Sime Darby Bhd
SIME Darby Berhad, the merged entity of three Malaysian corporations, is a diversified Malaysian multinational with a workforce of 104,300 employees.
Its core businesses are plantations, property, motor, heavy equipment and energy & utilities which are expected to benefit from continued population growth and economic development within the Asia Pacific region and the global economy.
Sime Darby’s non-core business units such as healthcare, insurance, and home products are grouped under its Allied Products and Services division (APS).
Subsidiaries under APS include Subang Jaya Medical Centre (healthcare), Sime Alexander Forbes (insurance), and Dunlopillo Malaysia Sdn Bhd (home products).
It also has a controlling share in the supermarket chain Tesco in Malaysia. Sime Darby is a multinational company, with more than 60 percent of the group’s revenue coming from abroad.
Sime Darby became one of the world’s leading listed oil palm plantation groups when it merged with Golden Hope Plantations and Kumpulan Guthrie, to form the world’s biggest listed palm plantation company in terms of landholdings.
Sime Darby Berhad also has a significant presence in downstream palm oil activities. The merger also made Sime Darby a leading developer of residential and commercial communities.
The group also holds Caterpillar rights in 12 countries worldwide and distributorship and dealership of well known motor brands such as BMW. The current president and group chief executive is Dato’ Seri Ahmad Zubir Murshid.
In November 2008, Red Apes Org, a respected group that campaigns to protect the orangutans of Malaysia described Ahmad Zubir Murshid as ‘evil’. The group says that oil palm cultivation is a grave threat to the survival of orangutans and that Sime Darby is a part of the problem.
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