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Jardine, Matheson & Co.

Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd.
Public
Industry Conglomerate
Founded 1832; 185 years ago (1832)
Founder
Headquarters
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Products
Revenue Decrease US$42.1 billion (2016)
Website Jardines.com
Jardine, Matheson Co Ltd
Traditional Chinese 怡和輪船公司
Simplified Chinese 怡和轮船公司

Jardine Matheson Holdings (Jardines) is a British conglomerate incorporated in Bermuda, with its primary listing on the Singapore Exchange. The majority of its business interests are in Asia, and its subsidiaries include Jardine Pacific, Jardine Motors, Jardine Lloyd Thompson, Hongkong Land, Jardine Strategic Holdings, Dairy Farm, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Jardine Cycle & Carriage and Astra International.

Jardines was one of the original Hong Kong trading houses or Hongs that date back to Imperial China, and as of December 2010, 41 percent of the company's profits are still earned in China. The company is controlled by the Keswick family, who are descendants of co-founder William Jardine's older sister Jean Johnstone.

In 2013, both Jardine Matheson and Jardine Strategic were among the top 200 publicly traded companies in the world as valued by market capitalization.

The firm of Jardine, Matheson, and Co. properly began in Canton (now Guangzhou), China, on 1 July 1832. It was founded by University of Edinburgh Medical School graduate William Jardine (1784-1843) and University of Edinburgh graduate James Matheson (1796-1878) and carried on the existing business of Cox, Reid, and Beale, a firm which had begun as agents of the Austrian Empire's Trieste Company. With the cession of Hong Kong under the 1842 Treaty of Nanking, the firm set up its headquarters on the island and grew rapidly. Initially trading in smuggled opium, tea, and cotton, Jardines soon diversified into other areas including insurance, shipping, and railways. By the turn of the 19th century, the company had become the largest of the hongs or foreign trading conglomerates with offices in all the important Chinese cities as well as Yokohama, Japan. One of its branch agencies, Glover and Co., established in Nagasaki, is known in Japan as an arms dealer who contracted with then-rebel forces from Chōshū Domain who led the Meiji Restoration in 1868.


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