This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 15, 2025 - December 21, 2025

SD Guthrie Bhd (KL:SDG), one of the world’s largest producers of certified sustainable palm oil, is embarking on a new chapter in its rich history, shaped by a strategic move into new verticals, its rebranding and new leadership.

Datuk Mohamad Helmy Othman Basha, 58, will retire as group managing director at the end of the year. In his 6½ years at the helm, apart from navigating SD Guthrie through some of its most challenging periods, he has led the group beyond its traditional operations into industrial parks and renewable energy.

The group’s entry into these sectors played a key part in its rebranding to SD Guthrie from Sime Darby Plantations Bhd in 2024. “It’s really substantive, not just a shift in narrative or cosmetic change. It frees us to do industrial parks and renewable energy, both related to what we already have — land,” Mohamad Helmy tells The Edge in an interview.

SD Guthrie’s foray into industrial parks can be considered an evolution or organic development for such a move is already baked into its DNA.

“If you look at the history of our group — Guthrie, Golden Hope, Sime Darby — most of the major townships that you can name around here in the Klang Valley actually used to be our estates. [Industrial parks] are a very specific mandate because we don’t want to go into commercial or housing [developments],” he says.

SD Guthrie, which announced the move — via a collaboration with its largest shareholder Permodalan Nasional Bhd to develop a green industrial park in Tali Ayer, Perak — in May 2024, was the first plantation outfit to embark on such a land monetisation model. Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KL:KLK), which has an integrated property segment, has since announced a similar industrial park model.

As for renewable energy, the group ventured into the space via biogas a decade ago. The endeavour, to offset the methane-dominant emissions at its palm oil mills, has translated into 20 biogas plants across its estates, with a target of 30 to 40 by 2030 and for all its 70-plus mills to have a plant by 2050.

Branching out into solar was a natural next step. Besides the emissions offset, solar is a good business in its own right, says Mohamad Helmy.

Beyond income derived from leasing out its idle land, a model adopted since its Sime Darby Plantation days, it also earns from the solar energy generated by its partly owned initiatives. “That is the justification for us to venture into this business,” he says.

In August, SD Guthrie tied up with Gamuda Bhd (KL:GAMUDA) to develop solar power assets, including energy storage systems, with a combined target capacity of 1.2gw. The move lines up with the group’s ambition to own up to 1gw of solar energy assets.

Although the company has a new name and new businesses, palm oil remains SD Guthrie’s core business.

“We are not forgetting our core business, which for the longest time has been plantations. It will still be there. It will still drive our earnings and everything else,” says Mohamad Helmy.

Under his watch, the group’s core plantation and palm oil operations — divided into upstream and downstream segments — have also shifted gears. Its upstream plantation operations has made significant headway into mechanisation while the downstream segment, food and non-food palm oil product manufacturing, has grown by leaps and bounds.

His successor, group deputy managing director Mohd Haris Mohd Arshad, previously led the downstream segment, Sime Darby Oils, from March 2019 to August 2024, a period of significant growth for the segment. From a profit before interest and tax (PBIT) of RM283.85 million in FY2019 ended Dec 31, the downstream segment’s contribution had more than doubled to RM858.54 million in FY2022.

“Back in 2019, our contribution was largely from upstream, meaning we sank or swam with CPO prices. I, personally, with Mohd Haris, who was heading downstream at the time, set out to increase the contribution from downstream to balance the upstream contribution,” says Mohamad Helmy.

The group ramped up the utilisation rate of its plants, implemented new technology in its mills and launched differentiated and specialised products.

While other planters’ downstream operations have struggled in recent years, SD Guthrie’s has remained resilient, although affected by margin compression.

This is attributed to its downstream operations’ focus on the food subsegment, which is broken down further into bulk and specialised business, Mohamad Helmy explains.

“What also differentiates us from others is sustainability, the traceability of our products. Because we supply to multinational corporations — the Unilevers, Nestlés and Kelloggs of the world — they pay a better premium than other buyers. We capture a lot of these high margins compared to normal downstream, such as oleochemicals,” he adds.

“If you are big in oleochemicals, obviously, for the last few years, you suffered big time. In the food business, it is affected by compressed margins, but our numbers are still decent compared to other companies in the downstream business.”

Under his leadership, SD Guthrie launched initiatives to mechanise its estates. The move was guided by the group’s Project Infinity, which kicked off in October 2020, aimed at reducing its dependence on migrant labour while increasing local employment.

The group’s Malaysian estates operate with only half of their workers harvesting fresh fruit bunches (FFB).

At this stage, mechanisation is only possible on the non-harvesting side. Easing the labour of work with the assistance of machines, coupled with offering a liveable wage, has successfully attracted locals, says Mohamad Helmy.

However, the additional costs have to justify the means, he notes. “Every machine we introduce, there’s the cost of the machine, maintenance, running and a higher salary [for the local worker].

