Linde plc (NYSE:LIN) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call October 26, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Corporate Participants

Juan Pelaez - Head, Investor Relations

Sanjiv Lamba - Chief Executive Officer

Matt White - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Mike Leithead - Barclays

Laurent Favre - BNP

Stephen Richardson - Evercore ISI

Duffy Fischer - Goldman Sachs

Jeff Zekauskas - JPMorgan

David Begleiter - Deutsche Bank

Peter Clark - Société Générale

Geoff Haire - UBS

Vincent Andrews - Morgan Stanley

Kevin McCarthy - Vertical Research Partners

Patrick Cunningham - Citi

Steve Byrne - Bank of America

Kevin Estok - Jefferies

Mike Sison - Wells Fargo

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Linde's Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Teleconference and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. And after the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session.

I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Juan Pelaez, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Juan Pelaez

Thanks, Abbie. And thanks for pronouncing my name correctly. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending our 2023 third quarter earnings call and webcast. I am Juan Pelaez, Head of Investor Relations, and I'm joined this morning by Sanjiv Lamba, Chief Executive Officer; and Matt White, Chief Financial Officer.

Today's presentation materials are available on our website at linde.com in the Investors section. Please read the forward-looking statement disclosure on Page 2 of the slides and note that it applies to all statements made during this teleconference. The reconciliations of the adjusted numbers are in the appendix to this presentation. Sanjiv will provide some opening remarks, and then Matt will give an update on Linde's third quarter financial performance and outlook, after which we will wrap up with Q&A.

Let me now turn the call over to Sanjiv.

Sanjiv Lamba

Thank you, Juan, and a very good morning, everyone.

Linde employees delivered another solid quarter despite the economic headwinds. Earnings per share grew 17%. Return on capital closed at 25.6%. Operating cash flow was 2.5 billion and operating margins expanded 550 basis points, finishing at 28.3%. And we delivered these results, while continuing to responsibly deploy capital to high-quality growth opportunities and consistent shareholder returns. This is what our owners expect. It's not new, and not a surprise.

Time and again through recessions and global economic shocks, Linde has consistently delivered industry leading results through a relentless productivity culture while increasing network density. And I see no reason why that won't continue going forward. In fact, rather than waste time trying to predict what will happen we are constantly striving to perfect a model for all seasons.