BUSINESS
CONCENTRATES Lonza sells polymer business; CEO Marchionne steps down Lonza has agreed to sell its polymer intermediates unit to
PPM Ventures, the private equity arm of British finance company Prudential. The new unit will be headed by Peter Fearn, currently a director at PPM, who will relocate to Bergamo, Italy, where the business will be based. According to Lonza, combined proceeds from the sale of the polymer unit and its energy division, which was sold in December, will exceed $600 million. The two divestitures will end a restmcturing started in 2001 by CEO and Managing Director Sergio Marchionne. With the job complete, Marchionne, 49, will resign, effective Feb. 1, to become CEO of a Swiss inspection and testing company, although he will remain a company director G e m U e n d and vice chairman of Lonza. He will be sueceeded as CEO by Markus Gemuend, 43, currently head of the company's biologies division, who has been with Lonza since 1988. R. Helmut Rupp, 54, currently deputy chief executive and chief technology officer, will leave those posts to become involved in activities outside Lonza; he will continue to be a primary adviser to the company on technology, but not on a full-time basis.
Givaudan to buy Nestle flavors Subject to regulatory approvals, Givaudan is to acquire Food Ingredients Specialties (FIS), a division of Nestle, for about $450 million in cash and Givaudan shares. Included will be the FIS factory in Kemptthai, near Zurich. Dietrich Fuhrmann, 61, currendy GEO of FIS, will join Givaudan's executive committee, following closing of the deal. According to Givaudan, the business will boost its foodflavorsbusiness worldwide, but particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.
DSM builds lab for ingredients DSM is to build an $11 million applications development laboratory in Delft, the Netherlands, for its food specialties and bakery ingredients unit. Scheduled to be completed in HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
third-quarter 2003, the laboratory will concentrate all the company's R&D activities on food ingredients, which include enzymes, yeast extracts, natural colorants, fatty acids, and starter cultures.
Pharmacopeia calls off deal Pharmacopeia and Eos Biotechnology have called off a merger, announced last August, following dissent by OrbiMed Advisors, an asset management firm that owns about 10% of Pharmacopeia. Pharmacopeia saw the merger with Eos, a private biotech firm, as a means of getting away from a reliance on corporate partners for drug targets. The deal was to be followed by the spin-off of Pharmacopeia's chemistry software subsidiary, Accelrys. Joseph A. Mollica, Pharmacopeia's chairman, president, and CEO, now says: "We believe there are many ways in which we can
prosper by adding to and leveraging our existing biology and chemistry capabilities. We will continue to pursue the many alternatives available to us."
Phytomedics, Degussa in deal Phytomedics, a biotechnology company specializing in botanical therapeutics, will work with Degussa's BioActives business unit to develop, produce, and market an oral botanical product to treat diabetes. Phytomedics says Degussa's expertise in dietary supplements and functional foods complements its own technologies based on plants. The company expects its newproduct to compete against existing oral drugs that have serious side effects and tend to lose their effectiveness over time.
Venter steps down at Cetera J. Craig Venter has resigned
as president of Celera Genomics, but he will continue as chairman of its scientific advisory board. Tony L. White, CEO of Celera's parent, Applera, willfillin until a replacement can be found. Celera is trying to become a genomicsbased drug business—the driver behind its November 2001 acquisition of Axys Pharmaceuticals. Celera management and directors all agreed that the company's "ongoing best interests would be Venter served by making room for additional senior-level management experienced in pharmaceutical discovery and development," White says. In 1998, Venter left the Institute for Genomic Research to help
create Celera and then led the company's highly competitive effort to sequence the human genome. Venter now plans to devote more time to his role as the institute's chairman.
P&G cuts Clairoljobs Procter & Gamble plans to
slash 1,440 jobs at its Clairol hair care business. The cuts, representing more than onethird of the unit's employees, will come from areas including R&D, marketing,finance,and sales. P&G, which acquired the business from Bristol-Myers Squibb inNovember for almost $5 billion, plans a reduction of 460 nonmanufacturing jobs by June from the 710 at Clairol's Stamford, Conn., headquarters. An additional 165 jobs will be cut from other U.S. locations, and 815 will be cutfromoutside the US.
GE modernizes research center GE will spend more than
$100 million to modernize its research headquarters in Niskayuna, N.Y, near Albany Renamed the GE Global Research Center, the facility will have a new wing of labs dedicated to research in biotechnology, nanotechnology, optical media, lighting and plasma systems, and high-performance polymers. In addition, the company is building conference and meeting facilities. "In the GE ofthe 21st century we will drive technical excellence in our businesses and clearly distinguish ourselves in the marketplace," says CEO Jeff Immelt. "The Global Research Center is at the heart of this philosophy and will spearhead GE innovaC&EN
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miftamffiffl tion and growth."The research center also has branches in Bangalore, India, and Shanghai, China.
