Founded as the Ocean Steamship Co, to provide a steamship service known as the Blue Funnel Line, between the United Kingdom and China. It was generally known as Holts and had a trademark blue funnel on its ships. For many years it used Swire Group as it shipping agents.
1947 Formed Malayan Airways.
1965 First listed on the London Stock Exchange.
1969 Joined forces with British & Commonwealth Holdings, Furness Withy, and P&O to form Overseas Containers Limited to exploit the introduction of containerization.
1972 Acquired William Cory, a major shipping agent, and the following year, changed its name to Ocean Transport and Trading.
1986 Withdrew Overseas Containers Limited and in 1990 it renamed itself Ocean Group.
2000 Merged with NFC plc to form Exel.