Linde Showdown Looms on Praxair as Reitzle Opposes Labor

Linde AG faces a showdown with its supervisory board split over the company’s proposed $34 billion sale to U.S. rival Praxair Inc.

Chairman Wolfgang Reitzle is willing to defy labor groups and cast a tiebreaking vote to push the deal through, he said in an interview with the Financial Times. Both the works council and unions, whose members sit on the board of the Munich-based industrial gases giant, have stated their opposition to the proposal, which could mean a vote would be split 50-50.

Double Vote.

German corporate law allows a chairman to cast a double vote in the event ...