Business talk: Guo family, goldfish and global grain and oil giant Fengyi International

Although the brand "Golden Dragon Fish" has long been known in China, many people may not know the company behind it, Fengyi International. As the largest grain and oil company in Asia and one of the five largest grain and oil giants in the world, Fengyi International has long been among the Fortune 500 companies. The Kuo family of Malaysia, which founded Fengyi International, also controls Hotel Shangri La Santa Monica Group and Kerry Group, which are headquartered in Hong Kong.

Guo family

From "Asian Sugar King" to "Shangri-La" Hotel

Kuok Hock Nien (Robert Kuok) was born in 1923 in Xinshan, Johor, Malaya. His father, Guo Qinjian, is originally from Fujian, China. At that time, the Guo family founded a "Dongsheng company" in Malaya, which specializes in rice, soybeans and sugar. The Kuok Hock Nien brothers all received a good education and graduated from Xinshan English School and the famous Raffles College in Singapore.

In 1942, Japanese troops occupied Malaya and Dongsheng was forced to go out of business. With the end of the war, Dongsheng Company is back on the right track. In the early post-war period, there was an acute shortage of consumer goods in Malaya, and the authorities implemented goods control. Because the official in charge of rice grain had an inexorable friendship with Guo Qinjian, the local purchase of rice and grain was handed over to Guo Qinjian. Guo Qinjian seized the opportunity to control the grain business in Johor in a very short time, and his career was booming. By the end of 1940s, Guo Qinjian had become a well-known wealthy businessman in Xinshan.

In 1947, the 24-year-old Kuok Hock Nien went to Singapore alone and founded his first company, operating business, shipping brokerage, grocery and so on. In 1948, Guo Qinjian died and Kuok Hock Nien returned to Xinshan, Malaya. At the suggestion of his mother, Zheng Geru, Guo Brothers Co., Ltd. (Kuok Brothers Limited) was established in 1949. The company, in conjunction with the assets of the Guo brothers, inherits the traditional business of Dongsheng, dealing in rice, flour, beans, sugar and so on. Kuok Hock Nien was elected chairman of the company.

In 1957, Malaya became independent from Britain. In 1963, the Federation of Malaysia was established. Kuok Hock Nien established the country's first sugar refinery, the Malaya Sugar Plant, in Penang in 1959 in a joint venture with the Malay Federal Land Development Agency. He bought crude sugar from Thailand, processed it in his own sugar factory, shipped it to various places, and sold it to China through a Hong Kong-based commodity brokerage company. He also bought sugar from Cuba and sold it to Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries. In just a few years, he controlled Malaysia's sugar industry, made huge profits, and was known as the "sugar king" of Malaysia. Since then, Kuok Hock Nien also set a precedent for large-scale planting of sugarcane in Malaysia, making Malaysia the first step towards self-sufficiency in the sugar industry. In the 1970s, Kuok Hock Nien controlled 80 per cent of Malaysia's raw sugar market and 20 per cent of the world sugar market, making him the "sugar king of Asia".

At the same time, Kuok Hock Nien is also moving into other areas to diversify. He founded a wood processing enterprise, set foot in the shipping industry, and entered the real estate market.

In 1971, Kuok Hock Nien established a joint venture with the Economic Development Board of Singapore to create the first luxury hotel in Singapore, named Shangri-La, meaning "Xanadu", and began to expand in the Asia-Pacific region to build the brand of Hotel Shangri La Santa Monica. In the early 1980s, Hotel Shangri La Santa Monica Group began to fully distribute the mainland market. Through continuous expansion, Hotel Shangri La Santa Monica Group, headquartered in Hong Kong, has become the largest luxury hotel group in Asia.

In 1974, Kuok Group established Kerry Holdings Limited (Kerry Holdings Limited) in Hong Kong. Since then, Hong Kong and mainland China have gradually become the focus of the group's development. The largest portion of Kuok Hock Nien's assets are in Hong Kong, including a large number of luxury homes, shopping malls and hotels in Hong Kong. Kuok Hock Nien has lived in Hong Kong for a long time and is actively expanding his corporate footprint in Chinese mainland. Kuok Hock Nien's eldest son, Guo Kongcheng (born 1947), is mainly responsible for managing Guo's business in Hong Kong and mainland China. "Kerry" has also become a symbol of the Kwok family's extensive business in Hong Kong and mainland China, covering grain and oil processing, hotels, real estate and beverages. Wilmar International

Compete in China's grain and oil market and become one of the top 500 enterprises in the world.

