Swire Group

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Swire Group

Type	Public (LSE: SWRA, SEHK: 0019, SEHK: 0087)
Founded	1816
Headquarters	London, England, UK
Key people	James Hughes-Hallett, Chairman
Industry	Aerospace, Property, Shipping, Transport & Agriculture
Operating income	£2.65 Billion GBP (2006)
Net income	£244 Million GBP (2006)
Employees	113,000
Subsidiaries	Swire Pacific, Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Haeco, Steamships Trading Company
Website	www.swire.com

The Swire Group (Chinese: 太古集團) (LSE: SWRA SEHK: 0019 SEHK: 0087) ) is a transnational corporation headquartered in London, England. 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 Hallet.

Taikoo (太古) is the Chinese name of Swire. It is also the brand name of its business, like Taikoo Cube Sugar and Taikoo Shing.

The Swire Group's privately owned parent company is John Swire & Sons Limited. 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 & industrial. Swire Pacific Limited is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as Swire Pacific Limited SEHK: 0019 (A-shares) LSE: SWRA (A-shares in London) SEHK: 0087 (B-shares). Swire Pacific is the largest shareholder of Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong's largest airline. The airline covers more than 90 destinations in the world.

Swire Properties is one of the largest property developers in Hong Kong. The company owns and manages several renowned shopping malls, including Festival Walk and Cityplaza. It is also renowned in developing residential and commercial complexes in Hong Kong, such as Pacific Place, Taikoo Place and Taikoo Shing.

The China Navigation Co. Ltd. is the deep-sea shipping arm of John Swire & Sons Ltd.

Swire Pacific Offshore Holdings Limited (SPO)is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Swire Pacific and plays a major role in supporting the offshore oil and gas industry worldwide. Swire Pacific Offshore has one of the largest and most modern offshore energy support fleets in the world.

It is after the Swire Group that The University of Hong Kong Swire Hall (1980) student dormitory is named.

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 400 million people.

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.