Magnates back Gisborne mill

By KEVIN TAYLOR

The international backer of a sawmill planned for Gisborne is an industrial conglomerate owned by one of Malaysia's richest families.

Samling Group, controlled by the family of Yaw Teck Seng, operates in many countries in industries including forestry, property, oil and gas.

Samling bought the New Zealand company Hikurangi Forest Farm from Fletcher Challenge Forests in May 1997 for $210 million. Hikurangi owns 34,000ha, most of it forestry land on the East Coast.

The Yaw family reportedly control 1.5 million hectares of forest on the island of Borneo as well as forestry in Cambodia and in Guyana, South America.

Yaw formed Samling in 1963 as a small timber-felling contractor.

The group is still controlled by him and his family. In 1995 Forbes estimated the family's net worth at US$1.6 billion ($3.3 billion).





In February the New Straits Times reported that Yaw, who is in his 60s, had passed the reins to his son, Chee Ming, 42.