Sukanto Tanoto, founder and chairman of RGE.
Royal Golden Eagle—controlled by Indonesian billionaire Sukanto Tanoto—is doubling down its investments in China with plans to build an 11 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) facility to manufacture lyocell fiber, a raw material used to make paper and textiles, in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong.
The Singapore-based company signed an agreement with the Shandong provincial government to build the facility, according to a government announcement this week, details of which were confirmed by a company spokesman. The facility will produce 600,000 tonnes of lyocell fiber annually when it starts commercial production. The latest investment comes on the heels of the group’s completion of its $3.3 billion take over of Chinese tissue paper giant Vinda International Holdings in March.
RGE has been building its capacity across China in recent years. Its unit Asia Symbol operates manufacturing facilities in Shandong and Guangdong provinces, with the plants annually producing 2.2 million tonnes of pulp, 1.5 million tonnes of fine paper, 600,000 tonnes of paperboard, and 250,000 tonnes of tissue paper.
The group has also been expanding in Brazil. In January 2023, RGE's unit Bracel acquired Brazil's OL Papeis and in April last year announced a $500 million investment to build tissue paper and pulp facilities in the country.
Tanoto who has a net worth of $3.1 billion owns RGE, a diversified conglomerate with over $35 billion in assets across pulp and paper, palm oil, and energy industries, employing 70,000 people globally. Through his real estate arm Pacific Eagle Real Estate, he has expanded his property portfolio across China, Singapore and Europe. Tanoto is also in talks with Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng, whose family controls real estate giant City Developments, to pursue potential real estate opportunities in the U.K.
