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| History |
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In the early 1900s, Mr Tsao Wa Chang,
the grandfather of IMC’s founder Mr Frank
Tsao, started a successful transportation business
along the banks of the Huangpu River in Pudong,
Shanghai. Subsequently, Mr Tsao’s father,
Mr Tsao Ying Yung, began his career at a major chemical
company in Shanghai and later established a moderate-sized
bank. By the early 1930s, the Tsao family could
be said to be a family of means owning several promising
business entities.
However, with the outbreak of World War II and subsequent
civil war, China fell into turmoil. The Tsao family
lost everything and had to move to Hong Kong to
start afresh. Following the Chinese tradition, Mr
Frank Tsao , being the eldest son, assumed his leadership
role of providing for the family.
In 1949, Mr Tsao started out with a small trading
business, went on to buy his first ship and co-founded
the Great Southern Steamship Co. Ltd.. In 1966,
he founded International Maritime Carriers Ltd.
(IMC) in Hong Kong, a shipping company which eventually
grew into a substantial enterprise with ships transporting
a wide range of commodities worldwide.
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Mr Tsao was able to navigate the company through a major
shipping downturn in the early 1980s. While pursuing his
business ventures, he helped found Malaysia’s national
shipping line, her first shipyard and seamen training
centre. He also led a consortium to develop Singapore’s
Suntec City.
In the mid 1990s, Mr Frank Tsao’s son, Mr Frederick
Chavalit Tsao, succeeded him as the Chairman of the IMC
Group. He was instrumental in the privatisation and successful
turn-around of Thailand’s national shipping line
and its subsequent listing on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
As the current chairman of the IMC Group, he spearheaded
the modernisation of IMC’s business operations.
Besides expanding and diversifying the company, he has
also entered into strategic alliances and partnerships.
He privatised IMC in 2002, so that the Group could take
advantage of the unprecedented global shipping boom, resulting
from China’s spectacular economic growth. |
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