Business Roundup

Rhodia and SNIA have each sold their 50% stake in Nylstar for 1 euro—roughly $1.30—to a consortium of Nylstar's creditors. Rhodia says the agreement will give the beleaguered nylon-fiber producer a reduced debt load and a better chance of success.

Lanxess has opened a $5 million technology center in Pittsburgh. The center consolidates several North American labs for its rubber, material protection, and functional chemicals businesses.

Air Liquide is paying about $138 million to buy Linde's U.K. industrial gases business, which has annual sales of close to $80 million. Linde was required to sell the business as a condition of its 2006 acquisition of BOC.

Integrated Genomics has won a $70,000 Small Business Innovation Research contract from EPA. The company says the money will enable it to develop a method to make butanol from biomass that is economically competitive with the synthesis of butanol from petroleum.

Petrobras, Brazil's state oil company, won't confirm press reports that it is studying a potential petrochemical project in Peru based on natural gas from Peru's Camisea Basin. According to the reports, the project would make fertilizers and polyethylene and cost more than $2 billion.

Givaudan, the flavors and fragrances giant, has completed its acquisition of Quest International from ICI, after approvals were obtained in the U.S. and the European Union. The $2.3 billion deal was announced last November.

Peakdale Molecular has acquired nonexclusive rights to use Materia's metathesis technology to make research quantities of metathesis-based scaffolds for drug discovery. The two companies will jointly identify target compounds, and Peakdale will develop, produce, and distribute them.

PPD, a Morrisville, N.C., contract research company, has licensed the worldwide rights to develop, manufacture, and market a statin invented by India's Ranbaxy Laboratories. The drug is intended for the management of blood cholesterol levels.