Indonesian Palm Oil News (IPO News) — The long history of Sime Darby and Guthrie has created one of the world’s largest palm oil groups. In Indonesia, this strength is represented by Minamas Plantation, which operates plantations and palm oil mills across a number of strategic regions. Entering 2026, SD Guthrie is strengthening its upstream business while simultaneously developing new sources of growth beyond plantations.
The name SD Guthrie Berhad may not yet be as familiar to the general public as Sime Darby. However, within the palm oil industry, the company is a major global player with a long and distinguished history in plantation development.
SD Guthrie was previously known as Sime Darby Plantation Berhad. The name change formed part of the company’s transformation and repositioning, while its plantation operations in Indonesia continue to be widely known through Minamas Plantation.
The relationship between SD Guthrie and Minamas is rooted in an important chapter in the company’s history. In 2001, Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad acquired the Indonesian plantation interests of Salim Group. The acquisition added more than 260,000 hectares of landbank spread across Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. These operations subsequently became known as Minamas Plantation.
With such a history, Minamas is certainly not a new player in Indonesia’s palm oil industry. Over more than two decades, the company has developed into one of the country’s major plantation groups, with operations covering oil palm cultivation, the processing of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) into crude palm oil (CPO), and a range of supporting activities.
A GIANT WITH A GLOBAL FOOTPRINT
The scale of SD Guthrie can be seen from its plantation network across Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The company positions its plantation operations as part of a strategy focused on sustainable oil palm cultivation and states that all of its estates are RSPO certified.
In 2025, SD Guthrie had more than 560,000 hectares of planted area globally. The company also produced more than 2 million tonnes of certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) annually, making it one of the world’s largest producers of sustainable palm oil.
On the processing side, SD Guthrie’s network includes approximately 70 palm oil mills across its operating countries. This scale demonstrates that the company’s strength lies not only in its extensive plantation footprint, but also in its ability to integrate plantation operations, processing and downstream activities.
Indonesia remains one of the key bases within this global network. Through Minamas Plantation, SD Guthrie operates its upstream business in Indonesia. The company officially identifies its Indonesian operations as being held through its subsidiary, Minamas Plantation.
MINAMAS: A MAJOR FORCE IN INDONESIA
For Indonesia’s palm oil industry, Minamas Plantation is significant because of its long operating history, substantial landbank, core plantation estates and network of palm oil mills supporting the processing of FFB into CPO. Historical data from SD Guthrie shows that Indonesia has been one of the group’s major CPO-producing regions. In 2022, for example, its Indonesian operations produced approximately 711,000 tonnes of CPO, supported by 22 palm oil mills at the time. The planted oil palm area in Indonesia was approximately 191,214 hectares.
These figures illustrate the considerable scale of Minamas’ operations and the important role Indonesia plays within SD Guthrie’s global portfolio. What is also notable is that SD Guthrie’s expansion in Indonesia has not focused solely on increasing land area. Over time, the company has developed increasingly integrated plantation and processing systems, including initiatives involving smallholders and sustainable certification programmes.
RECORD BREAKING 2025 PERFORMANCE
SD Guthrie’s latest financial performance further underscores the strength of the group. For the 2025 financial year, SD Guthrie recorded net profit of RM2.5 billion, representing a 16% increase from 2024 and the highest net profit in the company’s history.
The performance was supported by stronger upstream operations, while its Industrial Development segment also began to emerge as a new source of growth. In 2025, the upstream business contributed approximately 73% of the group’s RM3.6 billion PBIT. Group FFB production increased by approximately 1% year-on-year, while the average realised CPO price rose 4% to approximately RM4,254 per tonne. The average realised palm kernel price also increased significantly, by around 33%, to RM3,219 per tonne.
This demonstrates that although SD Guthrie is developing new sources of revenue, its plantation business remains the fundamental backbone of the group.
MORE THAN JUST A PLANTATION COMPANY
The transformation into SD Guthrie also reflects the company’s new strategic direction. At its Annual General Meeting in June 2026, management reaffirmed its long term strategy through the “One Stream” concept, an integrated plantation business model covering the value chain. At the same time, the company is developing new opportunities through its Industrial Development segment.
This is significant because it shows that SD Guthrie does not intend to rely solely on commodity price cycles. The company aims to continue strengthening its upstream business from plantations through processing while creating new sources of long term growth through industrial development and related businesses.
This strategy could ultimately provide greater revenue diversification while enhancing the company’s long-term value creation potential.
SUSTAINABILITY AS A CORE STRATEGY
As one of the world’s major palm oil companies, sustainability has become an integral part of SD Guthrie’s strategy. The company reported that by FY2025, approximately 51,212 hectares had been designated as High Conservation Value (HCV) and Conservation Set Aside (CSA) areas. SD Guthrie also reported that approximately 3.1 million trees had been planted through various restoration and conservation programmes.
In terms of traceability, SD Guthrie has also made significant progress. By FY2025, the company had achieved 100% Traceability to Plantation (TTP) for all FFB processed at Guthrie owned mills, as well as 98% Traceability to Mill and 90% Traceability to Plantation for its overall palm based supply chain.
This is increasingly important as global markets, particularly Europe, demand greater traceability and assurance that palm oil products originate from supply chains meeting sustainability standards.
LOOKING AHEAD TO THE FUTURE OF INDONESIAN PALM OIL
For Indonesia, the presence of Minamas Plantation represents an important part of the country’s long palm oil industry journey. With more than two decades of experience since the acquisition of Salim Group’s plantation interests in 2001, Minamas has become one of the major names in Indonesia’s plantation industry. Behind it stands the financial strength, operational experience, global network, plantation expertise and international market access of SD Guthrie.
At the group level, meanwhile, SD Guthrie is entering a new phase. The record RM2.5 billion net profit achieved in 2025 provides a strong foundation for continued growth. At the same time, the strategic direction reinforced in 2026 indicates that the company intends to build a future that goes beyond CPO production, focusing increasingly on value-chain integration and new industrial businesses.
With a global plantation footprint of more than half a million hectares, substantial CPO and CSPO production, and Minamas Plantation serving as one of its key operating pillars in Indonesia, SD Guthrie remains one of the most significant forces in the global palm oil industry.
For Indonesia’s palm oil industry, the continued development of SD Guthrie and Minamas Plantation will be worth watching not only because of the group’s enormous scale, but also because of its transformation in response to the evolving demands for productivity, sustainability, traceability and changes in the global palm oil landscape.
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