The chief purpose of this paper is to analyze the formation and growth of oil palm plantation enterprises in postcolonial Indonesia. Most of the oil palm plantation enterprises in Indonesia are incorporated businesses organized as limited companies (perseroan terbatas, PT). Amendments of the corporate charters of limited companies concerning their formation, increase in capital, executive appointments, and so on must be reported to the government. Each amendment is announced by an Appendix of the State Gazette (Tambahan Berita Negara Republik Indonesia, TBN-RI), which is annually printed, bound, and stored by the State Printing Office (Percetakan Negara Republik Indonesia, PNRI). Using data from these official documents for the period until 1999, this article presents an outline of the development of oil palm plantation enterprises mainly in the 1980s and 1990s. It contains the profiles of top-class business groups such as Asian Agri, Astra Agro, Salim (Indoagri), and Sinar Mas, as well as some second-class groups among the nearly 500 corporate enterprises that were engaged in the oil palm plantation business.
