Guthrie (Malaysia)
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Guthrie Group Limited (Malay: Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad; KLSE: GUTHRIE) is a Malaysian company that primarily deals with plantations.
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[edit] History
Guthrie was founded in Singapore in 1821 by Alexander Guthrie, as the first British trading company in Southeast Asia. Guthrie introduced rubber and oil palm in Malaysia in 1896 and 1924 respectively.
[edit] Acquisition by Malaysia
In 1981, the group became a wholly Malaysian-owned company after Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad engineered a raid by Permodalan Nasional Berhad to take over the group at the London Stock Exchange. The takeover allowed Malaysia to return ownership of some 200,000 acres (800 km²) of agricultural land back to Malaysians.
Guthrie Group was made a public company in 1987 and was subsequently listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) in 1989 in what was then the largest public issue in Malaysia.
[edit] 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 and Sabah, and northern Sumatra and West Kalimantan (Borneo) in Indonesia. The group is also engaged in real estate (with the formation of Guthrie Properties in 1994) and manufacturing.
