in 2006, wilmar international launched an initial public offering on the singapore stock exchange with a capitalisation of s$2.38bn. in 2007, after a 16-year estrangement, he agreed with his uncle robert kuok to merge the kuok group's edible oil, trading and oil palm plantation assets into wilmar in return for a 31% stake in the company. the merger resulted in the unification of kuok's previous early career contributions to the kuok group with the rapidly growth of wilmar international led by him and martua sitorus since 1991.