Air Products Acquires EPCO Carbon Dioxide Products

Expanding its portfolio of industrial gases offerings in North America, Air Products

today announced it has acquired EPCO Carbon Dioxide Products, Inc., a privately-held producer and marketer of liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana. The acquisition also includes Louisiana Leasing, Ltd. of Illinois, an affiliated company that owns liquid CO2 distribution assets that are solely leased to EPCO, and immediately vaults Air Products to a position amongst the leaders in the North American liquid CO2 market.  The purchase price is not being disclosed. "This acquisition is a good fit with our North American Merchant Gases set of core competencies.  It also gives us immediate scale in a market that will allow us to capture additional sales of existing products by being able to offer an expanded product portfolio to existing and new customer accounts," said Nelson Squires, vice president and general manager – North America Merchant Gases at Air Products. "We are pleased to be acquiring a company that demonstrated continued growth through the economic challenges of the past several years. EPCO's geographic footprint overlaps nicely with our existing infrastructure such that