The Wharf (Holdings) Limited (), or Wharf (九倉) in short, is a company founded in 1886 in

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 ...

. As its name suggests, the company's original business was in running wharfage and dockside warehousing, and it was originally known as The Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company, Limited and founded by Sir

Paul Chater Sir Catchick Paul Chater (; ; 8 September 1846 – 27 May 1926) was a prominent British businessman of Armenians, Armenian descent in colonial Hong Kong, whose family roots were in Kolkata, Calcutta, India. Biography Early life Chater was b ...

. The company adopted its current name in 1986. The current major holder of the company is

Wheelock & Co Wheelock and Company Limited is a Hong Kong–based financial real estate company. It was listed as No. 1249 on the Forbes 2000 list. The group's principal activities are property investment, property development, property management and age ...

History

The company is still the owner of the

Star Ferry The Star Ferry () is a passenger ferry service operator and tourist attraction in Hong Kong. Its principal routes carry passengers across Victoria Harbour, between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The service is operated by the Star Ferry Com ...

, although this icon of Hong Kong now forms a relatively small part of the company's portfolio. The Five Flag Poles, a set of flag poles flying flags of the company, are a short walk from the Star Ferry's Tsim Sha Tsui pier and form a local landmark and meeting point. In a more modern vein, the company owns two major flagship properties in the Harbour City and

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

shopping centres in Hong Kong. Both owe their origins to the company's transportation heritage, as they are respectively built on the site of the company's original wharf, and on the site of the original depot of the Hong Kong Tramway (owned 1974–2009), a former subsidiary. Other holdings in Hong Kong include i-CABLE,

Cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television broadcast programming, programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This ...

and WTT, and

Modern Terminals Modern Terminals Limited (Modern Terminals or MTL), is the second largest container terminal operator in Hong Kong, just after Hongkong International Terminals Limited. It operates terminal 1, 2, 5 and 9 (South) in Kwai Tsing Container Terminal ...

. The company also holds many properties in the

Tsim Sha Tsui Tsim Sha Tsui ( zh, c=尖沙咀), often abbreviated as TST, is an list of areas of Hong Kong, area in southern Kowloon, Hong Kong. The area is administratively part of the Yau Tsim Mong District. Tsim Sha Tsui East is a piece of land reclaimed ...

area of

Kowloon Kowloon () is one of the areas of Hong Kong, three areas of Hong Kong, along with Hong Kong Island and the New Territories. It is an urban area comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. It has a population of 2,019,533 and a populat ...

. On 26 July 2016, it was announced that Wharf Holdings (through Novel Colour Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary) is investing RMB 150 million to form

WWE & Company Christopher Lau Gar-hung (born 8 February 1976 in Hong Kong; ) was the chairman of People Power political party in Hong Kong. He is a presenter for Hong Kong People Reporter and MyRadio. He ran for office in the 2012 Hong Kong legislative ele ...

, a social mobile shopping platform technology company. In 2017, The Wharf (Holdings) spun off its real estate portfolio as a sister listed company

Wharf Real Estate Investment Company Wharf Real Estate Investment Company Limited (Wharf REIC) is a listed real estate portfolio company. It is a subsidiary of private company Wheelock & Co. (formerly listed), as well as a sister company of fellow listed company The Wharf (Holdings ...

(Wharf REIC). In February 2018, Wharf REIC replaced The Wharf (Holdings) as the component of the blue chip index

Hang Seng Index The Hang Seng Index (HSI) is a market-Capitalization-weighted index, capitalisation-weighted stock market index in Hong Kong adjusted for free float. It tracks and records daily changes in the largest stock listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exch ...

. In December 2020, the company was awarded a plot located on the Peak for $1.5 billion, marking the first sale of a parcel in the prestigious neighbourhood since 2011.

Holdings

Wharf Hotels is a subsidiary that manages 17 hotels, as of 2022, in Mainland China, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Twelve of the hotels are under the

Marco Polo Hotels Marco Polo Hotels () is a hotel management company based in Hong Kong that operates hotels in Hong Kong, Mainland China and the Philippines. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wharf (Holdings) Limited. The company's chairman is chairman and man ...

brand and five are flagged under Niccolo Hotels.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wharf (Holdings), The 1886 establishments in Hong Kong Companies established in 1886 Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Conglomerate companies of China Conglomerate companies of Hong Kong Family-owned companies of Hong Kong Former companies in the Hang Seng Index History of foreign trade in China Land developers of Hong Kong Wheelock and Company

History

Holdings

See also

References

External links