Royal Golden Eagle

Last updated
Royal Golden Eagle
Company type Private
Industry Pulp, paper, Rayon
Founder Sukanto Tanoto
Headquarters
Singapore
Area served
 Worldwide
Products Packaging, paper, tissue, Rayon
Website www.rgei.com

Royal Golden Eagle (RGE, also known as Raja Garuda Emas, previously Raja Garuda Mas) is a global integrated, resource-based industrial group, with businesses in paper, palm oil, viscose, construction and energy, property and asset management. Owned by Indonesian businessman Sukanto Tanoto, the group employs 80,000 people worldwide with assets exceeding US$35 billion. [1] [2]

Contents

History

Sukanto Tanoto founded his first business in 1967, supplying spare parts to the oil and construction industries in Indonesia, [3] before winning contracts in building gas pipelines for multinationals in 1972. [4] His business grew considerably following the 1973 oil crisis when he open his own plywood mill in Indonesia. [5] He diversified into palm oil in 1979. Since 1985, Tanoto’s companies have planted 30,000 acres of palm oil plantation each year, with plantations spread over three provinces in Sumatra with a total land area of 160,000 hectares. [5] He listed the public pulp and paper business Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings (APRIL) on the New York Stock Exchange in 1995, delisting it in 2001. [6] The company moved its base to Singapore in 1997 in order to mitigate the effects of a global travel ban that had been placed upon Indonesia at the time. [5] In 2011 APRIL became a founding member of the Indonesia Business Council for Sustainable Development. [7]

Business structure

From its base in Singapore, the company conducts activities across four business sectors: pulp and paper; agro industry; dissolving wood pulp and viscose staple fibre; and energy resource development. [5]

Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited (APRIL)

Located in the Riau province of Indonesia, APRIL operates one of the world’s largest pulp and paper mills. [8] With an annual pulp production capacity of 2.8 million tons and an annual fine paper production capacity of 820,000 tons, [9] it generates employment opportunities for 90,000 local people and represents 6.9% of Riau Province’s economic output (2009). [10]

Asia Symbol

Established in Shandong and Guangdong, China in 2005, Asia Symbol has an annual production capacity of 1.5 million tons of pulp, 450,000 tons of fine paper and 520,000 tons of paper board. Its Shandong plant operates the world’s largest single pulp production line, with state-of-the-art manufacturing technology and environment protection practices. [11]

BoardOne (博旺 in Chinese) is the main brand of paperboard products produced by the Shandong mill. It includes several types of packaging, including packaging for food, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals products. BoardOne can be found in Europe, Americas, ME and Asia market. BoardOne is featured with printability, and runnability on high speed packaging lines.

There are two lines producing BoardOne products. BM11 has a web width of 3.6m, grammage range of 190-380g, main products are FBB and SBS; BM12 has a web width of 4.6m, grammage range of 170-400g, mainly LPB, cigarette packaging boards and food packaging/service boards (cup stock and cup plate etc.).

There are two pulp lines located in Shandong mill. BHKP and BSKP can be supplied internally for BoardOne board making.

Asian Agri

Asian Agri is one of Asia’s largest palm oil producers, with an annual crude palm oil production capacity of one million tons with 28 oil palm plantations, 19 palm oil mills and 160,000 hectares of palm plantation. [12]

Apical Group Limited

Apical, with operations in Indonesia and China, is one Indonesia's largest exporters of palm oil with refining, processing and trading of palm oil for both domestic use and international export. The company's operations in include four refineries, a biodiesel plant and a crushing plant. [13]

Bracell

Bracell is one of the largest specialty cellulose producers in the world. Its operations are in Brazil. It produces different grades of specialty cellulose. [14]

It was formerly known as Sateri Holdings Limited, which undergone a name change on February 26, 2015. [15] Bracell was privatized on Oct 24, 2016. [16]

RGE completed the acquisition of Lwarcel Celulose from Lwart Group on Aug 31, 2018. Lwarcel will be managed under Bracell Group. [17]

