming active.

Son Marcel, 32, has been working in the company for two years.

He studied business administration and also worked for the world's largest asset manager Blackrock.

The husband of Stefan Messer's daughter Maureen, Cédric Casamayou, is also active in the group.

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The rapid expansion of the Messer Group in 2019 became possible after the German gas manufacturer Linde and the US group Praxair merged to become the world's number one in 2018.

Linde-Praxair had to part with activities due to cartel regulations.

This offered Messer a unique growth opportunity that would not have been possible from normal business.

In order to be able to pay for the billion-dollar purchase, the family allied itself with the financial investor CVC Capital Partners.

They founded a joint venture (Messer Industries) and then bought activities in North and South America from Linde-Praxair.

Since then, there has been a piquant situation that the Messer family is practically competing with Linde-Praxair with their ex-works.

In the long term, company boss Stefan Messer has the wish to buy the financial investor out of Messer Industries.

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This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG.

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Source: WELT AM SONNTAG