Grande Holdings Ltd () () is a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

manufacturer of consumer and professional audio and HiFi components based in

Kowloon Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and t ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. In the past, Grande Holdings has purchased several

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese HiFi manufacturers, including

Akai Akai ( ja, 赤井, ) is a Hong Kong manufacturer of consumer electronics. It was founded as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo, Japan, in 1946. Grande Holdings in Hong Kong purchased the Akai brand, and now distributes various electronic produ ...

and

Nakamichi is a Japanese consumer electronics brand that originated in Japan and gained a name from the 1970s onwards for innovative and high quality audio cassette decks. Nakamichi is a subsidiary of Chinese holding company Nimble Holdings. Nakamich ...

. It also owns Kawa, a Chinese domestic hifi company, and has owned

Singer Corporation Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of consumer sewing machines, first established as I. M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac M. Singer with New York lawyer Edward C. Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Ma ...

, a company best known for its

sewing machines A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with Thread (yarn), thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies. ...

. The company has since sold off Singer as a brand.

History

The company was founded by James Ting, a Chinese businessman originally from

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, Christopher Ho, and

Stanley Ho Stanley Ho Hung-sun (; 25 November 192126 May 2020) was a Hong Kong-Macau billionaire businessman. His original patrilineal surname was Bosman, which was later sinicized to 何 (Ho). He was the founder and chairman of SJM Holdings, which owns ...

(),

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

's richest and most famous entrepreneurs. In 1999 prior to the collapse of International Semi Tech Microsystems, Grande Holdings acquired Singer,

Pfaff PFAFF (german: PFAFF Industriesysteme und Maschinen AG, PFAFF Industrial) is a German manufacturer of sewing machines and is now owned by the SGSB Co. Ltd. History PFAFF was founded in Kaiserslautern, Germany, in 1862 by instrument maker ...

and Sansui Electric assets. Singer and Pfaff were later sold off to

SVP Worldwide SVP Worldwide is an American private company that designs, manufactures, and distributes consumer sewing machines and accessories around the world under three brands: Singer, Husqvarna Viking, and Pfaff. The company's corporate headquarters is lo ...

Controversy

In 1999 during the

Asian Financial Crisis The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998–1 ...

the company courted controversy when one of its main subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Akai Holdings Ltd, fell apart after recording a $1.65 billion loss in 1999, one of the biggest losses in Asian financial history. It resulted in Grande Holdings becoming almost bankrupt, and having to sell many of its subsidiaries and business interests to recoup its loss. Regulators and officials in the bankruptcy court had found the company's subsidiary, Akai Holdings Ltd, and its Singer division, had made a number of complex company cross-selling deals which resulted in the destabilisation of Singer and Akai. Officials, through their findings, had found Akai's directors and staff had left their Hong Kong offices, and also found that some $38.5 million had mysteriously disappeared from Akai's funds. It was speculated the money was either siphoned away by employees, or deposited in overseas bank accounts. In November 1999, and after the bankruptcy proceedings, many of Akai's remaining assets mysteriously shifted to Grande Holdings, without any notification to the

Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. As of the end of 2020, it has 2,538 listed companies with a combined market capitalization of HK$47 trillion. It is repor ...

, creditors, courts, or other regulatory authorities. The deal was done through a simple and hastily prepared four-page management agreement. Creditors for Akai say they only learned of the change in corporate ownership in September 2000, when Grande Holdings presented 54 boxes of Akai records to liquidators. Grande Holdings then executive director Samuel K. Yuen denied in a brief telephone interview that Grande had taken over Akai.

Grande Holdings today

Following a series of losses, Grande had reached insolvency and appointed provisional liquidators on 1 June 2011. At the time of filing, the company controlled the Akai and Nakamichi brands as well as its key assets, including a TV factory in

Zhongshan Zhongshan (; ) is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is now part of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen conurbation with 65,565,622 i ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The company also owns Ross Group plc, a

transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...

manufacturer in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, majority ownership of

Emerson Radio Emerson Radio Corporation is one of the United States' largest volume consumer electronics distributors and has a recognized trademark in continuous use since 1912. The company designs, markets, and licenses many product lines worldwide, inc ...

, and Kawa a Chinese brand of

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

. The company is currently incorporated in

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

as an exempted company with limited liability.

References

External links

Grande Holdings Limited

Grande Holdings Company History
Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Audio equipment manufacturers of China Manufacturing companies of Hong Kong Conglomerate companies of Hong Kong Multinational companies headquartered in Hong Kong {{China-company-stub