Hong Kong Business Directory

Company Background

Founded in Shanghai in 1857, Wheelock and Company Limited (Stock Code: 20) is a listed investment holding company headquartered in Hong Kong. Its principal subsidiary The Wharf (Holdings) Limited (Stock Code: 4) is a premier company with consolidated assets of about HK$369 billion and a strategic focus on property and infrastructure in Hong Kong and the Mainland. Together with Wheelock Properties Limited, the Group's property arm, both companies have generated an extremely solid recurring dividend income stream for Wheelock.

Business Activities

The Wharf (Holdings) Limited:
With prime real estate as Wharf’s primary strategic focus, site acquisition, financing, development planning, design, construction and marketing are its core competencies. Mall development and retail management remain its strategic differentiation.

Select investment properties form the backbone of Wharf’s business model. The entire investment property portfolio (including hotels) represented 61% of Wharf’s total operating profit in 2012.
Landmark Harbour City and Times Square lead Wharf’s prized portfolio of select investment properties. They represented 50% of Wharf’s total business assets and accounted for nearly 10% of total Hong Kong retail sales in 2012 with unique critical mass. They command a combined value of HK$177 billion, underpinned by a 20% compound annual growth rate in retail sales in the past 10 years. Our leadership position in retail is further maintained with the new lease for the Ocean Terminal lot.

Wharf’s mission of Building for Tomorrow underlines the Group’s asset expansion programme in recent years. The new base includes a land bank of 12.3 million square metres across 15 cities, a fast emerging hotel business in Asia Pacific, principally in China, and valuable port assets in China. The Mainland portfolio contributes to 30% of the Group’s core profit.

Two International Finance Square (IFS) projects under development in Chengdu and Changsha lead Wharf’s new select investment properties and create substantial new value. Each is designed to be a prime property as large as Harbour City and as dominant in their respective markets. Three other IFSs are also being built in Chongqing, Wuxi and Suzhou. Rental income from the Mainland for the first time exceeded HK$1 billion in 2012 and it will multiply upon the completion of the five IFSs by 2016.

China property is our second most important business with attributable property sales (excluding those from Greentown China Holdings Limited (“Greentown”)) in 2012 totaled RMB15 billion.

Wheelock Properties Limited:
Wheelock Properties Limited (“WPL”), previously a listed subsidiary, became wholly owned by the Group in July 2010 by way of a scheme of arrangement. Spearheading the Group’s property development business in Hong Kong , WPL’s total land bank in Hong Kong was replenished to 7.1 million square feet after expending HK$6.1 billion in acquisitions in 2012 and early 2013.

Wheelock Properties (Singapore) Limited:
Wheelock Properties (Singapore) Limited was incorporated in Singapore in 1972 and listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited. It is a subsidiary of Wheelock and Company and its principal activities are that of property investor and developer, with a focus on luxury residences. As at the end of 2012, the company had a market capitalization of over S$2 billion.