| Type | Public (LSE: SWRA, SEHK: 0019 (Share A), SEHK: 0087 (Share B),OTCBB: SWRAY) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace, Property, Shipping, Transport & Agriculture |
| Founded | 1816 |
| Headquarters | London, England, United Kingdom |
| Key people | James Hughes-Hallett, Chairman |
| Operating income | £2.65 Billion (2006) |
| Net income | £244 Million (2006) |
| Employees | 113,000 |
| Subsidiaries | Swire Pacific, Swire Properties Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Haeco, Steamships Trading Company |
| Website | www.swire.com |
The Swire Group (SEHK: 0019,SEHK: 0087,OTCBB: SWRAY) is a transnational corporation headquartered in the Swire House in the City of Westminster, London, England.[1] It controls a range of wholly owned businesses, including deep-sea shipping, cold storage, road transport, and agricultural activities. The current chairman is James Hughes-Hallett. Taikoo (太古) is the Chinese name of Swire. It serves as the brand name for businesses such as Taikoo Cube Sugar and Taikoo Shing.
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The Swire Group's privately owned parent company is John Swire & Sons Limited.[2] The Swire Group, started by John Swire (1793–1847), had its beginnings as a modest Liverpool import-export company started in the early years of the 19th century. In 1861, John Swire & Sons Limited began to trade with China through agents Augustine Heard & Co. In 1866, in partnership with R.S. Butterfield, Butterfield & Swire was established in Shanghai. Four years later, a Hong Kong branch of Butterfield & Swire was also opened.
Four years after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Butterfield & Swire closed all of its China offices. In 1974, Butterfield & Swire in Hong Kong was renamed John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd.
The Swire Group's core businesses in Hong Kong are held by the publicly quoted Swire Pacific Limited. The Group's core businesses are grouped into: property, aviation, beverages, marine services, and trading and industrial. Swire Pacific Limited is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as Swire Pacific Limited SEHK: 0019 (A-shares) SEHK: 0087 (B-shares). Swire Pacific is the largest shareholder of Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong's largest airline.
Swire Properties,[3] incorporated in 1972, develops and manages commercial, retail and residential properties, with a particular focus on mixed-use development in prime locations at major mass transportation intersections. The Company’s investment portfolio in Hong Kong totals approximately 17.8 million sq ft (approximately 1.66 million sqm)* of gross floor area, with Pacific Place,[4] Island East [5] as its core holdings. In addition to Hong Kong, the Company has a presence in Mainland China, the United States and the United Kingdom. In Mainland China, Swire Properties has a portfolio amounting to approximately 12.9 million sq ft (approximately 1.20 million sqm)*, the majority of which is under construction. The five projects consist of mixed-use developments in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu[6], with Sanlitun Village [1] and The Opposite House hotel [7] in Beijing being the best-known among them. In 2008, the Company formed Swire Hotels [2] to create and manage urban hotels in Hong Kong, Mainland China and the United Kingdom. * Gross floor area in respect of 100% of the properties excluding car park areas and not on an attributable basis.
Swire Pacific Offshore Holdings Limited (SPO) is the wholly owned subsidiary of Swire Pacific and charters vessels that support the offshore oil and gas industry worldwide. Swire Pacific Offshore owns a fleet of 69 offshore vessels.[8] The China Navigation Co. Ltd is the deep-sea shipping arm of John Swire & Sons Ltd.
Swire is an anchor bottler in the Coca-Cola System. It is the bottler of Coca-Cola and its related products in Hong Kong, Taiwan and most of mainland China, as well as parts of 10 states in the United States, mainly the mountain west region. This territory represents a population of 420 million people.[9]
The company was featured under the pseudonym "Rothwell-Gornt" in James Clavell's novel Noble House, which is a thinly disguised fictional account of the rivalry between Swire Group and Jardine Matheson, another Hong Kong trading house.
In 2009, Swire Pacific ranks second in Wall Street Journal's Most Admired Company in Hong Kong list,[10] while its subsidiary Cathay Pacific ranks first, meaning that the group's businesses dominate the top two spots of the list.
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