Guthrie Group Limited ( ms, Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad) was a
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
an-
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
n company that primarily dealt with plantations. It merged with three other plantation groups to form the world's largest plantation company with the name of
Sime Darby Berhad.
Guthrie was founded in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
in 1821 by
Alexander Guthrie as the first
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
trading company in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
. Guthrie introduced
rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
and
oil palm
''Elaeis'' () is a genus of palms containing two species, called oil palms. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil. The African oil palm ''Elaeis guineensis'' (the species name ''guineensis'' referring to its co ...
in
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
in 1896 and 1924, respectively.
Early history
Alexander Guthrie was born in the parish of Menmuir in
Angus, Scotland
Angus ( sco, Angus; gd, Aonghas) is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross. Main industries include agr ...
, in 1796, son of David Guthrie of Burnside and his wife Margaret Guthrie, née Guthrie. He went to Singapore in 1821 to set up a trading branch of Thomas Talbot Harrington and Company. Guthrie parted company with Harrington in 1823, and his company was renamed Guthrie and Company in 1833. He retired in 1847, handing the firm over to his nephew James Guthrie, and retired to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, where he died unmarried in 1865. James Guthrie was born in Tannadice in Angus in 1814, son of Alexander's brother David and his wife, Katharine Grant. James arrived in Singapore in 1829 and became a partner in 1837. In 1846, he married Susan Scott, a distant cousin, and had two daughters and a son before Susan's death in Singapore in 1853. James left Singapore in 1856 and returned to
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
. He retired from the firm in 1876 and died in 1900. Other partners included James' nephew by marriage, John James Greenshields, whose mother Margaret Lyall Scott was the sister of Susan Scott. Greenshields was born in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
in 1823 and died there in 1873. Another was James Guthrie's brother-in-law Thomas Scott, born in Dun, Angus in 1832 and died in Angus in 1902, who became a partner in 1857 and senior partner in 1867.
Acquisition by Malaysia
In 1981, the group became a wholly Malaysian-owned company after
Ismail Mohamed Ali,
Khalid Ibrahim
Abdul Khalid bin Ibrahim ( ms, عبدالخالد بن إبراهيم, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; 14 December 1946 – 31 July 2022) was a Malaysian politician who served as the 14th Menteri Besar of Selangor from 2008 to 2014. He ...
,
Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh bin Tengku Mohd Hamzah ( Jawi: تڠکو غزالي بن تڠکو محمد حمزة; born 13 April 1937) is a Malaysian politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gua Musang from August 1986 to November ...
and
Raja Mohar
Raja Tun Mohar bin Raja Badiozaman (born 23 March 1922 – 8 June 2003) was serving as Secretary-General to the Treasury of Malaysia from 1971 to 1972.
Honours Honours of Malaysia
* :
** Companion of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (J.M ...
engineered a raid to take over the group at the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
. The takeover allowed Malaysia to return ownership of some 200,000 acres (800 km²) of agricultural land back to Malaysians. Khalid Ibrahim, CEO of
Permodalan Nasional Berhad
Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) is one of the largest fund management companies in Malaysia. It was established on 17 March 1978 as one of the instruments of the government's New Economic Policy.
PNB's two notable projects is located in Kuala ...
later became the CEO of the Guthrie, later known as
Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd, from 1995 to 2003.
Guthrie Group was made a public company in 1987 and was subsequently listed on the
Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE; ms, Bursa Saham Kuala Lumpur) dates back to 1930 when the Singapore Stockbrokers' Association was set up as a formal organisation dealing in securities in Malaya. In 1937, it was re-registered as the Malayan ...
(KLSE) in 1989 in what was then the largest public issue in Malaysia.
Merger with Sime Darby
With the government investment company
Pemodalan Nasional Berhad
Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) is one of the largest fund management companies in Malaysia. It was established on 17 March 1978 as one of the instruments of the government's New Economic Policy.
PNB's two notable projects is located in Kuala ...
being the largest single shareholder, the government merged Guthrie with
Sime Darby
Sime Darby Berhad () is a Malaysian trading conglomerate. Its core businesses operate and serve in the industrial, motors and logistics sectors as well as the healthcare, and insurance segments.
Background
The modern Sime Darby Berhad corpor ...
and
Golden Hope
Golden Hope Plantations Berhad (GHPB) was an estate and plantations company in Malaysia.
History
In 1905 Harrisons and Crosfield, a British tea and coffee trading company purchased several small estates in Malaysia for £50,000 and amalgamated ...
plantation to form a new entity named Synergy Drive, later renamed Sime Darby. All Guthrie shares were de-listed on 1 November 2007 and re-listed on 30 November 2007. As of November 2007, Sime Darby is the largest company in Malaysia by market capitalisation and also the largest plantation operator in the world with a land bank of over 540,000 hectares.
Sime Darby holds the crown on Bursa
/ref>
Current activities
The group's main activities are plantation and property management. The official trading name of Guthrie is ''Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad''. Guthrie Group has plantation estates in Peninsular Malaysia
Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...
and Sabah
Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...
, and northern Sumatra and West Kalimantan
West Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Barat) is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five Indonesian provinces comprising Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. Its capital city is Pontianak, Indonesia, Pontianak. The province has ...
(Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
) in Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. The group is also engaged in real estate (with the formation of Guthrie Properties in 1994) and manufacturing.
See also
* Tanjong Pagar Dock Company
The Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, (1864–1905), the forerunner of today's Maritime & Port Authority, was founded by Guthrie and Company and Tan Kim Ching. The company was expropriated by the Government in 1905 who replaced it with the Tanjong Pa ...
References
External links
Company Overview of Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd
bloomberg.com
bursamalaysia.com
{{Authority control
Companies established in 1821
Defunct companies of Malaysia
Companies disestablished in 2007
1821 establishments in Asia
2007 disestablishments in Malaysia
Companies formerly listed on Bursa Malaysia
Palm oil companies of Malaysia
Agriculture companies established in the 19th century