in 1991, he left the kuok group to start wilmar, with martua sitorus soon after coming on board as a co-founder. starting as a small commodities trading company with s$2m in seed capital from the mortgage of his family home, and further seed funding obtained from kuok hock swee and sons, his father's investment company. wilmar grew rapidly from the outset, with initial growth in the indonesian edible oil market, followed up with development of sumatran oil palm plantations and indonesian edible oil refineries. a large expansion into edible oil refining in mainland china, and a joint venture with the adani group in india subsequently placed it in leading positions within asia's largest consumer edible oil markets. in 1994, a meeting with the legendary then-chairman of adm, dwayne andreas, resulted in a us$30m investment into the company after the first meeting, and adm coming on board as a long term strategic partner.