“I'm confident we will deliver a stronger EPS growth that our owners expect and have enjoyed for many years.”

In context

“pply density. In summary, Linde delivered a resilient performance in a challenging 2025 environment. But looking ahead, I know we can do better. Certain regions of the world are still not showing signs of near-term recovery, and we are taking actions to align our resources accordingly. In other words, growth remains geographically uneven, and we need to adjust our organization to reflect that. Considering this, in the fourth quarter, we initiated additional restructuring actions to better position the company for 2026. These actions will have cash payback levels and timing like prior programs, so I expect the bulk of the benefits to be in the second half of the year. When combining these incremental actions with our existing productivity initiatives and a record backlog of secured growth, I'm confident we will deliver a stronger EPS growth that our owners expect and have enjoyed for many years. I'll now turn the call over to Matt to walk through our financial results. Matthew White: Thanks, Sanjiv. Fourth quarter results can be found on Slide four. Sales of $8.8 billion increased 6% over the prior year and 2% sequentially. Versus the prior year, foreign currency translation provided a 3% tailwind as the US dollar weakened against most currencies, especially the euro. I expect this trend to continue into 2026, which we'll discuss later with guidance. Excluding FX, underlying sales increased 3%, from 2% pricing and 1% volumes. The 2% price increase aligned with globally weighted inflation after considering APAC challenges associated with helium and China deflationary conditions. Volume growth was driven by project startups in the Americas and APAC, as base volume growth in the Ame”