Bergesen Worldwide

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Bergesen Worldwide is the name since 2004 of the World-Wide Shipping group created by Sir Y.K. Pao.

In the late 1970s, two British Hongs were taken over by indigenous Chinese entrepreneurs in what signalled a new era in Hong Kong’s capitalism: Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. by Li Ka-Shing and Kowloon Wharf by Yue-Kong Pao. Y.K. Pao was a native from Ningbo, Zhejiang province who came to Hong Kong in 1949 and acquired an aging ship to establish the Worldwide Shipping Company in 1955. At its peak in 1979 World-Wide was by far the largest shipping company in the world with 204 ships totalling 20.5m Deadweight Tonnes (DWT). In the shipping downturn starting in 1978, World-Wide astutely read the market and aggressively sold tonnage whilst prices were still reasonable, paying off debt and building cash resources. In less than 5 years the fleet had halved in size and thus World-Wide avoided the crises that were suffered by many of their industry peers.

Pao passed on his interest in World-Wide in 1989 to his eldest daughter, shortly before his death in 1991. In was ranked as the sixth largest shipping fleet (number of vessels) in the world in 2004 and has been chaired by Helmut Sohmen, Pao's eldest daughter's husband, since 1986.

Following a period of stakebuilding starting in late 2000 in Bergesen, Norway's largest shipping company, the Sohmen family came to an agreement in March 2003 with Morten Bergesen and Petter Sundt, the controlling family shareholders, to buy their interest in Bergesen and mount a full public offering for all outstanding shares. Following completion of this transaction, 2004 saw a reorganisation of the Sohmen family interests with the creation of a new top holding company, Bergesen Worldwide Ltd., registered in Bermuda, which is owned 93% by the Sohmen family and 7% by HSBC. In 2005 the combined Bergesen Worldwide fleet comprised 140 ships totalling nearly 17.4m DWT.