REFRIGERANT gas supplier BOC has rebuffed a £7.6bn bid from German company Linde, the latest suitors for the company.
Linde was first linked with a bid for the British industrial gases business in 2004, a merger rumour hotly denied by the company at the time. Seven years ago BOC accepted a bid from a consortium comprising Air Liquide of France and Air Products of the US but that deal was eventually thwarted by US competition authorities.

Linde, once a big name in the fridge industry, sold its original Refrigeration Division to Carrier in 2004 in a £220m deal.
It is not clear whether Linde will make another bid but market leader Air Liquide of France and German gas company BASF have both denied any interest in joining a bidding war.
BOC, which employs more than 30,000 people, has some two million customers in 50 different countries. It claims 13% of the global gases market against Linde's 9%.
There is already one connection between the two companies: in 2002, BOC acquired a 30% stake in the US business Linde Process Plants Inc and is now known as Linde BOC Process Plants LLC.
At the beginning of last year, BOC bought Calor Gas' aerosol propellants business, which included its Care hydrocarbon refrigerants business.