BUSINESS ROUNDUP

Reliance Industries plans to set up a research center in Navi Mumbai, a planned city on the outskirts of the Mumbai region. Occupying more than half a million square feet of space, the center will be the hub of the Indian giant's research activities.

H.B. Fuller will sell its stake in its automotive joint venture to its principal partner, EMS-Chemie Holding of Switzerland, for $80 million. The joint venture produces adhesives and sealants for the automotive industry.

Asahi Glass will spend more than $250 million to expand output of glass substrates for liquid-crystal displays in Takasago, Japan. The firm will set up a new furnace capable of producing 112-by-120-inch glass, the largest area currently used by the flat-panel industry. On a unit basis, demand for LCDs is growing 20% annually, the company says.

Ineos Nova, the newly formed styrenics joint venture between Nova Chemicals and Ineos, is closing a 55,000-metric-ton-per-year polystyrene plant in Montreal. Ineos Nova says the plant represents about 6% of its North American polystyrene capacity.

Symyx, the supplier of electronic laboratory notebooks and other research software, will eliminate 124 jobs. The cuts are part of a restructuring program following its acquisition of MDL Information Systems from Elsevier for $123 million earlier this year.

Clariant is purchasing Colombia's Toschem, which supplies chemicals and services to the local oil, gas, and industrial water treatment markets. Clariant says it is also investing in a new lab and production site in Cota, Colombia, near Bogotá.

Avecia Biologics will manufacture BaroFold's lead compound, BaroFeron interferon beta-1b, at its Tees Valley, England, site. BaroFeron employs BaroFold's PreEMT technology, which is intended to improve therapeutic proteins through a patented protein-refolding technique.

Siegfried, the Swiss contract manufacturer, has sold its biotechnology unit, a developer of active biological ingredients, to India's Avesta Biotherapeutics. Siegfried says it will now focus on the manufacture of exclusive pharmaceutical chemicals and complex bulk generics.