Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) was an investment holding company based in Hong Kong. It was a
Fortune Global 500
The ''Fortune'' Global 500, also known as Global 500, is an annual ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. The list is compiled and published annually by ''Fortune'' magazine.
Methodology
Until 1989, it listed onl ...
company and one of the largest companies listed on the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange. HWL was an international corporation with a diverse array of holdings which included the world's biggest port, and telecommunication operations in 14 countries that were run under the
3 brand. Its businesses also included retail, property development and infrastructure.
It was 49.97% owned by the
Cheung Kong Group
Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, is a multinational conglomerate, based in Hong Kong. It was one of Hong Kong's leading multi-national conglomerates. The company merged with its subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa on 3 June 2015, as part of a major ...
until 3 June 2015, when the company merged with the Cheung Kong Group as part of a major reorganisation of the group's businesses. The combined business was renamed
CK Hutchison Holdings
CK Hutchison Holdings Limited is a Hong Kong-based and Cayman Islands-registered multinational conglomerate corporation. The company was formed in March 2015 through the merger of Cheung Kong Holdings and its main associate company Hutchison Wh ...
Limited.
History
Hutchison Whampoa originated as two separate companies, both founded in the 19th century. and ''Hutchison International'' was formed in 1877.
In the 1960s, Hutchison International – under
Colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...
Sir Douglas Clague
Sir Douglas Clague (13 June 1917 – 11 March 1981) was a British Hong Kong soldier and entrepreneur who spent most of his life in Hong Kong.
Early Years
Born in South Rhodesia, in 1917, Clague arrived in Hong Kong in 1940 as a lieutenant in ...
(1917–1981) – gained a controlling interest of Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock, and in 1977 Hutchison acquired all of that company, creating ''Hutchison Whampoa Limited''.
Although Hutchison Whampoa had a large portfolio of valuable real estate interests, in docks and retail ventures, the company eventually ran into trouble. It was rescued by
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (), commonly known as HSBC (), was the parent entity of the multinational HSBC banking group until 1991, and is now its Hong Kong-based Asia-Pacific subsidiary. The largest bank in Hong K ...
, with HSBC taking a 22% stake in the company and ensuring that Clague was replaced.
[Stephen Vines]
The Other Handover
Time magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Ma ...
, 6 August 2005
On 25 September 1979, at the close of trade in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, HSBC announced that it was selling its stake in Hutchison Whampoa to
Cheung Kong
Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, is a multinational conglomerate, based in Hong Kong. It was one of Hong Kong's leading multi-national conglomerates. The company merged with its subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa on 3 June 2015, as part of a maj ...
for HK$639 million.
[
In March 2011, Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPHT) announced that the company would ]IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
through Singapore Exchange for about US$5.4 billion. This would be the largest offering in South East Asia and surpass Petronas Chemicals
Petroliam Nasional Berhad (National Petroleum Limited), commonly known as Petronas, is a Malaysian oil and gas company. Established in 1974 and wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with all oil and gas reso ...
' offering of about $4.1 billion.
In January 2015, Li Ka-shing entered into talks with Telefónica
Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadba ...
to buy its British mobile division O2 for around $15.4 billion but the deal was blocked in 2016 by the EU's Competition Commissioner.
In January 2015, Li Ka Shing confirmed plans for Cheung Kong Holdings to purchase the remaining shares in Hutchison Whampoa that it did not already own, and merge the two companies as CK Hutchison Holdings. The merger is part of a larger reorganisation of Li's businesses, which will involve the spin-off of property assets into Cheung Kong Property. The new holding company has been incorporated in the Cayman Islands, rather than Hong Kong.
In May 2015, Hutchison revealed plans to sell one-third of its stake in its British-based mobile phone businesses for a potential fee of $4.3 billion to five investors including GIC Private Limited, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, BTG Pactual
BTG Pactual is a Brazilian financial company that operates in the markets of investment banking, wealth management, asset management, corporate lending and sales and trading. It offers advisory services in mergers and acquisitions, wealth plan ...
and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.
Operations
HWL operated in 54 countries and employed around 230,000 staff worldwide. The company had six core businesses, most of which transferred to CK Hutchison:
Ports and related services
Hutchison Port Holdings
Hutchison Port Holdings Limited (HPH; ), trading as Hutchison Ports (), is a private holding company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. The port operator group is a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings (formerly Hutchison Whampoa). Some ...
(HPH) operates across Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. It operates in five of the seven busiest container ports in the world, handling 13% of the world's container traffic. Hutchison Whampoa operates container terminals in Panama, as well as Mexico and other parts of the Americas.
Property and hotels
From office buildings in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, to luxury residential properties in the United Kingdom, Hutchison Whampoa Property
Hutchison Whampoa Property Group was the property development and investment arm of Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong.
In 2015, the company was spun-out of Cheung Kong Holdings to form part of Cheung Kong Property Holdings. Hutchison Whampoa Pr ...
develops and invests in real estate. Together with Cheung Kong Holdings
Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, is a multinational conglomerate, based in Hong Kong. It was one of Hong Kong's leading multi-national conglomerates. The company merged with its subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa on 3 June 2015, as part of a major ...
, HWL has set up a joint-venture company, Harbour Plaza Hotel Management
Harbour Plaza Hotel Management () is a hospitality management company in Hong Kong. It is owned by Cheung Kong Property Holdings.
The company currently manages 9 hotels in Hong Kong alone, China and the Bahamas, including Harbour Plaza Re ...
to operate and manage hotels under the portfolio of the Hutchison Property division.
