The long Byram Estate land fight in south Seberang Perai has ended with SD Guthrie's compensation rising to about RM241 million.
EdgeProp reported that SD Guthrie Bhd and Penang Development Corporation have resolved a five-year dispute over the compulsory acquisition of about 380 acres from the estate. The settlement adds RM68.01 million to the RM173.15 million initially determined by the land administrator.
For people who follow mainland Penang, Byram is not an abstract legal file. It sits in the same broad southern Seberang Perai belt where industrial land, logistics access and state-led development plans keep colliding with older estate land. When a public agency takes a large parcel there, the compensation number becomes part of how everyone reads the value of land on that side of Penang.
Under the agreed terms reported by EdgeProp, PDC will pay the RM68.01 million top-up. The settlement also allows the release of RM37.52 million that had been held by the land administrator under Section 29A of the Land Acquisition Act 1960.
The court timeline is now clearer too. EdgeProp reported that a consent judgment for the judicial review was recorded before High Court judge Datuk Dr Suzana Muhamad Said on 25 September 2026, while settlements for the land reference proceedings were recorded before High Court judge Azlan Sulaiman on 6 October 2026.
The dispute dates back to PDC's attempts to acquire the land in 2014. A proposed RM1.8 billion high-tech industrial park involving the parties was pursued in 2015 but did not materialise. PDC later proceeded with the compulsory acquisition in 2020, after which SD Guthrie, then known as Sime Darby Plantation Bhd, challenged the process and the compensation.
The practical outcome is simple: the acquisition dispute is no longer hanging over the land, and the compensation figure is now materially higher than the first award.
