
Chairman's Foreword
Chairman's Foreword
Tan Sri Samsudin Osman, Chairman of Sime Darby Berhad

It gives me great pleasure to introduce this chronicle of
Sime’s history, in conjunction with the 110th anniversary of
the company’s establishment.
These 110 years have been an extraordinary journey for the
company. Founded in the colonial era, it is one of the few
companies that have survived for more than a century and
flourished through the years, blossoming into global players
in their own right. From humble beginnings as a firm of
rubber estate specialists, the company survived through two
World Wars and the eclipse of the British Empire, and
thrived in independent Malaysia. Throughout all this, the
core characteristics of Sime have been resilience,
adaptability and the spirit to explore new markets and new
businesses.
In the first decade of the 21st century, Sime underwent a
transformation without precedent in Malaysia’s corporate
history. In 2007, the Group merged with two other major
Malaysian corporations—Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad and Golden
Hope Plantations Berhad—to form the world’s largest oil palm
plantation company in terms of planted area, and Malaysia’s
leading diversified conglomerate with businesses in property
development, the automotive industry, heavy equipment and
engineering.
In the second decade of the new millennium, the company
evolved yet again, into three pure play businesses in the
plantation, property and trading sectors. Today, Sime Darby
Berhad is a lean, focused and driven multinational that
continues to share a great deal of commonality with the Sime
Darby of 1910, not just in terms of business but also in
ethos—that pioneering spirit, a global mindset, the desire
for growth and the ability to endure challenges and
obstacles.
It was not a smooth road, and we had our fair share of
disruptions, but these challenges only made us stronger and
more determined. Since the pure play exercise in 2017, the
company, now focused on the industrial and motors
businesses, has grown in leaps and bounds, expanding its
business in its key markets in Asia Pacific. Sime Darby
Berhad is today a leading Caterpillar (Cat) dealer in Asia
and one of the largest automotive players in the region.
In the context of all these changes, the publication of this
book is timely: in these pages we see how the early founders
of Sime were determined to succeed, exploring new industries
and opportunities, and constantly innovating while always
being anchored deeply in integrity, accountability and
sustainability. I personally believe that it is this
foundation of governance and compliance that will see the
company through the next century and ensure that the Sime
brand is one that is trusted and stands for fairness.
Whatever business we are in, wherever we choose to operate,
we must treat both our internal and external stakeholders
with honesty and integrity.
I hope this book will serve as a useful reference for those
interested in the evolution of corporate Malaysia as well as
in the mercantile history of British Malaya—but above all,
my wish is for this book to inspire the next generations of
the Sime Darby family so that, in 110 years from now, our
successors can look back on the same company, with the same
DNA, and be just as proud as we are today.
Tan Sri Samsudin Osman
Chairman, Sime Darby Berhad