text: Aventis Keeps Eye on the Future; Firm to Stick With Life-Science Plan - WSJ
  Aventis Keeps Eye on the Future; Firm to Stick With Life-Science Plan
  LYON, France -- Alain Godard, the head of Rhone-Poulenc SA's agrochemical division, insists that managers must be able to cope with contradictions in a company.
  Mr. Godard himself has relied heavily on that talent during a period of tumultuous change for his company -- and for the 30 billion-euro-a-year ($30.67 billion) agrochemical industry.
  Late last year, Rhone-Poulenc unveiled plans to merge with Hoechst AG and form a new life-sciences giant, Aventis SA, in one of Europe's biggest industrial marriages. A few months later, the companies were forced to overhaul their three-year merger timetable to save the deal. Mr. Godard admits that the abrupt demand by Kuwait Petroleum Corp., Hoechst's biggest shareholder, to speed up the transaction shook confidence of many Rhone-Poulenc executives in their new partner.
  Ironically, coping with the crisis actually welded together the new management faster than would have been possible under the original proposal. "All in all, the situation today is better than if it would have been without the Kuwaitis," Mr. Godard says.
  Novartis-AstraZeneca U-Turn
  Last week, Hoechst shareholders approved a 25 billion euro share exchange with Rhone-Poulenc, the last major hurdle before the companies launch joint operations this month. But on Thursday, their hopes of market leadership were spoiled when archrivals Novartis AG and AstraZeneca PLC announced plans to spin off and combine their own agrochemical divisions in a transaction that questions the model of life sciences that Aventis has followed.