“This cost must not exceed whatever we pay these [migrant] workers, meaning it has to be better in terms of efficiency. Say I have a manual sprayer who does two hectares per day, while I have a machine specialist whose cost will be nearly double. I have to ensure the machine specialist’s productivity is able to cover no less than four or five hectares.”

Keeping to this model, the mechanisation, automation and digitalisation (MAD) policy is bearing fruit. SD Guthrie’s land-to-man ratio (LMR), which measures estate efficiency, has jumped to 13ha to 13.5ha per worker from 10.7ha in 2019.

A higher LMR means the group has cut down on the total labour required to tend to its plantations. “Our next target is 15ha by 2028,” says Mohamad Helmy, adding that this would be nearly double the industry average of 8ha.

“As a simple example, take a ballpark figure of 300,000ha planted and an LMR of 10ha per worker, meaning we had 30,000 workers. If we can get to 15ha, our efficiency will have improved by another 50%, which means we will have reduced from 30,000 workers to 20,000,” he explains.

Cutting down on the total workers needed naturally slashes the number of migrant workers required. Currently, its migrant-to-local worker ratio stands at 70:30, says Mohamad Helmy. “If we can get to 60:40, I would say, under the current scheme of things, that is probably ideal.”

Project Infinity initially had a target LMR of 17.5ha per worker by end-2024. But the mechanisation of plantations does not come easily, he says.

Proper planning is needed for general mechanisation, while a bigger problem is the harvesting side of estate operations, which still lacks a mechanisation solution. “The harvesting side is the holy grail. If we can crack that, the original target of 17.5ha [per worker] is achievable,” says Mohamad Helmy.

This means half of SD Guthrie’s labour force in the estates is dependent on migrant workers. “We don’t have the solution just yet, so we have to depend almost 100% on migrant workers [for harvesting] because this is actually a backbreaking job that locals don’t want.”

With the adoption of mechanisation in the estates, proper planning is necessary, for example, ensuring a wider pathway between the oil palms to allow the machines to operate. “You only replant 4% to 5% per year. If you miss that window, you can’t do anything to that newly replanted area for the next 25 years, and this has always been the pushback,” says the trained accountant turned planter.

Mohamad Helmy began his career with Oxford-based Wellers Accountants in the UK in 1988. Upon his return to Malaysia in 1991, he continued to develop his career in accountancy, holding various positions with Shell until 1997.

He joined Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd in 1997 and served in a number of senior roles in the group’s property and plantation business in Malaysia and Indonesia until 2013.

In 2013, he left the group to set up plantation investment vehicles Xcellence Alliance Sdn Bhd and Chemara Palmea Holdings Bhd, prior to rejoining Sime Darby Plantation in 2016 as head of plantation services and special projects, before being appointed chief operating officer of upstream in 2017.

Mohamad Helmy has been chairman of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board since February 2023.

The move to strengthen SD Guthrie’s downstream segment and revamp the labour force at the estate level can be traced back to the challenges the company faced early in Mohamad Helmy’s tenure as group managing director.

This “dark period”, as he describes it, began in July 2019, when crude palm oil (CPO) prices were at 16-year lows. Months later, the Covid-19 pandemic hit — a mixed blessing that buoyed commodity prices but hamstrung the group’s labour force. By end-2020, the US Customs and Border Protection had issued a withhold release order (WRO) against the company, halting its exports of palm oil and palm oil products to the US.

The endeavour to improve the downstream segment’s earnings contribution was to reduce the earnings concentration in upstream.

Meanwhile, the pandemic and WRO in 2020 were wake-up calls. The back-to-back blows highlighted the need to elevate its standards, prompting a revamp of its recruitment practices.

Breaking down its troubles with the WRO, Mohamad Helmy refers to the International Labour Organization’s “debt spiral” indicator and explains that companies are expected to ask workers about costs incurred during hiring, such as transport and accommodation, and remediate them.

“We had to understand how many of these workers actually borrowed money to come here. Initially, we asked them directly, and they said they hadn’t borrowed. Later, when we engaged a consultant to speak with them, they revealed that they borrowed RM10,000 or RM12,000. It was difficult for us to verify, but we had to come out from the WRO … so we made the payments,” he says.

In total, SD Guthrie paid RM56.68 million in remediation to migrant workers.

The group also had to ensure migrant workers understood their contracts and their reasons for working on its estates. “And we didn’t know. We thought if they were from India, it was just the Tamil language. Later, we found out that 80% of them didn’t understand Tamil.

“There’s Urdu, Bengali and others, right? So it’s easy for them to be taken advantage of because even our people went there with this understanding that they understood Tamil, but they don’t.”

Following this, SD Guthrie decided to hire workers exclusively from Indonesia. “Indonesia is different because workers speak the same lingo … and we have almost 100% transparency regarding all costs, from their departure to arrival. This ensures they are not taken advantage of, especially since the Indonesian government, through its embassy, is very strict about it,” says Mohamad Helmy.

