Akzo seeks partner for ailing polyester textile business. (Akzo Nobel)

Akzo Nobel is seeking a joint venture partner for its money- losing polyester textile fibers division. The company needs to invest "several hundred millions" of guilders to modernize its plants and cannot do this alone, says Friedrich Frihlich, Akzo Nobel board member with responsibility for fibers. "We need to invest, but we would like to do that with a partner," he says. "We must invest in the most modern production processes possible."

By the end of the decade the polyester industry will be dominated by a few global players, and an international partner can enable the company to achieve such a position, particularly as Western Europe's share of the …