By Bartosz Dabrowski and Andrey Sychev
(Reuters) - Linde (NYSE:LIN) Plc, the world's largest industrial gases company, said on Thursday it could benefit from the transition to clean energy in the United States, after it raised its full-year earnings guidance for the third time this year and reported third-quarter earnings above expectations.
The group's chief executive, Sanjiv Lamba, said on a conference call that the total investment opportunity for Linde in the United States alone could exceed $30 billion over the next decade in the wake of recent U.S. legislation.
In August, U.S. President Joe Biden signed the $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), seen as the biggest climate change package in U.S. history.
The EU has said the new legislation, which makes tax breaks conditional on U.S.-manufactured content, places at a disadvantage European car companies and those producing a wide range of goods from the "green economy" sector including batteries, hydrogen and renewable energy equipment.
"I'm very bullish on the clean energy opportunities in front of us and I expect to announce meaningful projects in the near term," Lamba said, adding that Europe's drive for green hydrogen projects has clearly slowed down. He said the U.S. act could boost the company's blue hydrogen investments.
While green hydrogen is made by electrolysis out of water using renewable wind and solar energy, blue hydrogen is extracted from natural gas, and captures the CO2 emissions in underground or subsea storage.
Linde expects adjusted earnings per share to grow by 17%-18% in 2022, excluding foreign-currency headwinds, after having previously aimed for growth of 15%-17%.
The company said in July it produced gases which were critical from a medical or process safety perspective and so believed it would be prioritised for gas allocation from Germany's government.
The group reported third-quarter adjusted earnings of $3.10 per share, up 14% on the year, which beat the $2.93 forecast by analysts polled by Refinitiv.