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MR Y K PAO, CBE, LL.D, JP
1.
He
Mr Y K Pao was born in 1918 in Cheking province, Eastern China, and spent his school days at Ning Po, a seaport near Shanghai.
He began his working life as a bank clerk, rising to No. 2 in the Shanghai Municipal Bank, not long before the People's Republic came into being, when he left China for Hong Kong. He went first into the import and export business and in 1955 bought his first ship, a 27-year old second-hand coal-burning steamer of 8,700 tons. now counts as the biggest ship-owner in the world and owns, through his Worldwide Shipping Group, over 130 vessels ranging from very large crude carriers to dry harbour vessels totalling some 13 million tons dead weight. The Group's corporate structure is highly complex, but Worldwide (Shipping) Ltd, a Bermuda-registered company with its main office in Hong Kong, manages the fleet and takes fees based on profits. Most of the ships are registered in Liberia under one-ship companies, but some are registered in the UK and other countries.
The
2. The Group's fleet has been built mainly in Japanese shipyards and many of the ships are chartered to Japanese interests. Group has followed a conservative policy in arranging advance employment for ships before finalizing orders. Ordering, financing and negotiation of medium/long-term charters have been approached as a single operation. It seems that, largely as a result of this policy, the Group has been successful in weathering the recent recession in the maritime industry.
3. Mr Pao is a Director of the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Hong Kong Electricity Company Ltd, South China Morning Post Ltd, Wheelock Marden & Co Ltd, and Inchcape Far East Ltd. He is a member of the Board of the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Corporation.
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Mr Pao was awarded his CBE in the 1976 New Year's Honours
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