Orient Overseas (International) Limited (OOIL) is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

based

investment Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

involved in international

transportation Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

and

logistics Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...

, and property investment and

property development Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re- lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to oth ...

. It is the

parent company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

Orient Overseas Container Line Orient Overseas Container Line, commonly known as OOCL, is a container shipping and logistics service company with headquarters in Hong Kong. The company is incorporated in Hong Kong as Orient Overseas Container Line Limited and separately inc ...

(OOCL), one of the world's

largest container shipping companies Several shipping lines are involved in intermodal freight transport as part of international trade. List of largest container shipping companies This is a list of the 30 largest container shipping companies as of March 2025, according to ''Alph ...

History

Orient Overseas

Founder of Orient Overseas,

Tung Chao-yung Tung Chao-yung or C. Y. Tung ( zh, t=董兆榮, s=董兆荣, p=Dǒng Zhàoróng, first=t; 28 September 1912 – 15 April 1982), also known as Tung Hao-yun, zh, t=董浩雲, s=董浩云, p=Dǒng Hàoyún), was a Chinese shipping magnate and the ...

, operated the first all-Chinese crewed ship between Hong Kong and Europe and the east coast of the United States in 1947. However, Tung Chao-yung already established his Hong Kong operation in 1937. He was the vice-president of Shipowners Association in Tianjin at that time. Tung Chao-yung then named the company Orient Overseas Line. In 1969, the business was renamed as

. The holding company of the group, Orient Overseas Container (Holdings) Limited, was incorporated on 27 February 1973. It was a

listed company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...

, and Kam Ngan stock exchanges since May 1973. These exchanges were merged in 1986.

Jardine Matheson 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 ...

was a minority shareholder of the listed company. In 1973, Orient Overseas Line purchased the passenger liner and renamed it ''Oriental President''. Also in 1973, Orient Overseas commissioned the building of Wall Street Plaza (88 Pine Street), an office building in New York, as well as a nearby plaza. The building was built by I. M. Pei's company and designed by architect Jim Freed. In 1974, Orient Overseas Container (Holdings) acquired a bulk freighter company from the Tung family's C.Y. Tung Group, for HK$43 million. In 1976, the listed company acquired additional assets from the Tung family, including two container ships and 33% shares of another container shipping company, Dart Container Service. In 1980, Orient Overseas Container (Holdings) acquired a British shipping company, Furness, Withy & Co. Shortly before the death of Tung Chao-yung in 1982,

Tung Chee-hwa Tung Chee-hwa (; born May 29, 1937) is a Hong Kong businessman and retired politician who served as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong between 1997 and 2005, upon the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July. He served as a vice chairman of th ...

, his eldest son, succeeded to be the chairman of Orient Overseas. In 1983, Orient Overseas Container (Holdings) Limited, was renamed to Orient Overseas (Holdings) Limited.Hong Kong Companies Registry In February 1986, Orient Overseas (Holdings) Limited submitted a plan to the creditors for re-structuring the group of companies, including the formation of a new business unit centered on

Limited. In October,

Crédit Commercial de France The ''Crédit Commercial de France'' (, "Commercial Credit ompanyof France", abbr. CCF) is a commercial bank in France, founded in 1894 as the ''Banque Suisse et Française'' and renamed to CCF in 1917. By the end of the 1920s, it had grown to b ...

cancelled the application to the court on liquidate Orient Overseas. Orient Overseas was suspended in the

Stock Exchange of Hong Kong The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (, SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. It is one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia and the 9th largest globally by market capitalization as of August 20 ...

(SEHK) due to its financial problem, which the suspension was lifted in February 1987. In the same year, Orient Overseas announced to consider to close down the oil drilling business unit. In November, the group announced to sell some subsidiaries of group, such as Kuwait Hong Kong General Insurance and others companies. The insurance and oil drilling businesses were acquired by

China Merchants Group China Merchants Group Limited ( zh, first=s, s=招商局集团, p=Zhaoshangju Jituan) is a state-owned enterprise (SOE) of the People's Republic of China. The company operates under the auspices of the Chinese Ministry of Transport. Founded in ...

. In May 1988, Orient Overseas acquired additional stakes in the Terminal No. 2, 4 and 6 of

Kwai Tsing Container Terminals Kwai Tsing Container Terminals is the main port facilities in the reclamation along Rambler Channel between Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi Island, Hong Kong. It evolved from four berths of Kwai Chung Container Port () completed in the 1970s. It la ...

from

Hongkong International Terminals Hongkong International Terminals Limited (HIT) () operates 12 berths in Terminal 4, 6, 7 and 9 (North) of Kwai Tsing Container Terminals and another four at Terminal 8 through a joint venture with COSCO SHIPPING Ports and Asia Container Termin ...

Limited.

Orient Overseas (International) Limited

Orient Overseas (International) Limited (OOIL), was incorporated in Bermuda on 29 July 1986. Some time later, it became the new holding company of the group. OOIL became a listed company on 31 July 1992. OOIL's predecessor, Orient Overseas (Holdings) Limited (OOHL), ceased to become a listed company in the same year. Each OOHL's share is offered 1.08431411 shares of OOIL in exchange. Orient Overseas (Holdings) was deregistered and dissolved in 2005. The listed company also sold the stake in Furness Withy and the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals during its restructuring. The company paid dividend again in 1994, the first time since the restructuring. In 1996,

Tung Chee-chen Tung Chee-chen, GBS, SBS, JP ( zh, c=董建成; born 15 December 1942) is a Hong Kong billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and chief executive of shipping company Orient Overseas and a member of the One Country Two Systems Research I ...

, Tung Chao-yung's younger son and Tung Chee-wah's younger brother, took over the chairman position of OOIL, since Tung Chee-wah's election as

Chief Executive of Hong Kong The chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is the representative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and head of the Government of Hong Kong. The position was created to replace the office of Governor of ...

. In 2006, Orient Overseas sold four container terminals to the

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board () is an independent organization responsible for administering defined benefit pension plan, defined-benefit pensions for school teachers of the provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of ...

. In July 2017, OOIL received a US$6.3 billion take over bid from its Chinese rival, COSCO Shipping. The bid has been accepted by the Tung family, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. The takeover was completed in 2018. In April 2019, OOIL sold a container terminal in Long Beach to Macquarie Group for US$1.78 billion. In May 2019, Orient Overseas Associates (the holding company in the US) backed out of a deal to lease office space at Wall Street Plaza in New York to

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

. This raised speculation that interference from mainland China-headquartered COSCO Shipping was involved, as denying leases is out-of-character for building owners.

References

External links

* {{Hang Seng Index Conglomerate companies of Hong Kong Logistics companies of China Shipping companies of Hong Kong Shipping companies of Bermuda Transport companies established in 1947 1947 establishments in Hong Kong Transport companies established in 1986 1986 establishments in Hong Kong Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange COSCO Shipping Offshore companies of Bermuda