Milestones
  • In January, AS Watson Group (ASW) celebrates its 175th anniversary.

  • In March, UK Rails S.à r.l., the holding company of Eversholt Rail Group, enters into an agreement with Arriva Rail North Limited to procure and lease out 281 new vehicles worth £490 million.

  • In March, 3 Ireland announces €65 million IT digital transformation investment – entering into a five-year managed services contract with Amdocs to transform its IT infrastructure, and deliver customer experience innovation across all lines of business.

  • In March, Hutchison China MediTech Limited completes an IPO on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in the US, raising over US$110 million.

  • In April, Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited and Power Assets Holdings Limited enter into an agreement with Husky Energy Inc. (Husky Energy) to acquire a 65% stake in a portfolio of Husky Energy’s oil pipeline assets in Canada for approximately C$1.7 billion.

  • In June, with three new thermal projects in Saskatchewan (Edam East, Vawn and Edam West), Husky Energy’s total thermal production now reaches 100,000 barrels per day.
  • In September, first oil is achieved from the Hibernia formation well at North Amethyst with peak production of approximately 5,000 barrels per day net to Husky Energy.

  • In September, 3 Denmark and 3 Sweden win licences for the frequencies 2x30 MHz and 2x5 MHz respectively in the 1800 MHz band in their governments’ spectrum auctions.

  • In October, Vietnamobile receives four licences for Telecom network establishment, Telecom service provision and 2G & 3G spectrum usage from the Ministry of Information and Communications of Vietnam.

  • In November, CK Hutchison, parent company of 3 Italia, and VimpelCom, parent company of Wind Telecomunicazioni, announce that they have completed the transaction to combine their businesses in Italy.  The transaction is one of the largest M&A transactions to be done in Italy since 2007.

  • In November, 3 Italy is merged with WIND to form Italy’s largest mobile operator, serving over 31 million mobile customers and 2.7 million fixed-line customers. It is now the number one operator in Italy in terms of customers.

  • In December, Hongkong International Terminals Limited, COSCO-HIT Terminals (Hong Kong) Limited and Asia Container Terminals Limited have entered into a formal collaboration for the co-management and operation of 16 berths across Terminals 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 at Kwai Tsing, Hong Kong.

  • In December, ASW’s global store portfolio exceeds 13,000, in which Watsons China’s store network surpasses 2,900 stores in 430 cities across the Mainland.