Sateri

Sateri is a viscose staple fiber producers, with a design annual production capacity of 1.4 million tonnes of viscose staple fiber. [18]

In 2018, Sateri reported to have three mills with a combined capacity of 600,000 metric tonnes, making it the largest viscose producer in China and third largest in the world. [19]

Asia Pacific Rayon

Asia Pacific Rayon is the first fully integrated viscose rayon producer in Asia, with a 240,000-tonne capacity mill located in Pangkalan Kerinci. [20]

Pacific Energy

Pacific Energy (previously known as Pacific Oil & Gas) is an independent energy resources development company. [21] In the upstream sector, Pacific Energy is focused on the exploration and production of gas in Canada. Its midstream and downstream operations include a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal and a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant in China. In addition, it is currently developing gas-fired power plants in China and an LNG export facility in Canada. [22]

Environmental issues

In 2014, Royal Golden Eagle was under considerable pressure from international environmental organisations to improve:

In June 2015, both Greenpeace and WWF welcomed the commitments made by RGE and APRIL to zero deforestation across their supply chains. [26] [27] [28]

In December 2015, APRIL announced a US$100 million investment in conservation and eco-restoration of peatland in Riau, spanning 150,000 hectares. [29] [30] [31] [28]

The company and its business groups engage local communities and NGOs to develop programs for community development and fire prevention, to great success. [32]

In 2011 the Rainforest Action Network named APRIL as one of Indonesia’s most destructive corporations cutting rainforests and replacing them with monoculture acacia pulp wood plantations grown on these cleared rainforests and peatlands. APRIL and another major company under separate ownership, Asia Pulp & Paper, produce 80 percent of Indonesia’s pulp and paper. [33]

Controversy

Tax evasion

Asian Agri was investigated for allegedly evading taxes between 2002 and 2005, which the company consistently denied. [34] In December 2012, the Supreme Court of Indonesia ordered Asian Agri Group to pay Rp2.52 trillion (US$260 million) in back taxes and fines as vicarious liability, [35] The company paid the back tax and in January 2014 paid the fine [36] saying it would still file a judicial review. [37] Indonesia’s Tempo magazine was found guilty by the Jakarta court of defaming the company in an investigative report looking into these matters, which were published in the book Key Witness. [38]

Deutsche Bank controversy

Beckett Pte Ltd, 29% of which is indirectly owned by Sukanto Tanoto, was in legal disputes against Deutsche Bank, claiming that the bank had pledged shares, owned directly or indirectly by Beckett Pte Ltd in PT Swabara Mining and Energy, PT Asminco Bara Utama, PT Indonesia Bulk Terminal and PT Adaro Indonesia without due process and at an undervalue. Singapore's High Court found in favour of Deutsche Bank. [39] The High Court did however state that Deutsche Bank had "failed to discharge its duties as pledgee" in a share sale. [40]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rainforest Action Network</span> Environmental organization

Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is an environmental organization based in San Francisco, California, United States. The organization was founded by Randy "Hurricane" Hayes and Mike Roselle in 1985, and first gained national prominence with a grassroots organizing campaign that in 1987 succeeded in convincing Burger King to cancel $31 million worth of destructive Central American rainforest beef contracts. Protecting forests and challenging corporate power has remained a key focus of RAN’s campaigns since, and has led RAN into campaigns that have led to transformative policy changes across home building, wood purchasing and supplying, automobile, fashion, paper and banking industries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lenzing AG</span>

The Lenzing Group is an international group with its headquarters in Lenzing, Austria, and production sites in all major markets. Lenzing produces wood-based viscose fibers, modal fibers, lyocell fibers and filament yarn, which are used in the textile industry — in clothing, home textiles and technical textiles — as well as in the nonwovens industry. In addition, the company is active in mechanical and plant engineering. The Lenzing Group markets its products under the brand names TENCEL, VEOCEL, LENZING ECOVERO and LENZING.

