Company type |
|
---|---|
Industry | Conglomerate |
Founded | 1816 |
Headquarters | One Pacific Place, Hong Kong (Operational HQ) London (Registered HQ) (Hong Kong but with registered office in London for John Swire & Sons Limited (UK) and some other related entities and subsidiaries) |
Key people | Barnaby Swire, Chairman, John Swire & Sons Limited, Merlin Swire, (Chairman, Swire Pacific) |
Products | Property, aviation, beverages, food chain, shipping, offshore support services, agriculture, manufacturing, wholesale and retail, mining etc. |
Revenue | £12.08 billion (2021) [1] US$16.3 billion |
Number of employees | 100,000+ [2] |
Subsidiaries | Swire Pacific Steamships Trading Company Contents |
Website | Swire.com |
Swire | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Traditional Chinese | 太古集團 | ||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 太古集团 | ||||||||||
Jyutping | taai3 gu2 zaap6 tyun4 | ||||||||||
|
Swire Group (Chinese :太古集團) is a highly diversified global conglomerate with its parent company being John Swire &Sons Limited that holds controlling stakes in a range of businesses trading in the UK,USA,Australia,Papua New Guinea,East and West Africa,and across Southeast Asia. The Group's businesses are arranged into groups:property,aviation,beverages and food chain,marine services,and trading and industrial.
Its core businesses are mainly focused on Asia,with its key operations in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. Within Asia,Swire's activities come under the group's publicly quoted arm,Swire Pacific Limited,which is the largest shareholder in two Hong Kong listed companies:Swire Properties and Cathay Pacific. Taikoo (太古) is the Chinese name of Swire. It serves as the brand name for businesses such as Taikoo Sugar,Taikoo Li and Taikoo Shing.
The Swire Group's privately owned parent company is London-based John Swire &Sons Limited. [3] The Swire Group,started by John Swire (1787–1847) in 1816,had its beginnings as a modest Liverpool import-export company based mainly on the textile trade. [4]
Swire Pacific Offshore Holdings Limited (SPO),was a wholly owned subsidiary of Swire Pacific,supplying chartered vessels that supported the offshore oil and gas industry worldwide. It owned a fleet of 69 offshore vessels. [5] Tidewater entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Swire Pacific Offshore (SPO),a subsidiary of Swire Pacific Limited,for approximately $190 million in early March 2022. Tidewater announced the completion of its acquisition of Swire Pacific Offshore on Friday 22 April 2022. [6]
The Swire Group's core businesses in Hong Kong are held by Swire Pacific Limited,listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. [7] It also operates Swire Beverages Holdings Ltd and Swire Foods Holdings Ltd for their beverages and food chain group.
In 1948,Swire Pacific acquired Cathay Pacific,Hong Kong's largest airline,and remains as the largest shareholder,with 42%. [8]
Incorporated in 1972,Swire Properties develops and manages commercial,retail and residential properties,with a particular focus on mixed-use development in prime locations at major mass transportation intersections. [9]
The company's investment portfolio in Hong Kong totals approximately 17.8 million sq ft (approximately 1.66 million square metres [note 1] ) of gross floor area,with Pacific Place, [10] Island East [11] as its core holdings.
In addition to Hong Kong,the company has a presence in China,the United States and the United Kingdom. In China,Swire Properties has a portfolio amounting to approximately 12.9 million sq ft (approximately 1.20 million square metres [note 1] ),the majority of which is under construction. The five projects consist of mixed-use developments in Beijing,Shanghai,Guangzhou and Chengdu, [12] with Sanlitun Village [13] and The Opposite House hotel [14] in Beijing being the best-known among them.
In 2008,the company formed Swire Hotels [15] to create and manage urban hotels in Hong Kong,China and the United Kingdom.
Swire Resources is a Hong Kong retail company specializing in sports apparel,swimwear,and footwear.
The company is the Hong Kong distributor for several major international brands,including Aldo,Arena,Columbia Sportswear,Crocs,Rockport,and Speedo.
Swire Shipping is the wholly owned shipping arm of John Swire &Sons Limited,headquartered in Singapore. It operates shipping agencies for its liner shipping trades.
The company has a 67% shareholding in Quadrant Pacific of New Zealand that provides third-party agency services to the forestry and oil industries,as well as husbandry services.
Swire Bulk is a leading vessel owner and operator specializing in transporting cargoes in the dry bulk segment,that currently own and chartered-in a fleet of 125 modern,fuel-efficient vessels worldwide,predominantly in the handy-size and supra / ultramax sector.
Steamships Trading Company is a diversified leader in shipping,transport,property and commercial operation in Papua New Guinea.
The company has a 70% shareholding in Consort Express Lines,a leading provider of coastal and river shipping services in Papua New Guinea. Its liner trades service 17 ports in Papua New Guinea and the company also provides project charters.
The company has a 100% shareholding in Pacific Towing,which has a harbor towing,offshore support and salvage operation that owns and operates 12 tugs and nine line boats across seven ports in Papua New Guinea.
John Swire &Sons (Green Investments) Ltd has acquired Scottish biodiesel producer Argent Energy. Argent Energy pioneered large scale commercial biodiesel production in the UK when it started production at its plant near Motherwell in Scotland in 2005. [16] The firm makes its road fuel by recycling wastes and residues from other industries –specifically used cooking oil which is a waste from the food industry,tallow from the meat industry,and sewer grease.
