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19-680: The Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation Limited ( BBTC ) is an Indian trading company based in Mumbai owned by the Wadia Group . It was formed in 1863 by the Wallace Brothers of Scotland . It is India's oldest publicly traded company , and was established to engage in the Burmese tea business through the initial step of taking over the Burmese assets of William Wallace. The company's founding occurred when

38-458: A core component of the postwar " keiretsu " business model, in which large commercial banks played a central role in each major keiretsu with a sōgō shōsha playing a secondary central role that diminished over time. Until the 1980s, sōgō shōsha operations were largely concentrated on supporting Japanese manufacturers' international transactions, particularly in the textile and chemical industries. Since then, Japanese manufacturers have taken

57-452: A more direct role in international procurement, sales and marketing, and the sōgō shōsha have shifted their business focus to services such as finance, insurance, transportation, project management and real estate development, with much of this business conducted outside Japan through local subsidiaries and affiliates. The collapse of the Japanese asset price bubble in the early 1990s led to

76-548: A number of existing family-run conglomerates known as zaibatsu (most notably Mitsubishi and Mitsui ) developed captive trading companies to coordinate production, transportation and financing between the various enterprises within the group. A number of smaller and more specialized Japanese firms, particularly in the cotton supply industry, also took on a larger role in acting as intermediaries for foreign trade, initially in importing raw cotton and later in exporting finished products. These companies were characterized by handling

95-699: A special class of "general trading companies" ( sogo shosha ), large and highly diversified businesses that trade in a wide range of goods and services. Sogo shosha Sogo shosha ( 総合商社 , sōgō shōsha , or general trading companies ) are Japanese wholesale companies that trade in a wide range of products and materials. In addition to acting as intermediaries, sōgō shōsha also engage in logistics, plant development and other services, as well as international resource exploration. Unlike trading companies in other countries, which are generally specialized in certain types of products, sōgō shōsha have extremely diversified business lines, in which respect

114-542: A stock and deliver products to shops or large end customers. They work in a large geographical area, while their customers, the shops, work in smaller areas and often in just a small neighborhood. Today "trading company" mainly refers to global B2B traders, highly specialized in one goods category and with a strong logistic organization. Changes in practical conditions such as faster distribution , computing and modern marketing have led to changes in their business models. The Winding-up and Restructuring Act , an act of

133-455: A variety of products, targeting various regions for their trading, establishing modern institutionalized risk management methods for their trading, and making substantial investments in domestic industrial operations. After World War II , foreign trade was briefly suspended and the zaibatsu were dismantled. The powerful trading arms of Mitsui and Mitsubishi were each dissolved into over a hundred smaller businesses. When trade resumed in 1950,

152-489: A very short period of time relative to Europe, where networks could naturally develop over a longer period of time. Japan also lacked effective capital markets to fund companies, and its industrial base was largely composed of cottage industry enterprises that could not market on their own, in contrast to the larger firms prevalent in the West. The chaebol of South Korea followed a similar path of developing trading companies in

171-454: A wave of mergers and reorganizations among sōgō shōsha , reducing their total number to seven. Sōgō shōsha developed in Japan as a result of several factors unique to Japan. Japan's geographical remoteness and unique language and culture all served to increase the costs of information and negotiation. Its closure from the outside world for over 200 years meant that trade had to be developed in

190-675: The Parliament of Canada , uses the following definition: "trading company" means any company, except a railway or telegraph company, carrying on business similar to that carried on by apothecaries, auctioneers, bankers, brokers, brickmakers, builders, carpenters, carriers, cattle or sheep salesmen, coach proprietors, dyers, fullers, keepers of inns, taverns, hotels, saloons or coffee houses, lime burners, livery stable keepers, market gardeners, millers, miners, packers, printers, quarrymen, sharebrokers, ship-owners, shipwrights, stockbrokers, stock-jobbers, victuallers, warehousemen, wharfingers, persons using

209-852: The Wadia group based in Bombay. Bombay Burmah, a part of the Wadia group , holds a majority share of 50.5 per cent in Britannia Industries , amounting to a total of 12.17 crore equity shares . In 2023, the company announced that it will be divesting 3 tea estates in Tanzania , measuring around 3,957 acres, to Udongo Wetu, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Orange County Resorts acquired eight coffee estates from Bombay Burmah for Rs 291 crore. Trading company Different kinds of practical conditions make for many kinds of business. Usually two kinds of businesses are defined in trading. Importers or wholesalers maintain

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228-598: The 1880s Wallace Brothers had become a leading financial house in London. This firm was able to affect the intelligence about Burma and, more critically, about the growing French influence in the country. The Vissanji family purchased the company from the Wallace brothers around the time of Indian independence. In 1992, the BBTC acquired and merged in BCL Springs . Later, BBTC was acquired by

247-517: The Wallace Brothers, who had the controlling interests. By the 1870s the company was a leading producer of teak in Burma and Siam , as well as having interests in cotton, oil exploration and shipping. British motivations for the third Anglo-Burmese War were partly influenced by concerns of the BBTC. The Burmese state's conflict with the BBTC furnished British leaders with a pretext for conquest. By

266-519: The business model is unique to Japan. The structure of sōgō shōsha can give them advantages in international trade. First, they have extensive risk management capabilities in that they trade in many markets, keep balances in many foreign currencies and can generate captive supply and demand for their own operations. They also have large-scale in-house market information systems which give them economies of scale in pursuing new business opportunities. Their vast scale also allows them to provide capital in

285-646: The first diversified trading companies emerged as Kansai region -based textile traders (most notably Itochu , Marubeni , Toyo Cotton and Nichimen ) and steel traders (most notably Iwai and Nissho, which later merged to form Nissho Iwai ) diversified into new business lines. The remnants of the Mitsubishi and Mitsui zaibatsu also coalesced in the 1950s to form new large-scale trading concerns. The term sōgō shōsha came into use around 1955 to refer to this broad set of firms, which by 1960 had coalesced into ten large and highly diversified companies: Sōgō shōsha became

304-524: The form of credit, financing and export services at low cost. Mitsui CEO Masami Iijima described general trading companies as similar to investment funds such as private equity funds, but distinguished by their ability to identify and implement business opportunities in various industries using the information and human resources gleaned from their trading business. Sōgō shōsha are among the highest-paying employers in Japan. Along with financial institutions, these companies have consistently been ranked among

323-483: The most popular employers for the graduates of top Japanese universities for over thirty years due to their high compensation levels, employment stability and the diversity of opportunities available to prospective employees, of which has made the recruitment process highly competitive. After the opening of Japan in the mid-1800s, trade between Japan and the outside world was initially dominated by foreign merchants and traders from Western countries. As Japan modernized,

342-628: The six Wallace Brothers, originally members of a Scottish merchant house in Edinburgh , first arrived in Bombay (now Mumbai) in the 1840s. A Bombay partnership was formed in 1848 as "Wallace Bros & Co". In the mid-1850s the Wallaces set up a business in Rangoon , shipping tea to Bombay. In 1863 the business was floated as "The Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation". Its equity was held by both Indian merchants along with

361-403: The trade of merchandise by way of bargaining, exchange, bartering, commission, consignment or otherwise, in gross or by retail, or by persons who, either for themselves, or as agents or factors for others, seek their living by buying and selling or buying and letting for hire goods or commodities, or by the manufacture, workmanship or the conversion of goods or commodities or trees ; Japan has

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