Sinar Mas is one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia. It was formed in 1938. It has numerous subsidiaries including Asia Pulp & Paper and palm oil producer PT SMART. The company also acquired Berau Coal Energy from Asia Resource Minerals PLC, a major mining group founded by Nathaniel Rothschild, in a takeover initiated by Fuganto Widjaja.

Eka Tjipta Widjaja, born Oei Ek Tjong, was an Indonesian business magnate who founded the Sinar Mas Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia. After immigrating to Indonesia with his family when he was a child, Widjaja became a member of the PCC, traded copra in the mid-1950s, moved into the palm oil industry soon after, started a paper factory in the 1970s, and then entered financial services in the 1980s. At the time of his death, Sinar Mas had interests in paper, real estate, financial services, agribusiness, and telecom with holdings primarily in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and China, and Widjaja was listed by Forbes as the third-richest person in Indonesia with a net worth of approximately US$8.6 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asia Pulp & Paper</span> Indonesian pulp and paper company

Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) is an Indonesian pulp and paper company based in Jakarta, Indonesia. One of the largest pulp and paper companies in the world, it was founded as Tjiwi Kimia by Eka Tjipta Widjaja in 1972. Asia Pulp & Paper is a subsidiary of Sinar Mas Group and was officially formed in 1994 when Sinar combined its paper and pulp operations from Tjiwi Kimia and PT Inda Kiat Pulp & Paper.

Sukanto Tanoto, born Tan Kang Hoo is an Indonesian businessman primarily involved in resources-based manufacturing. After starting as a supplier of equipment and materials for the state-owned oil firm Pertamina, Tanoto moved into the forest industry in 1973. Tanoto's business interests are represented by the Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) group of companies, previously known as Raja Garuda Mas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings</span> Singapore pulp and paper mill and fibre plantation operator

Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited, or APRIL, is a developer of fibre plantations and the owner of one of the world's largest pulp and paper mills with operations mainly in Indonesia and China. APRIL mainly produces bleached hardwood kraft pulp and uncoated, wood-free paper, including its Paperone brand of office paper. Founded in 1993, APRIL is managed by Royal Golden Eagle and owned by Indonesian business man Sukanto Tanoto living in Singapore. Royal Golden Eagle also manages companies in paper, palm oil, construction, and energy business sectors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phil Radford</span> American environmentalist

Philip David Radford is an American activist who served as the executive director of Greenpeace USA. He was the founder and President of Progressive Power Lab, an organization that incubates companies and non-profits that build capacity for progressive organizations, including a donor advisory organization Champion.us, the Progressive Multiplier Fund and Membership Drive. Radford is a co-founder of the Democracy Initiative, was founder and executive director of Power Shift, and is a board member of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. He has a background in grassroots organizing, corporate social responsibility, climate change, and clean energy. He currently serves as the Chief Strategy officer at the Sierra Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social and environmental impact of palm oil</span> Discussion of impact

Palm oil, produced from the oil palm, is a basic source of income for many farmers in South East Asia, Central and West Africa, and Central America. It is locally used as cooking oil, exported for use in much commercial food and personal care products and is converted into biofuel. It produces up to 10 times more oil per unit area than soybeans, rapeseed or sunflowers.

Wilmar International Limited is a Singaporean food processing and investment holding company with more than 300 subsidiary companies. Founded in 1991, it is one of Asia's leading agribusiness groups alongside the COFCO Group. It ranks amongst the largest listed companies by market capitalisation on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), being the second largest as of September 2010. It was ranked 211th in the Fortune Global 500 list in 2020. It was ranked 3rd in the World's Most Admired Company by Fortune in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deforestation in Indonesia</span>

Deforestation in Indonesia involves the long-term loss of forests and foliage across much of the country; it has had massive environmental and social impacts. Indonesia is home to some of the most biologically diverse forests in the world and ranks third in number of species behind Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil</span> Agreement on palm oil supply

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was established in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable palm oil products through global standards and multistakeholder governance. The seat of the association is in Zürich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is currently based in Kuala Lumpur, with a satellite office in Jakarta. RSPO currently has 5,650 members from 94 countries.

Sateri is a business division of Royal Golden Eagle (RGE). It is a manufacturer of viscose rayon.

