Guthrie Group Limited () was a

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

an-

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

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 Sime Darby Berhad, referred to as Sime, is a Malaysian trading conglomerate. Its core businesses operate and serve in the industrial equipment and automotive sectors. Background The modern Sime Darby Berhad corporation was created in 2007 t ...

. Guthrie was founded in

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. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

trading company in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

. 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. Types of polyisoprene ...

and

oil palm ''Elaeis'' () is a genus of palms, called oil palms, containing two species, native to Africa and the Americas. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil. Description Mature palms are single-stemmed, and can gro ...

in 1896 and 1924, respectively.

Early history

Alexander Guthrie was born in the parish of Menmuir in

Angus, Scotland Angus (; ) is one of the 32 Local government in Scotland, local government council areas of Scotland, and a Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Dundee City (council area), Dundee City and Per ...

, 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 city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, where he died unmarried in 1865. James Guthrie was born in Tannadice in Angus in 1814, the 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: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

. 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 port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

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 Tun Ismail bin Mohamed Ali (16 September 1918 – 6 July 1998) was the second Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia and the chairman of the Pemodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB). Life Ismail was born on 16 September 1918 in Port Swettenham, Selangor a ...

Khalid Ibrahim Abdul Khalid bin Ibrahim (; 14 December 1946 – 31 July 2022) was a Malaysian politician who served as the 14th Menteri Besar of Selangor from 2008 to 2014. He was the Member of the Selangor State Assembly (MLA) for Ijok from 2008 to 2013, ...

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah Tengku Razaleigh bin Tengku Mohd Hamzah (Jawi alphabet, Jawi: تڠکو غزالي بن تڠکو محمد حمزة; born 13 April 1937) is a Malaysian people, Malaysian politician who served as the Dewan Rakyat, Member of Parliament (MP) for Gu ...

and

Raja Mohar Raja Mohar bin Raja Badiozaman (23 March 1922 – 8 June 2003) was serving as Secretary-General to the Treasury of Malaysia from 1971 to 1972. Honours * : ** Companion of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (JMN) (1961) * : ** Grand Comm ...

engineered a raid to take over the group at the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

. 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 a state-owned enterprise, state-owned Malaysian investment management company. One of the largest fund management companies in Malaysia, it was established on 17 March 1978 as one of the instruments of the gov ...

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 Bursa Malaysia (English: Malaysian Bourses or Malaysia Exchange) is the stock exchange in Malaysia. It is one of the largest bourses in ASEAN. It is based in Kuala Lumpur and was previously known as the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE). It p ...

(KLSE) in 1989 in what was then the largest public issue in Malaysia. As of 1993, Guthrie had about 110,398 hectares of land, with 19,500 hectares for rubber plantations and 1,481 hectares reserved for development. Its land bank was the largest in Malaysia. Guthrie owned a corridor of estates in Selangor, named the "Guthrie Corridor", totaling 4,706 hectares. The corridor comprised four estates, from Bukit Jelutong in Shah Alam to Lagong in Rawang. It also owned Haron Estate in Klang, and a piece of land in Gurun, Kedah. In 1996, Guthrie began moving to property development as its new core business. Some of its estates became property land, with Bukit Jelutong becoming an integrated township and Lagong becoming a satellite city. Guthrie also planned to build a 30 km-long expressway along the corridor, which became the

Guthrie Corridor Expressway Guthrie Corridor Expressway, GCE, (Malay Language, Malay: ''Lebuhraya Koridor Guthrie'') is an expressway in Klang Valley, Selangor, Malaysia. It connects Shah Alam to Rawang, Selangor, Rawang. GCE is approximately ( long on the Prolintas secti ...

. In 1997, Guthrie began installing central monitoring systems an electronic alarm system linking each house with a police station on its houses and commercial buildings, including the Guthrie Corridor.

Merger with Sime Darby

With the government investment company Pemodalan Nasional Berhad being the largest single shareholder, the government merged Guthrie with

Sime Darby Sime Darby Berhad, referred to as Sime, is a Malaysian trading conglomerate. Its core businesses operate and serve in the industrial equipment and automotive sectors. Background The modern Sime Darby Berhad corporation was created in 2007 t ...

and Golden Hope 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.

Later 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, historically known as Malaya and also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, is the western part of Malaysia that comprises the southern part of the Malay Peninsula on Mainland Southeast Asia and the list of isla ...

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 has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

, and northern Sumatra and

West Kalimantan West Kalimantan () is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five Indonesian provinces comprising Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. Its capital and largest city is Pontianak. It is bordered by East Kalimantan and Central ...

(

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

) in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. The group is also engaged in real estate (with the formation of Guthrie Properties in 1994) and manufacturing.

References

External links