History
In 1905 Harrison and Crosfield, a British tea and coffee trading company, purchased several small estates in Malaysia for £50,000 and amalgamated them to form the Golden Hope Rubber Estate.
In 1982 Harrison and Crosfield sold three large plantation groups - Golden Hope, Pataling, and London Asiatic - to Malaysian concerns for £146 million.
The business was renamed GHPB in 1990 after Pemodalan Nasional Berhad took majority equity of the company. Its interests originally were in tropical agriculture but, while plantations have remained a core business interest, the company has diversified into other areas including glycerine manufacture, fruit juices and real estate. The group now has 83 subsidiaries based in seven countries. The main estate and plantations are Carey Island and Banting in Selangor.
In October 2005, Golden Hope was named one of the “Best Under A Billion” companies in Asia-Pacific region by Forbes Asia, a renowned international financial magazine. Golden Hope was named the nation’s Most Caring Employer in 2006 and again in 2007.
In late November 2006, Synergy Drive Sdn Berhad, a special purpose entity with financing from CIMB Investment Bank Berhad, offered to acquire Golden Hope and seven others PLCs "to create the world's largest listed oil palm plantation" company. The merger, the largest to take place in Southeast Asia, was intended to consolidate over 6,000 km² of plantation land.
In November 2007, shares of Golden Hope was de-listed and the company merged with Sime Darby and Guthrie. The shares were then re-listed on the Bursa Malaysia on 29 November, 2007 as Sime Darby. With the merger complete, Sime Darby is the largest company in Malaysia by market capitalization.
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