包玉剛

繁體中文

包玉剛（1918–1991），浙江寧波人，北宋名臣包拯二十九世孫，環球航運集團創辦人。他十三歲到上海入讀吳淞商船專科學校，其後在漢口、上海從事保險同銀行業，1945年出任上海市銀行副總經理。1949年他攜家人移居香港，先做進出口貿易，1955年購入第一艘貨輪「金安號」創立環球航運，並趁蘇伊士運河危機擴大船隊；有別於同行炒賣現貨，他堅持以長期租約經營，1965年起同蜆殼、埃克森等國際油商合作開拓石油運輸。1977年旗下船隊達一千三百七十七萬載重噸，成為全球最大私營船東，獲譽「世界船王」。1978年他預見油輪供過於求，實行「棄舟登陸」；1980年在收購九龍倉一役中擊敗怡和洋行，震動商界，並成為首位出任滙豐銀行董事的華人。他捐款興建北京兆龍飯店，1985年購入會德豐控股權並與曹光彪、霍英東等合組港龍航空，又設立中英友好獎學金，其後獲委任基本法起草委員會副主任委員，在中英雙方之間扮演橋樑角色。1991年9月23日，他於睡夢中逝世，終年七十二歲。

English

Y. K. Pao (1918–1991), born in Ningbo, Zhejiang and a 29th-generation descendant of the Song dynasty official Bao Zheng, founded World-Wide Shipping. He trained at the Woosung Merchant Marine Academy in Shanghai, worked in insurance and banking in Hankou and Shanghai, and by 1945 was deputy general manager of the Shanghai Municipal Bank. He moved with his family to Hong Kong in 1949, traded in imports and exports, and in 1955 bought his first freighter, the Golden Alpha, founding World-Wide Shipping and expanding his fleet during the Suez crisis. Rather than speculating on the spot market he chartered his ships on long-term contracts, and from 1965 moved into oil transport in partnership with Shell and Exxon. By 1977 his fleet reached 13.77 million deadweight tonnes, making him the world's largest private shipowner — the 'World Shipping King'. Anticipating the tanker glut, in 1978 he began 'abandoning ships for land', and in 1980 his capture of Wharf Holdings in a battle with Jardine Matheson stunned the business world; he also became the first Chinese director of HSBC. He funded the Zhaolong Hotel in Beijing, took control of Wheelock Marden in 1985, co-founded Dragonair, endowed Sino-British scholarship schemes, and later served as a deputy chairman of the Basic Law Drafting Committee, acting as a bridge between London and Beijing. He died in his sleep on 23 September 1991, aged 72.