British & Commonwealth
| Public company | |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Fate | Went into administration |
| Founded | 1955 |
| Defunct | 1990 |
| Headquarters | London, UK |
|
Key people
|
John Gunn (CEO) |
British and Commonwealth Holdings plc was a financial services company which used to be a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
The Company was originally established in 1955 when Clan Line Steamers was merged with Union Castle to form The British & Commonwealth Shipping Company, a shipping business.
British & Commonwealth were the ultimate owners of British United Airways (BUA), Britain's largest wholly private, independent airline of the 1960s, as well as its subsidiaries and sister companies, including British United Air Ferries and British United Island Airways (BUIA). They were also a shareholder of Bristow Helicopters, at the time the UK's biggest helicopter company as well as one of the largest in the world, acquiring full control in 1985.
In 1969 British and Commonwealth Shipping, Furness Withy, P&O and The Ocean Steamship Company established Overseas Containers Limited to exploit containerisation.
In late 1970 British & Commonwealth sold BUA along with three new BAC One-Eleven 500 aircraft it had leased to the airline to Caledonian Airways for £12m. It continued to own BUIA, which had changed its name to British Island Airways (BIA) in July 1970.
In the 1980s, new management under one John Gunn oversaw rapid expansion in financial services. This wasn't a totally new area for the company: it had established fund managers Gartmore in 1969. Multiple acquisitions included Exco International, a UK money brokering business in 1986, and Oppenheimer, a large American fund management company.
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