Industry Transport Successor Exel plc Headquarters London, United Kingdom Founded 1865 | Fate Merged with NFC plc Defunct 2000 Founder Alfred Holt | |
Ocean Group plc was a major British transport business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
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History
The company was founded by Alfred Holt and Philip Holt, as the Ocean Steamship Company, to provide a steamship service known as the Blue Funnel Line, between the United Kingdom and China. It was generally known as Holts and had a trademark blue funnel on its ships. For many years it used Swire Group as it shipping agents. In 1947 it formed Malayan Airways.
It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1965. In 1969 it joined forces with British & Commonwealth Holdings, Furness Withy and P&O to form Overseas Containers Limited to exploit the introduction of containerization. In 1972 it acquired William Cory, a major shipping agent, and the following year, it changed its name to Ocean Transport & Trading. In 1986 it withdrew Overseas Containers Limited and in 1990 it renamed itself Ocean Group.
In 2000 it merged with NFC plc to form Exel plc.
Group members
A major restructuring exercise occurred in 1967 whereby all of the Ocean Steam Ship Company’s fleet operations were divided amongst 4 companies, each of which answered to the main board of the Ocean Steam Ship Company. The 4 fleet operating companies were: -