Deal #3463

Decoris Oil Palm Plantation

ING finances the Singaporean agribusiness Wilmar that in turn finances the Maryland Oil Palm Plantation (MOPP). As of 2018 Wilmar became a sole owner of Nauvu Joint Venture Company, which in 2017 owned 27 percent of the shares in SIFCA that controls MOPP. Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), and Dutch and Indonesian campaign groups Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth) Netherlands and WALHI, have lodged a compliant with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) against the Dutch banking giant ING Group. "NGOs alleged that they had informed the bank of human rights violations committed by oil palm companies in Liberia and Indonesia its subsidiaries Noble Group Ltd, Bollore Group/Socfin Group S.A. and Wilmar International Ltd. have investments in. The three NGOs said that it was unlikely that ING would take any actions against its three subsidiaries." The report, Dutch financial sector European frontrunner in financing deforestation recently, found that the company received Dutch investments of US$3.5 billion through their parent companies to knock down the forest and take away land belonging to rural communities. It was also recorded that the company also use a chain of financial structures to fund their subsidiaries with money they receive from Dutch banks while hiding their connections and avoiding direct liabilities. The agreement signed by MOPP was worth US$203 million for 25 years, stretching as far as Grand Kru.