Bumitama Agri Ltd is the Singapore holding company of subsidiary Bumitama Gunajaya Agro. Bumitama is an Indonesian oil palm plantation company which cultivates oil palm trees and produces crude palm oil (CPO). It was established in 1996 by the Harita Group with its first acquisition of land in Central Kalimantan. Bumitama owns roughly 230,000 hectares and has planted 187,000 hectares of oil palm trees, primarily in Central and West Kalimantan. Bumitama owns 14 CPO mills, which produce more than 1,000,000 tons of CPO a year. Primary purchasers of their CPO include Wilmar International, the Sinar Mas Group and Musim Mas. In April 2012, Bumitama Agri presented an IPO on the Singapore Stock Exchange. 

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anderson Tanoto</span>

Anderson Tanoto is a member of the board of trustees at Tanoto Foundation, a philanthropic organization involved in poverty alleviation through education, "empowerment" and "the enhancement of the quality of lives". Tanoto is the youngest son of businessman and philanthropist Sukanto Tanoto. He received his education from University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in economics. In October 2017, he was named to The Wharton School's "40 Under 40" list, which seeks to recognise impressive young Wharton alumni. Tanoto also sits on the Wharton Executive Board of Asia.

<i>Key Witness</i> (book)

Key Witness is a book on Asian Agri Group's tax evasion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asian Agri</span>

Asian Agri is one of Asia's largest palm oil producers, with an annual production of 1 million tons of palm oil.

Belinda Tanoto is a member of the board of trustees at the Tanoto Foundation, a philanthropic organization for poverty alleviation. She is the youngest daughter of Sukanto Tanoto, the Foundation's founder.

Asia Pacific Rayon (APR) is one of the largest viscose-rayon producers in Asia, with annual capacity of 300,000 tons of viscose-rayon. The company is based in Pangkalan Kerinci, Riau, Indonesia. The company produces renewable and biodegradable viscose-rayon, which is made from wood cellulose, and serves as an alternative to fossil-based synthetics in the textile industry. It is one of Royal Golden Eagle's business groups.

Delima Silalahi is an environmental activist from North Tapanuli, Indonesia, known for her efforts in safeguarding customary forests and Indigenous rights in North Sumatra. As the executive director of the NGO Kelompok Studi dan Pengembangan Prakarsa Masyarakat (KSPPM), she orchestrated efforts to reclaim over 17,000 acres of tropical forest that had been converted by a pulp and paper company.

