BOC last night posted record first quarter earnings as the gases group underlined its value in the face of a £7.6bn takeover move by German firm Linde.

The Surrey-based firm, which employs about 80 people on Teesside, remained silent on the offer situation, but said last week the interest undervalued the business and also risked regulatory problems.

The FTSE 100-listed group made profits of £151m in the last three months of last year, a two per cent rise. Revenues were up four per cent to £1.22bn.

Keith Bowman, equity analyst at stockbrokers Hargreaves Lansdown, said that the profits were at the lower end of market expectations, but added the results would do BOC no harm in showing its worth.

"BOC is going to stand firm in terms of what it says is the value of the company," he said. "It is making a great play of it being the biggest operator in the Chinese market, which it sees as giving it a higher value."

The firm said that up to 90 jobs at its BOC Edwards sites in Crawley, West Sussex and Bolton, Lancashire could be axed - with the work transferred to India and the Czech Republic to cut costs.

Consultation over the future of the factory, which makes equipment for semiconductor manufacturers, is still ongoing with other BOC Edwards jobs set to remain in Britain.

The record earnings come despite a slowdown in demand from European manufacturers for its products - which include gas in cylinders and products for cutting and welding.

This left profit in the industrial and special products arm unchanged, despite revenues increasing five per cent, driven by demand in South Africa and the south Pacific.

The process gas solutions arm achieved 16 per cent higher turnover year on year.