Swire is an anchor bottler in the Coca-Cola System. It is the bottler of Coca-Cola and its related products in 11 provinces and the Shanghai Municipality in Mainland China,Hong Kong,Taiwan,Cambodia,Vietnam,and 13 states in the western United States. [17] This territory represents a population of 780 million people. [18]
Swire Pacific was formed in 1974 (from Taikoo Swire) to become the main holding company for Swire's Hong Kong–based assets.
Cathay Pacific is the flag carrier of Hong Kong with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and its subsidiaries have scheduled passenger and cargo services to more than 190 destinations and more than 60 countries worldwide including codeshares and joint ventures.
Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Limited, also known as Cathay Dragon (國泰港龍航空) and until 2016, Dragonair, was a Hong Kong-based international regional airline, with its corporate headquarters and main hub at Hong Kong International Airport. In the final year before it ceased flying, the airline operated a scheduled passenger network to around 50 destinations in 14 countries and territories across Asia. Additionally, the airline had three codeshares on routes served by partner airlines. It had an all-Airbus fleet of 35 aircraft, consisting of A320s, A321s, and A330s.
The China Navigation Company Limited (CNCo) is a London-based holding company of merchant shipping companies Swire Shipping Pte Ltd and Swire Bulk Pte Ltd, both of which are headquartered in Singapore.
Chater House is an office tower in Central, Hong Kong. Opened in March 2003, it is a part of the Hongkong Land portfolio of properties. It has a three-level retail podium, known as Landmark Chater. The building was built on the site of the former Swire House, and was named after Sir Paul Chater. The building faces streets on three sides: Chater Road, Pedder Street and Connaught Road Central.
Taikoo Place is a commercial building complex located in Quarry Bay, east Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It comprises grade A office towers, car parking, clubs, office apartment, parks, and shops. It is reachable by MTR Island line (MTR). These three complexes are all managed by Swire Properties since the beginning from Taikoo Sugar Refinery, the subsequent Taikoo Dockyard and the recent demolitions of the industrial buildings.
HKR International Limited is a conglomerate headquartered in Hong Kong. The company was founded by Cha Chi-ming, a textile industrialist from Shanghai and one of the pioneers of Hong Kong's industrial boom in the 1950-70s.
Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company was a dockyard in what is now Taikoo Shing, MTR Tai Koo station and part of Taikoo Place of Quarry Bay on the Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. It predates the era before the reclamation of Victoria Harbour.
Christopher Dale Pratt, CBE, was the chairman and executive director of Cathay Pacific Airways Limited and Swire Pacific Limited.
Swire Properties Limited is a property developer, owner and operator of mixed-use, principally commercial properties in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Founded and headquartered in Hong Kong in 1972, Swire Properties is a property developer in Hong Kong, and is listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. Including subsidiaries, it employs around 4,500 people. The company is, in turn, a subsidiary of the publicly-listed Swire Pacific Limited.
Swire Hotels is a division of Swire Properties Limited, a subsidiary of Swire Pacific Limited, a blue chip company quoted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
HMAS Whang Pu (FY-03) or SS Wang Phu was a 3,204 ton riverboat of the China Navigation Company that was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in the Second World War. Her Chinese name translates to "Happy Times". She was one of a group of vessels called the "China Fleet" requisitioned for the RAN in similar circumstances.
HMAS Poyang (FY-20) was a 2,873-ton former steamer that was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during the Second World War. It was one of a group of vessels known as the "China Fleet", which were acquired by the RAN in similar circumstances.
Taikoo Sugar Refinery is a sugar importer and former sugar refinery in Hong Kong.
SS Shuntien was a 3,059 GRT coastal passenger and cargo liner of the British-owned The China Navigation Company Ltd (CNC). She was built in Hong Kong in 1934 and sunk by enemy action in the Mediterranean Sea with great loss of life in 1941. A Royal Navy corvette rescued most of Shuntien's survivors, but a few hours later the corvette too was sunk and no-one survived.
Taikoo Li Sanlitun, formerly Sanlitun Village, is a shopping center in the Sanlitun area of the Chaoyang District in Beijing, China. It comprises 19 buildings on two sites that are a few minutes walk from each other. Besides retail space, the project includes a 99-room boutique hotel, The Opposite House (瑜舍).
Philip Chen Nan-lok, GBS, JP is a Hong Kong businessman, best known for being the first local Hong Kong Chinese Chief Executive Officer and later Deputy Chairman of Cathay Pacific. He has also held a number of senior business posts in Hong Kong, such as Executive Director of Swire Pacific, Chairman of Ocean Park, and Chief Executive Officer of Hang Lung Group and Hang Lung Properties. He was appointed Chairman of the Hong Kong Jockey Club in June 2020.
Charles Collingwood Roberts was a British entrepreneur. He was a former chairman of the Butterfield & Swire and an unofficial member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.
William Charles Goddard Knowles was a British businessman in Hong Kong. He was general manager of the Butterfield and Swire, chairman of the Cathay Pacific Airways, member of the Legislative Council and the Executive Council and vice-chancellor of the University of Hong Kong.
SS Fatshan was a passenger ferry steamer which sank in stormy seas off Lantau Island during Typhoon Rose resulting in the loss of 88 lives.
John Robert Slosar is an American-born Hong Kong businessman. He was the chairman and CEO of Cathay Pacific and chairman of Swire Pacific.