Since 1988, Kuok Group has entered the grain and oil market in mainland China. In 1991, Nanhai Oil, a joint venture between Kerry Group and Cofco's subsidiaries, launched "Golden Dragon Fish" small package edible oil, leading China's consumption revolution from bulk oil to small package oil, but the "Golden Dragon Fish" trademark is owned by Singapore's Guo Shi (Singapore) Limited. Guo Kongcheng is in charge of Kerry's grain and oil business. since then, he has set up a number of production bases in Shanghai, Qingdao, Xi'an, Chengdu, Tianjin and other cities, but no longer cooperates with Cofco. In 1992, Cofco created its own brand and launched "Fu Linmen" small package edible oil in 1995.

Fengyi's two founders, Guo Kongfeng (left) and Wu Shengfu (right)

In 1991, Kuok Hock Nien's nephew Kuok Khoon Hong (born 1951) and Indonesian businessman Martua Sitorus,Thio Seng Hap (born 1960) founded Wilmar in Singapore, initially mainly engaged in the palm oil trade. Since then, a large number of palm oil plantations in Southeast Asia have been acquired and palm oil crushing plants have been set up.

In 2000, Fengyi Holdings established Yihai Group as a joint venture with ADM of the United States, one of the four major international grain manufacturers. Taking advantage of its unique advantages in palm oil raw materials, Yihai Group has become a partner of Cofco and has a certain stake in the "Fu Linmen" edible oil business of Cofco.

The famous Shandong Luhua Luxiang Peanut Oil Co., Ltd. is also a joint venture of Laiyang Luhua, Yihai and Cofco.

In 2006, the shares of Fengyi International Limited (Wilmar International Limited) were listed in Singapore.

In December 2006, Fengyi International Co., Ltd. announced a merger and acquisition plan of up to 4.3 billion US dollars. The merger and acquisition plan is divided into two parts: one is to acquire the palm garden, edible oil, grain and related businesses of the Guo Group, namely Kerry Cereals, for US $2.7 billion; and the other is to acquire the edible oil, grain and related businesses of the parent company Fengyi Holdings for about US $1.6 billion, including the stake held by the ADM Asia Pacific Group. After the acquisition, Fengyi International is still listed in Singapore, with Fengyi Holdings, Kwok Group and ADM holding 48.5 per cent, 31 per cent and 6.7 per cent respectively.

In 2009, Fengyi International entered the ranks of Fortune's top 500 companies and one of the top three food enterprises in the world. Fengyi International is also one of the largest companies by market capitalization on the Singapore Exchange. In 2016, Fengyi International ranked 254th among Fortune 500 companies and fifth in the global grain and oil industry.

Fengyi International's business scope includes green palm industry, oilseed pressing, edible oil refining, sugar refining, special oil, oil chemical industry, biodiesel and fertilizer manufacturing and food processing, etc., is a world-renowned palm oil producer and trader. Fengyi International has more than 500 factories in 15 countries and a network of operations in 50 countries, including China, India, Russia, the United States, Australia and Ghana. More than 90,000 employees from different countries work for Fengyi International. Currently, Guo Kongfeng (Kuok Khoon Hong) is chairman and CEO of Wilmar International. Yihai Kerry

Giant enterprises in China's grain and oil market

After the merger, Guo's two important platforms in mainland China-Yihai Group and Kerry Cereals and Oils merged into a large-scale Yihai Kerry Group, headquartered in Shanghai. Yihai Kerry Group has become a subsidiary of Fengyi International engaged in mainland China business, and it is also the largest soybean crushing, oil refining and small packaging sales group in China.

Yihai Kerry has 23000 employees and 61 production bases and more than 130 production enterprises in 23 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China. mainly involved in oilseed pressing, edible oil refining, special oil, oil chemical industry, corn deep processing, soybean deep processing, rice circular economy, wheat deep processing, food and beverage, grain and oil science and technology research and development and other industries.

Yihai Kerry owns famous brands such as "Golden Dragon Fish", "ou Li Wei Lan", "Huji Flower", "Xiangman Garden", "Haihuang", "Fengyuan", "Jinwei", "Ruilong", "Jiejin 100" and other famous brands. the products cover many fields, such as small package edible oil, rice, flour, hanging noodles, rice noodles, soy milk, food special grain and oil, food raw materials, oil chemical industry and so on.

It turns out that there is a shadow of "Fengyi International" among the three major brands of edible oil in China.