Environmental and indigenous peoples' groups have kicked off an international campaign against the public listing of Malaysian timber giant Samling Group.

They fear that the company will use the US$280 million raised by the listing to expand its logging activities which have already been the subject of controversy.

The company is set to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange on March 7, but the campaign will apply pressure on the banks coordinating Samling's listing exercise.

Several European groups - 'friends' of missing Swiss rainforest conservationist Bruno Manser - began the campaign last Friday with a protest march to the headquarters of one of the banks, Credit Suisse, in Zurich, Switzerland.

They carried a tree - carved in memory of Manser who was last seen in a Samling concession area in Sarawak in May 2000 - to the entrance of the bank. A list of more than 4,500 signatures of those against the bank's involvement was submitted to officials.

"Samling has a poor environmental and social record in its countries of operation, which include Malaysia, Guyana, China and New Zealand," claimed Bruno Manser Fonds, a society for the protection of rainforest communities, in a press release.

"(It) has also left behind a trail of destruction in the forests of Cambodia and Papua New Guinea where its bulldozers have been operating until a few years ago."

The same day, a letter was submitted to HSBC Holdings, another bank, urging it to withdraw its financial services to Samling.

The letter says the bank's involvement goes against its policies on forestry practices and pointed out that it is also a signatory to the Equator Principles - a framework of agreements signed on by 40 international banks addressing environmental and social risks in project financing.

".....(the listing) provides expansion potential to a company with a track record of disregard for sustainable forest management principles and fundamental human rights violations," it reads.

The groups that signed the letter include Malaysian organisations Centre for Orang Asli Concerns and Partners of Community Organisations, as well as Norwegian, Japanese, and UK-based groups.

Samling has previously rejected claims that its forestry practices are unsustainable in Baram, Sarawak.