| MUMBAI:
Reliance Industries Limited today announced that the company has signed a letter
of intent with NOVA Chemicals to form a joint venture in the area of building
and construction. This
proposed new joint venture between RIL and NOVA Chemicals, with RIL having 51%
shareholding and NOVA Chemicals 49%, would be a technological partnership for
deploying green building and construction technologies to design, engineer, fabricate
and build a range of high-efficiency structures for the Indian sub-continent.
The LOI between
RIL and NOVA envisages providing turnkey facilities to build structures for RIL
needs as per its requirements, and for other customers initially within the Indian
Subcontinent. “India has a $60 billion construction market that is growing
at about 20% per year. The potential for
energy efficient buildings in India is very exciting and these systems are an
excellent fit for Reliance Retail’s strategy.” said Mr. Kamal Nanavaty,
President. Reliance Industries Limited. “This
new venture will enable us to work with Reliance to build a large, profitable
business based
on our proprietary Performance Styrenics building and construction systems,”
said Chris Pappas, NOVA Chemicals President and COO. These
unique building and construction systems and component parts, based on expandable
polystyrene, minimize resource consumption while decreasing on-going energy demand
by as much as a third. The components of the system include structural and non-structural
roof, decking and wall panels. The
new venture is expected to be operational soon following finalization of formal
agreements. Initial steps necessary to fabricate components in India are underway.
The first activity of the venture will be the construction of buildings for Reliance
Retail in India. | 