Solutia, Lonza in alliance Solutia and Lonza have
formed a phosphonates marketing and production alliance that adds Lonza's North American capacity to Solutia's operations in Europe and Asia. The agreement calls for Lonza to start producing certain grades of Solutia's Dequest phosphonates at its Mapleton, 111., plant. While Lonza will continue to produce its Unihib phosphonate product line at Mapleton, Solutia will market it. Solutia now produces the water treatment chemicals at what it claims is the world's largest such facility in Newport, Wales. It also sells them in China through a marketing agreement reached in November 2000 with producer Wujin Fine Chemicals. At the end of last year, Solutia acquired Cognis' hydroxyethylidene diphosphonic acid business.
Wellman changes fibers strategy Polyester fiber and resin
maker Wellman, of Shrewsbury, N.J., says its fibers business will focus on higher value markets. The company will review its options—which include an outright sale—for its partially orientedyarn business and its staple polyester fiber plant in Marion, S.C. The yarn business has a manufacturing location in Fayetteville, N.C. "Unfortunately, the partially orientedyarn business unit and the Marion plant are relatively small and do not offer sufficient potential within the new 18
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strategy," says Tom Duff, Wellman's CEO. Wellman is also deciding how best it can use the staplefiberunit in Pearl River, Miss., that it idled last quarter because of a flood of staple fiber imports from Asia. The company says it will unveil a plan for the unit in thefirsthalf of this year.
Another, but smaller, deficit Following a huge trade deficit in October, the U.S. chemical industry posted another, albeit comparatively tiny, bit of red ink in November, accord-
tively marketing water treatment technology since the 1980s. Ownership in the Russian unit willfirstbe transferred to a new joint-venture company between NPF and Kemira; following the transfer of permits and licenses, the entire holding in the joint venture will be transferred to Kemira. Kemira expects the process to be completed by the end of the year.
Chatterjee ups Haldia stake The Soros-Chatterjee Group
will increase its stake in Calcutta-based HaldiaPetrochemicals
from 43% to 57% by acquiring the 14% stake owned by Tata Chemicals.The remaining 43% will continue to be owned by the West Bengal government. A Haldia spokesman says the deal will provide Haldia with clearer lines ofdecision-making during debt-restructuring talks with creditors. Haldia had held talks earlier with Indian Oil Corp. about a merger; the talks stalled, but the company says it may still sell part of itself to a major petrochemical manufacturer. Haldia started up its facilities last fall, three years after construction got under way. Much ofits output is exported, primarily to China, the spokesman says.
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ing to the latest data from the Commerce Department. The government data show a deficit of just $9.5 million in November as, on a month-to-month basis, exports declined 3.2% to $6.51 billion, while imports fell 12.7% to $6.52 billion. In November, the deficit was $741.5 million, ^ear-to-year, November chemical exports fell 6.8%, while imports declined 2.0%. In November 2000, the trade surplus stood at $333.1 million.
Kemira acquires water treater Kemira is to acquire the water treatment chemicals business of Russia's NPF Pigment Corp. for about $10 million. Additionally, Kemira will build aplant for ferrous sulfate-based treatment chemicals in St. Petersburg, where it has been ac-
• BP has been fined nearly
$1.5 million for safety breaches at its chemical complex and oil refinery in Grangemouth, Scotland. The fines, levied by the Scottish court, cover two incidents in 2000. In one, a steam pipe close to a main road exploded, injuring a passerby; in the other, a gas leak in another part of the plant caused a major fire.
quarter. The boost will come primarily for Ultramid C, a copolymer based on nylon 6 and nylon 6,6.
• Subject to government approvals, Atofina plans to sell its phosphorus derivatives business in France to the NetherlandsbasedThermphos International. Atofina says the derivatives have "limited synergies" with its other businesses and would do • In what appears to be an better withThermphos, a major acquisition of cashflow,Britain- player in phosphorus and its based Cambridge Antibody derivatives. Technology will take over Toronto-based Drug Royalty • Shell Chemicals has startCorp., which has a portfolio of ed up a 100,000-metric-tonroyalty interests in a variety of per-year propylene oxide glycol high-profile drugs. CAT will ether plant in Pernis, the benefit from current royalty Netherlands. At the plant, Shell agreements, but the company makes methyl proxitol, methyl does not intend to chase after diproxitol, and ethyl proxitol. new such agreements and will not retain DRCs management. • Polyethylene terephthalate resin maker Nan Ya Plastics • BASF will boost capacity for Corp. has settled a patent inspecialty nylon polymers in fringement suit brought against Ludwigshafen, Germany, by it by\bridian, a division of East15,000 metric tons per year. man Chemical. As part of the The increase, which will come agreement, Nan Ya will pay from process improvements, is Voridian for a license covering set for completion in the third Nan Ya PET products. HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
