Change in Europe in 1999 was not confined to the rapidly evolving technology arena. In 1999, CSFB's Equity team led two landmark deals which were germane to the creation of Aventis, one of the world's largest life sciences groups. In order to prepare for their merger to create Aventis, Rhône-Poulenc S.A. of France and Hoechst of Germany decided to divest their chemicals operations. Rhône-Poulenc mandated CSFB to divest its remaining 67.3% stake in Rhodia, which the Equity team successfully executed through a 1.2 billion euro secondary equity offering of Rhodia shares and a 1.0 billion euro exchangeable bond offering for Rhône-Poulenc, exchangeable into Rhodia shares. CSFB was joint bookrunning lead manager for both offerings. CSFB was also appointed Hoechst's sole advisor in the demerger of its Celanese chemicals unit.