Type Private Company Headquarters Jakarta, Indonesia | Industry Natural Resources Number of employees 30,000 | |
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Founded 1915; 102 years ago (1915) Key people Lim Gunawan Hariyanto (CEO)
Gunardi Hariyanto Lim (Deputy CEO) | ||
The Harita Group is an Indonesian business conglomerate owned and controlled by the Lim family. The Group's core businesses are in the natural resources sector, which operates throughout Indonesia. Today, the Harita Group has businesses in Nickel Mining, Bauxite Mining, Palm Oil Plantations (Singapore listed Bumitama Agri), Shipping, Timber and Coal.
History
The Group was started in 1915 by Lim Tju King, an immigrant from the Fujian province of China. He started with humble beginnings by working hard labor and eventually saved enough money to open a small grocery shop in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Eventually, his son Lim Hariyanto Wijaya Sarwono (currently the President Commissioner and Chairman of Harita Group) took over and moved into the timber business, first by trading timber logs and later on by building a small factory and diversifying in manufacturing of plywood in 1983.
Starting in the early 1980s, Lim Hariyanto's sons Lim Gunawan Hariyanto (CEO of Harita Group) and Gunardi Hariyanto Lim (Deputy CEO of Harita Group) started rapidly expanding the business through organic growth paralleled with a series of joint venture partnerships. They expanded their timber and plywood division, entered into gold mining in 1985 through a joint venture project with Rio Tinto Group named Kelian Equatorial Mining (KEM) (Harita Group owned 10% stake and Rio Tinto owned 90% stake) and later entered into coal mining (the Lanna Harita Project) in 1988. From there, the group continued to diversify into palm oil plantations (1996), bauxite mining (2005), and nickel mining (2006).
Palm Oil Division: In April 2012, the Harita Group listed its palm oil division, Bumitama Agri, on the Singapore Exchange. As of August 2015, the market capitalization of Bumitama Agri is about US$1.3 billion.
Bauxite Division: In July 2013, it was announced that the Harita Group will be investing US$1 billion to build an alumina refinery in West Kalimantan, which will process bauxite ore into alumina. This refinery will produce 2 million tons of alumina per year.
Nickel Division: In June 2015, Harita Group announced its investment of US$320 million to build a nickel smelter and a 120 megawatt power plant in North Maluku. The smelter will process nickel ore and will be able to produce 190,000 tons of ferronickel metal per year. The project is estimated to be completed by 2017.