JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) - Sime Darby Bhd, a Malaysia-based diversified multinational company involved in key growth sectors, namely, plantations, property, motors, industrial equipment and energy, has appointed Indonesia’s former Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi as new director effective Nov 24, the company said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.
Muhammad Lutfi, 46, first joined the Indonesian government in 2005 when he was appointed as chairman of the Indonesia Coordinating Board of Investment (BKPM) by the country’s former president.
He served in that capacity until 2009 and became the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Japan and the Federated States of Micronesia in 2010.
Muhammad became the Trade Minister last year after the conclusion of his term as Indonesian ambassador in 2013. He retired as minister in October 2014.
Indonesia accounted for 13.5 percent of the Sime Darby group’s profit before interest and tax for the financial year ended June 30, 2015, the second largest contributor after Malaysia (62.9%) in geographical terms. The group employs more than 30,000 people in the republic.
Sime Darby has operations in 26 countries and four territories, according to its latest annual report.
In Indonesia, Sime Darby Plantation is represented by its subsidiary Minamas Plantation, which was set up in April 2001 and headquartered in Jakarta. It has a presence in eight provinces with a total landbank of 290,230 hectares out of which 204,412 are planted with oil palm, representing approximately 70 percent of the company’s total planted area (As of June 2015).
With 71 estates and 23 SOUs (Strategic Operating Units) located in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi, Minamas upstream operations produced 4.145 million metric tonnes of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) and 927,803 metric tonnes of crude palm oil in the 2013/2014 financial year. (*)