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British and Commonwealth Holdings plc was a financial services company which used to be a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100  companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest marke ...
.


History

The Company was originally established in 1955 when Clan Line Steamers was merged with Union Castle to form The British & Commonwealth Shipping Company, a shipping business. Until 1987 its major shareholder was
Caledonia Investments Caledonia Investments plc is an investment trust company based in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Operations Caledonia is a self-managed investment trust. It takes signific ...
, which since 1951 has been controlled by Clan Line's founding Cayzer family. British & Commonwealth were the ultimate owners of British United Airways (BUA),
Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
's largest wholly private, independent airline of the 1960s, as well as its
subsidiaries A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a sa ...
and sister companies, including British United Air Ferries and British United Island Airways (BUIA). They were also a
shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal o ...
of
Bristow Helicopters Bristow Helicopters Limited is a British civil helicopter operator originally based at Aberdeen Airport, Scotland, which is currently a part of the U.S.-based Bristow Group (, S&P 600 component) which in turn has its corporate headquarters in ...
, at the time the UK's biggest
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...
company as well as one of the largest in the world,''High Risk: The Politics of the Air'', pp. 256/7 acquiring full control in 1985. In 1969 British and Commonwealth Shipping,
Furness Withy Furness Withy was a major British transport business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange. History The company was founded by Christopher Furness and Henry Withy (1852–1922) in 1891 in Hartlepool. This was achieved by the amalgamatio ...
, P&O and The Ocean Steamship Company established Overseas Containers Limited to exploit
containerisation Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the p ...
. In late 1970 British & Commonwealth sold BUA along with three new
BAC One-Eleven The BAC One-Eleven (or BAC-111/BAC 1-11) was an early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Originally conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-se ...
500 aircraft it had leased to the airline to
Caledonian Airways Caledonian Airways was a wholly private, independentindependent from government-owned corporations British charter airline formed in April 1961. It began with a single 104-seat Douglas DC-7C leased from the Belgian flag carrier Sabena.''Fly ...
for £12m. It continued to own BUIA, which had changed its name to British Island Airways (BIA) in July 1970.


1980s boom and bust

In the 1980s, new management under John Gunn oversaw rapid expansion in financial services. This wasn't a totally new area for the company: it had established fund managers
Gartmore Gartmore (Scottish Gaelic ''An Gart Mòr'') is a village in the Stirling council area, Scotland. It is a village with a view of the Wallace Monument in Stirling, almost 25 miles away. Formerly in Perthshire, it is one mile from the A81 Glasgo ...
in 1969. Multiple acquisitions included
Exco International Exco International was a leading British money brokering company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by British & Commonwealth Holdings in 1986. History The Company was es ...
, a UK money brokering business in 1986,Chairman is appointed at Exco International
New York Times, 8 January 1987 and Oppenheimer, a large American fund management company. At its height, the company was said to be "the largest financial services company in the UK, if the 4 high-street banks are excluded". Favourable profiles in the business press culminated in John Gunn being awarded the accolade " Guardian Young Businessman of the Year". In 1988 it acquired
Atlantic Computers Atlantic Computers plc (also Atlantic Computer Systems plc) was a British computer lessor and technology services firm, set up in 1975, that collapsed in 1990. Its fall also brought down its parent company British and Commonwealth Holdings, a fina ...
plc, a computer services business for £434 m, having first built up a stake in that company by way of a series of market purchases. The acquisition proved ruinous – "accounting irregularities" were discovered in Atlantic's books: the company had been building up huge contingent liabilities due to its 'Extended Paperwork' practice. Both acquiror and acquiree subsequently went into
administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...
(the former in 1990, the latter during the late 1990s). Until its collapse, British & Commonwealth had also been the majority shareholder of
Air UK AirUK was a wholly privately owned, independentindependent from government-owned corporations regional British airline formed in 1980 as a result of a merger involving four rival UK-based regional airlines. British and Commonwealth (B&C)-owned ...
, at the time the UK's largest regional airline and BIA's successor, and also
Servisair Servisair was an aircraft ground handling company which was acquired and merged into Swissport and partly the Nordic-based Aviator Airport Alliance in 2014. It had operations in 175 airports worldwide with its head office in the Servisair House ...
the airline and cargo ground handling company based, at the time, in
Bramhall Bramhall is a suburban area in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. Historically in Cheshire, it had a population of 17,436 at the 2011 Census.Bramhall South and Bramhall North Wards History The Anglo-Saxon m ...
.


See also

*''
Re Atlantic Computer Systems plc (No 1) ''Re Atlantic Computer Systems plc (No 1)'' 990EWCA Civ 20is a UK insolvency law case concerning the administration procedure when a company is unable to repay its debts. Facts Atlantic Computers">Atlantic Computer Systems plc, recently taken o ...
''


Notes


References

* * {{Authority control Defunct companies based in London Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Financial services companies established in 1955 1955 establishments in England Financial services companies disestablished in 1990 1990 disestablishments in England