March 8 2004 - GOLDEN Hope Plantations Bhd aims to emulate giant UStrading house Cargill Inc’s success in the global commodities market.

The Malaysian firm’s business may be much smaller than Cargill’s US$200billion (US$1 = RM3.80), but Golden Hope’s chief executive has ambitionsto expand his company’s influence in the world market.

Cargill, a renowned international provider of food, agriculture and riskmanagement products and services, operates in 60 countries, employingabout 100,000 people.

Golden Hope, in comparison, employs about 12,000 people and owns 17 mills,a distribution centre in Germany and a refinery each in Malaysia, theNetherlands, Vietnam, China and Bangladesh.

Chief executive Sabri Ahmad told Business Times his company has madeforays into the European oils and fats market and is thinking of expandingits oil palm business in Indonesia and plans to be more aggressive inresearch and development of new products.

To focus on its core plantation-related business and to position itself tobecome a major world player, Golden Hope last September swapped shareswith its property-based sister company, Island & Peninsular Bhd (I&P).

When the RM3.6 billion share-swap arrangement with I&P is completed, twolisted corporations will be created, with Golden Hope focusing onplantations and I&P on property development. The enlarged Golden Hope willalso have 99.6 per cent control of I&P’s plantation unit, AustralEnterprise Bhd.

Parent company Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) will eventually control 58.2per cent of Golden Hope and 58.1 per cent of I&P.

Sabri said his company has already made key moves into downstreamactivities to boost its brand name although rationalisation of the group’sbusinesses will be completed only by May this year.

The purchase in 2000 of Unimills’ refinery in the Netherlands was a moveto take Golden Hope into the European market, he added.

Unimills is the second largest diversified oil and fats blend manufacturerin Europe and it has a refinery, hydrogenation and pumpable shorteningsand fats packaging plants.

Sabri said Golden Hope makes and sells products such as cooking oil,vegetable ghee and margarines to big market players like Nestle andKentucky Fried Chicken, but not many people are unaware of this.

He did not discount the possibility of Golden Hope buying more land inIndonesia to expand its activities there, but that would be done graduallyand carefully.

With its 250 million population, Indonesia is a potential market for thecompany’s products such as cooking oil, he said.

At home, Sabri said, Golden Hope will intensify downstream activities, addvalue to the production chain and tap the oleochemical and oils and fatsmarkets as well as embark on more aggressive marketing and distributionactivities.

We would also like to maximize our human capital of about 12,000 workersand push for more aggressive research and development activities to comeup with new products, he said.

Golden Hope was incorporated in 1844. It owns 120,000ha of oil palmestates, of which 7,565ha are in Indonesian Kalimantan.

It also owns 11,581ha of rubber plantations and 2,000ha of estates withmixed crops such as cocoa, guava, coconuts and rattan.

Golden Hope recorded a pre-tax profit of RM234.6 million in its first sixmonths ended December 31 2003 on revenues of RM1.5 billion.

Analysts believe the company is on track to hit its target of an annualpre-tax profit of RM500 million in its financial year ending June 2004.Reuters Estimates from 11 brokers forecast the planter will chalk up a RM3billion sales and a pre-tax profit of RM426.3 million for the full year.