AKZO PLANNING US INVESTMENTS Dutch chemicals group Akzo NV <AKZO.AS> said it hoped to consolidate its core activities this year by making small acquisitions in the US. Akzo chairman Aarnoud Loudon told a news conference on its 1986 report that the company wanted to achieve the same level of US investments it had before it divested its fibre firm American Enka in December 1985, when US investments represented 20 pct of Akzo's total capital. The US expansion plans were not an attempt to compensate for losses in guilder income through the lower dollar, Loudon said. He said a more important factor was the speed of growth in the US, adding "It's the largest industrial market in the world." But he said the company would also be looking at possible acquisitions in Europe. Despite its highly liquid cash flow, Akzo did not plan acquisitions on a scale that would negatively influence the company's debt/equity ratio, Loudon said. The chairman said in the past two years Akzo had spent 1.1 billion guilders on acquisitions, of which nearly two thirds were in the United States. REUTER...