Serdang Central Plantations Ltd

Serdang Central Plantations Ltd. was registered as a company on 12 January 1909, to acquire and manage estates and plantations for the production of rubber, coffee, cocoa and other crops. The company's registered offices were at Mincing Lane House, Eastcheap, London. The Directors in 1909 were William Frederick de Bois Maclaren, Herbert Wright, Frank Copeman and James Charles Tate. The first Annual General Meeting of the company was held on 16 March 1909. The first estates to be purchased were Soekaloewi and Boloewa, Malaysia. This was extended in 1929 with the acquisition of the Wassenaar Estate in the Tamiang District of Sumatra.

By 1918 the company was feeling the effects of wider problems in the rubber plantation industry caused by a lack of shipping, the restriction of imports imposed by the Government of the United States of America and the consequently low prices of rubber. By 1921, the company had joined the restriction scheme of the Rubber Growers' Association in an attempt to stabilise prices. By 1932 the company faced liquidation, and turned to its shareholders to support a voluntary liquidation of the company and reconstruction of a new company under the same name. The new company was incorporated on 8th September 1932.