Retail
A.S. Watson Group (ASW), HWL's retail arm, operates its flagship retail chains in Asia such as Watsons
Watsons () is a Hong Kong health care and beauty care chain store in Asia and Europe. It is the flagship health and beauty brand of the A.S. Watson Group, which is majority owned by CK Hutchison Holdings.
It operates near 8,000 stores and ...
, ParknShop
ParknShop (styled ''PARKnSHOP'', ) is one of the two largest supermarket chains in Hong Kong, the other being Wellcome. ParknShop operates more than 300 outlets in Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China.
The first ParknShop store opened in Stanley ...
supermarket, TASTE food galleria, GOURMET boutique style fine food hall, GREAT Food Hall, Fortress electrical appliances store, Watson's Wine Cellar and Nuance-Watson duty-free operator. In Europe, ASW's retail network comprises health and beauty chains: DC, Drogas, Kruidvat, Rossmann Rossmann, Roßmann or Rossman may refer to:
Surname
* Amy Y. Rossman (born 1946), American mycologist
* Benjamin Rossman (born 1980), American-Canadian mathematician
* Bubby Rossman (born 1992), American Major League Baseball player
* Claude Ros ...
, Savers Health & Beauty, Superdrug, Trekpleister, Spektr and Watson's, as well as luxury perfumeries and cosmetics retail brands: Marionnaud, ICI Paris XL
ICI Paris XL is a perfume shop chain founded in the late 1960s in Belgium. The name ICI Paris XL means 'This is Paris' and was derived from the train trips that were undertaken by the founders on their way to buy perfume from Paris. The XL refers ...
and The Perfume Shop
The Perfume Shop is a United Kingdom perfume retailer founded in 1992 and owned by A.S. Watson (Health & Beauty UK) Ltd, which is part of the A.S. Watson Group. The A.S. Watson Group acquired The Perfume Shop in 2005. The company is based in H ...
. A.S. Watson is the world's largest health and beauty retailer.
Infrastructure
Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI), HWL's infrastructure arm, is a diversified infrastructure company with businesses in transportation, energy, infrastructure materials, water plants and related operations.
Energy
HWL was a major shareholder of Husky Energy
Husky Energy Inc. is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It operates in Western and Atlantic Canada, the United States and the Asia Pacific region, with upstream and downstream business segm ...
, one of Canada's largest energy and energy related companies, holding 33.97%.
Telecommunications
HWL owned the " 3" brand. It also owns 60.4% of Hutchison Asia Telecommunications (HAT), which provides mobile phone networks and data services in Asia. The company's subsidiary 3 Group Europe owns its '3' branded businesses in Europe. Another 1% of HAT is owned directly by Cheung Kong Holdings
Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, is a multinational conglomerate, based in Hong Kong. It was one of Hong Kong's leading multi-national conglomerates. The company merged with its subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa on 3 June 2015, as part of a major ...
, the holding behind Cheung Kong group to which HWL belongs. Additionally, HWL is an official backer of the .mobi
The domain name mobi is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Its name is derived from the adjective ''mobile''.
The domain was approved by ICANN on 11 July 2005, and is managed by the mTLD global r ...
top level domain
A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in ...
created specifically for the mobile internet and has launched the mobile porta
Three.mobi
under its "3" brand. Hutchison Whampoa attempted to purchase O2 for £10.25 billion in March 2015, but the European Commission blocked the acquisition in May 2016.
Criticisms
Hutchison Whampoa has received criticism from charities such as the Burma Campaign UK
Burma Campaign UK (BCUK) founded in 1991 is a London-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) that aims to achieve the restoration of basic human rights and democracy in Burma (also known as Myanmar). BCUK campaigns on behalf of the Burmese pr ...
and appear on the charity's 'dirty list' for their involvement in trade with the military junta
Junta may refer to:
Government and military
* Junta (governing body) (from Spanish), the name of various historical and current governments and governing institutions, including civil ones
** Military junta, one form of junta, government led by ...
in Burma. They state that the company's subsidiary Myanmar International Terminals Thilawa (MITT) is "strategically positioned to facilitate and service Myanmar's international trade" and are concerned about the role foreign investment plays in "perpetuating" the country's brutal regime.Dirty List – Campaigns – Burma Campaign UK
. Burmacampaign.org.uk. Retrieved on 18 September 2013.
See also
*
Jardine Matheson Group
Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (also known as Jardines) is a Hong Kong-based Bermuda-domiciled British multinational conglomerate. It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and secondary listings on the Singapore Exchange and ...
*
List of charities in the People's Republic of China
*
List of companies in Hong Kong
Hong Kong is an autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China on the Pearl River Delta of East Asia. Hong Kong is one of the world's most significant financial centres, with the highest Financial Development Index score and consisten ...
*
List of trading companies
*
Swire Group
Swire Group () is a Hong Kong- and London-based British conglomerate. Many of its core businesses can be found within the Asia Pacific region, where traditionally Swire's operations have centred on Hong Kong and mainland China. Within Asia, ...
References
External links
Hutchison WhampoaYahoo! Finance
{{authority control
Financial services companies established in 1863
1863 establishments in Hong Kong
2015 mergers and acquisitions
Predecessors of CK Hutchison Holdings
Companies formerly listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
Conglomerate companies of China
Mobile phone companies of Hong Kong
Port operating companies
Multinational companies headquartered in Hong Kong
Trading companies of Hong Kong
Former companies in the Hang Seng Index
Retail companies of China
Conglomerate companies of Hong Kong