“So to answer your question, both for Americas and APAC, my expectation remains that margins will continue to improve.”

In context

“njiv Lamba: Thanks, Steven. So if you go back historically, about 5 years ago, many of you asked the same question when Americas margins were leading. And I think APAC and EMEA were at 17% and 19%. And we have said then, and I want to repeat again today, that the -- our business is homogeneous, and there is no impediment to getting to the highest margins we see anywhere in our business. The one thing I often point out when we have this conversation around margins is each one of our segments has a country or a business, that has a margin with a [indiscernible] number in front of it. And in many ways, we encourage our businesses, each of the segments to push and try and understand what those successful businesses with a 40-plus percent margins are doing to ensure that we can bridge the gap. So to answer your question, both for Americas and APAC, my expectation remains that margins will continue to improve. And again, we've said in our prepared remarks earlier on, you should expect to see margin expansion in 2025 for Linde plc overall, which obviously is an aggregation of the different segments. I'd say to you that I'd probably say that, that margin expansion range is between 20 to 50 basis points. Typically, that's what we expect longer term. Obviously, we've been delivering well in excess of that, and that obviously sets up some expectations. But expect margin expansion. Each of those segments will continue to grow margin. No impediment to APAC, bridging that gap. And of course, America has got a solid business, which will continue to expand its margin as well. Operator: And your next question comes from the line of Duffy Fisher with Goldman Sachs. Patrick Fischer: You talked about IP bein”