References

  1. ↑ "About RGE Group - RGEI.com | Royal Golden Eagle Group | Raja Garuda Emas". www.rgei.com. Retrieved 2021-12-02.
  2. ↑ "RGE". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  3. ↑ "RGE Group | Indonesia Founder". www.sukantotanoto.net. Archived from the original on 2017-03-14. Retrieved 2016-11-10.
  4. ↑ "From rags to US$2.8b fortune". The Business Times. 2007-04-07. Archived from the original on July 5, 2007.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "The pulp & paper king shares his story" (PDF). Fortune Indonesia. 2012-06-24. pp. 51–59. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-05-02. Retrieved 2014-09-02.
  6. ↑ "Indonesia's 40 Richest 2006". Forbes. 2006-07-09. Archived from the original on 2016-12-04. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  7. ↑ "Home". Royal Golden Eagle. Archived from the original on 2014-12-16. Retrieved 2014-09-02.
  8. ↑ "APRIL's commitment to being part of the 'sustainability solution'," [ permanent dead link ] Business 2020, November 2011
  9. ↑ "APRIL". Royal Golden Eagle. Archived from the original on 2014-10-04. Retrieved 2014-09-02.
  10. ↑ "Economic and Fiscal Impact Analysis of PT RAPP" (PDF). University of Indonesia – Economic and Social Research Unit. 2010.[ permanent dead link ]
  11. ↑ "Asia Symbol". Royal Golden Eagle. Archived from the original on 2014-10-04. Retrieved 2014-09-02.
  12. ↑ "Asian Agri". Royal Golden Eagle. Archived from the original on 2014-12-17. Retrieved 2014-12-13.
  13. ↑ "Apical". Royal Golden Eagle. Archived from the original on 2014-12-17. Retrieved 2014-09-02.
  14. ↑ "Home". Bracell. Archived from the original on 2019-07-17. Retrieved 2019-07-24.
  15. ↑ "Bracell Limited Completes Name Change" (PDF). 2015-11-02. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  16. ↑ "Bracell completes $1.1 billion privatisation". www.lesprom.com. Archived from the original on 2019-07-16. Retrieved 2019-07-24.
  17. ↑ "RGE completes Lwarcel Celulose takeover | EUWID Pulp and Paper". www.euwid-paper.com. Archived from the original on 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
  18. ↑ "RGE Commits US$200 Million to Next-Generation Textile Fibre Innovation and Technology".
  19. ↑ Johnson, Holly (2018-04-13). "Tey Wei Lin CEO of Sateri". The CEO Magazine. Archived from the original on 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  20. ↑ "Asia Pacific Rayon". 2018-10-18. Archived from the original on 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
  21. ↑ "Pacific Energy | Energy Resource Development - RGEI.com". www.rgei.com. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  22. ↑ "Pacific Canbriam buys more Montney acreage in British Columbia". LNG Prime. LNGPrime. 19 August 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  23. ↑ "Pulp and paper giant - end deforestation!". The Ecologist. Archived from the original on 2014-12-14. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
  24. ↑ "April Buyers and Investors Advidosy" (PDF). World Wide Fund for Nature. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-12-14. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
  25. ↑ "Six myths Indonesia's biggest forest destroyer wants you to believe". Greenpeace. Archived from the original on 2014-12-14. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
  26. ↑ "APRIL, APP Get Forest Certification from PEFC". GlobeAsia. Archived from the original on 2015-10-13. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  27. ↑ "Indonesian Pulp and Paper Giant APRIL Pledges Zero Deforestation, Greenpeace Applauds". Sustainable Brands. 3 June 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-08-26. Retrieved 2015-12-30.
  28. 1 2 "The year in rainforests: 2015". Mongabay. 29 December 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-12-30.
  29. ↑ "Paper corporate to step up forest conservation". The Jakarta Post. Archived from the original on 2016-01-06. Retrieved 2015-12-28.
  30. ↑ "Indonesian firm pledges S$141m to restore peatlands". The Straits Times. 2 December 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-01-07. Retrieved 2015-12-28.
  31. ↑ "April Group Invests US$100 Million for Peat Restoration". MetroTV News. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-12-28.
  32. ↑ "Kishore Mahbubani: Reflections on RGE". Inside RGE. September 21, 2016. Archived from the original on February 13, 2017. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  33. ↑ "APP and APRIL: Indonesia's Leaders in Climate and Rainforest Destruction". Rainforest Action Network. 2011-09-23. Archived from the original on 2011-10-15.
  34. ↑ "Indonesia's 40 Richest 2009". Forbes. 2009-02-12. Archived from the original on 2018-07-24. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  35. ↑ "Asian Agri ordered to pay back tax". The Jakarta Globe. 2012-12-29. Archived from the original on 2013-06-04. Retrieved 2014-09-02.
  36. ↑ "Asian Agri reluctantly bows down to court's demands". The Jakarta Globe. 2014-02-01. Archived from the original on 2014-02-04. Retrieved 2014-09-02.
  37. ↑ "Indonesian palm oil giant Asian Agri to pay $205mn tax fine". AFP. 2014-01-30.[ dead link ]
  38. ↑ "Human Rights Watch 19th annual World Report". Human Rights Watch. 2009. p. 263. Archived from the original on 2016-10-26. Retrieved 2016-12-04.
  39. ↑ "A new chapter". Forbes. 2007-12-14. Archived from the original on 2016-08-25. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  40. ↑ "Business Briefs" (PDF). TODAY. 2007-09-22. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-12-17. Retrieved 2014-09-02.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.