Manpower shortages during the pandemic compounded the challenge, which made the group take a serious look at its dependence on migrant workers. “The biggest lesson learnt is that we have to change the way we do things, and that’s why we started Project Infinity,” he says.

“It’s all a lesson learnt. If it happens again, in whatever form, Covid-19 or something else, the country blocks the border and people [migrant workers] cannot come in, I’m sure we’ll still suffer, but I’m sure we’ll suffer less than others because of what we have done since then.”

Case in point may be the looming multi-tier levy system (MTLS) set to be rolled out next year, if the timeline set under the 13th Malaysia Plan is followed. The policy aims to reduce foreign workers to 10% of the country’s workforce by 2030, down from the current 15%.

“It is just a matter of time before they enforce it [MTLS]. They will make it more difficult and more expensive to recruit migrant workers, and I believe they will start by implementing this long-delayed MTLS on foreign workers, which I think is a good thing. The only thing is, whenever I have the opportunity to talk to policymakers in the government, [I tell them] they have to take a ‘carrot-and-stick’ approach,” says Mohamad Helmy.

Details on the proposed MTLS are sparse, but a report of an independent investigation commissioned by the Pakatan Harapan government in 2018, and declassified in late 2023, proposed such a “carrot-and-stick” approach.

The proposed mechanism was to revolve around thresholds referred to as the dependency ratio ceiling (DRC), comprising foreign workers over the total workers in the respective sectors based on the historical five-year average. The various DRC thresholds were to serve as tiered limits in foreign worker employment, with employers having to pay a higher levy the higher the DRC.

Mohamad Helmy is confident SD Guthrie will be largely unaffected by Indonesia’s nationalisation policy, despite having 32% of its planted area in that country. It manages 181,359ha in Indonesia, primarily in Sumatra and West Kalimantan.

Mohamad Helmy, who was a key member of the Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd team that acquired Minamas Plantation from the Salim Group in 2001 and later restructured it, notes that local Indonesian companies have been targeted more than their foreign counterparts.

“[The Indonesian government] is coming from this angle: This land was developed in so-called ‘forested areas’ before and is considered illegally planted, based on the way they approach it,” he explains.

“We have the grant title, right of use (hak guna usaha) for the majority of our land, so we believe we have a very strong case to show. These assets should not be affected by this so-called decree that is affecting the others.”

Less than 3% of SD Guthrie’s planted area in that country is under review by the Indonesian government. The land was inherited from Golden Hope, says Mohamad Helmy.

Since earlier this year, PT Agrinas Palma Nusantara, Indonesia’s nascent state-owned enterprise (SOE), has been entrusted with the seized oil palm plantations. Some 3.7 million hectares have been seized, with nearly half transferred to the SOE.

The muddy situation and ownership transition spell trouble for Indonesia’s yields, Mohamad Helmy observes. “Agrinas is totally new. They don’t have a full set-up to manage the plantations, which are fragmented all over the country.

“How do you manage that? It’s very difficult, right? Once you cannot manage the plantations, it will need time to be rehabilitated. For us, it took us two years to rehab [post-pandemic]. So, can you imagine what’s going to be the end result?

“There’ll be less oil available for the market. It’s very likely that production of those plantations, now owned by Agrinas … the yield will drop, plus the B50 diesel mandate. So, CPO prices will be good because they will be supported.”

Despite the formidable challenges during the first half of his tenure as group managing director, Mohamad Helmy leaves behind a markedly stronger and more diversified organisation, providing his successor Mohd Haris with a solid foundation to build on.

M R Chandran, adviser to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and vice-president of Malaysian Oil Scientists’ and Technologists’ Association, calls Mohamad Helmy a strategic thinker and credits him personally for some of SD Guthrie’s visionary decisions that are likely to shape the group’s future.

“He has demonstrated vision through diversification, adaptability through automation and efficiency, and prudence through value creation from land — qualities that position the company for long-term sustainability beyond traditional plantation risks,” Chandran tells The Edge.

Meanwhile, a plantation analyst who was among the earliest to turn bullish on SD Guthrie gives Mohamad Helmy a five-star rating for the group’s foray into RE and industrial park development. 

On his imminent departure, Mohamad Helmy says he is a firm believer in the need for “a proper transition”. Despite handing over the helm to his successor, he will remain as an adviser until end-June next year.

“This foray into industrial parks, creating this value, I believe, will outlast me. I believe people will see the real value in the SD Guthrie Mohd Haris is taking over,” he says.

“And even after Haris, the business will never finish. But the building blocks that I put in for him to take over, I believe, will result in good things, Inshallah (God willing).”

When asked about his retirement plans, Mohamad Helmy says he looks forward to spending more time with his 15 cats and that he will be pursuing his “own personal plan”.

“Regrets I’ve had a few, but too few to mention,” he quips, quoting Frank Sinatra’s My Way, but adds, “I enjoyed it even in the worst of times, and the satisfaction is always about when you see things have improved, the result you’ve achieved, the good things that you leave behind, and the lives that you’ve improved more than compensates for everything else.” 

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