SWIRE PROPERTIES

The papers that form part of this collection were created or collected by John Swire & Sons, Ltd, London in their capacity as parent company and managers of their subsidiary businesses in the East. For this reason, the records that form this collection are mainly correspondence (though there may be some future accruals): the operational records of the company are held by the Swire Archive Service in Hong Kong.

Swire Properties was incorporated in Hong Kong with interests held by B & S Industries Limited and The Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company of Hong Kong Limited (renamed as Swire Pacific Limited in 1974). In January, the Hong Kong Government approved in principle a master development plan submitted by the Company to develop a site comprising approximately 96 acres, including the Taikoo Dockyard (now known as Taikoo Shing), Taikoo Sugar Refinery Compound (which later became the Taikoo Trading Estate and the current Taikoo Place), Braemar Reservoir and various land lots in Taikoo Valley. The Company commenced its first major development in the Hong Kong property market, Taikoo Shing. A 61-block residential project at the former Taikoo Dockyard site, the development is one of Hong Kong's major housing estates, and it laid the foundation of Swire Properties.

Since that time Swire Properties has been responsible for a number of high profile residential, corporate and leisure building projects in Hong Kong, including City Plaza, the largest shopping and entertainment centre in Hong Kong (1983), the Pacific Place develoment (completed 1991), the Manadarin Oriental Hotel (2000). A Swire Hotels section was launched in 2008 with notable success, the same year it established its mainland China headquarters in Beijing.

Alongside its interests in China and Hong Kong, the Company decided in 1976 to invest significantly in the United States to implement its diversification strategy by acquiring interests in Berkeley Hambro Inc., a developer headquartered in Tampa, Florida. In addition, Swire McCormack Limited was formed in a joint venture with The McCormack Corporation based in Hawaii to develop for sale a townhouse complex on a residential site known as Puu Alii at Lilipuna Hills on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Two years later the Company acquired the remaining interest in Berkeley Hambro Inc., and changed its name to Swire Properties Inc. which continues to operate with success in the states today, headquartered in Miami.

The Company was listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in June 1977. Its shares were also traded on the London Stock Exchange.

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