Subject: Elf Aquitaine Is Striving to Become An International Force
Date: Published: 4/24/89 (44 lines)
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Restless Giant:  
    France's Elf Aquitaine
    Is Striving to Become
    An International Force
    ---
    Fearing Europe Rivals in 1992,
    State-Controlled Oil Firm
    Is Pursuing Acquisitions
    ---
    The Need to Compete in U. S. 
    ----   
    By Allanna Sullivan
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    PARIS -- Can a government-controlled company, ensconced
 for more than 20 years in a safe national market, quickly
 turn itself into an aggressive, wide-ranging multinational?  
    That is just what Elf Aquitaine, France's biggest oil
 company, is trying to do.  Leading the charge is its
 government-appointed chairman, who is pushing its expansion
 like a Texas entrepreneur.

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    Moreover, Elf already boasts a dizzying diversity, which
 it contends will help offset any plunge in oil prices.  Beyond
 oil and chemicals, its products range from gelatin, food
 additives and sunflower seeds to tony Van Cleef & Arpels,
 Nina Ricci, Krizia and Fendi perfumes.  Elf also is the
 world's top grower of carnations.  It sells the No.  1
 antithrombotic drug in Japan.  It markets a treatment for hair
 loss and a screening test for the AIDS virus.

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