Back to the future for flagship firm

But the surviving Ben Line shipping agency in Hong Kong last year delivered a near £3m profit, up by more than half, to its 42% shareholder the Thomson family.

EG Thomson Holdings is chaired by the founders' descendant 69-year-old William Thomson, who inherited it from his uncle Edward ("Mr Ted"), and who also chairs Victorian-founded John Menzies in the same building in Princes Street, Edinburgh.

The family holding company made a further £513,000 profit last year from its interests in travel and a property agency spiced up with private equity, under its modern-day pilot, the former British Linen Bank director Charles Young. Invited to join as finance director in 2002 and now chief executive, Young says: "It has some very successful investments, particularly in Ben Line Agencies, and it has got the firepower to go out and buy and develop."

Young sits on the board of Singapore-based Simba Logistics as well as dynamic BLA, where he says Thomson's minority ownership model, with financial know-how underpinning management control, has been the key. "It was a business that was on its knees, it had looked after the interests of Ben Line which had disappeared, and they had to build it up from nothing," Young says. "It is now one of the largest shipping agencies in Asia employing over 1200 people and doing extremely well. It is owned by the directors in the east, and when someone retires their shares get bought by the employee share trust, so when the next generation comes along they will have a chance. EG Thomson allows it to remain stable and immune from takeover unless the managers want it and we want it - there is no intention that we would sell them down the river."

The global trade slowdown has meant falling cargo volumes, particularly between Asia and Europe, but BLA's shipping agency has built its growth on the internal Asian routes, while its 70 port agency offices all over the Far East have grown business from 2500 to 8500 ship calls a year.

Young, 56, a law and accountancy graduate of Glasgow and Aberdeen universities, spent nearly 20 years in corporate finance and investment banking with British Linen Bank and its later offshoot BL Securities, at the sharp end of corporate dealmaking and venture capital. In 1997 he set up a business angel group, which became the first backer of the ill-fated Dundee technology group Axeon, which was bought by its hedge fund major shareholder in April in a pre-pack administration. He observes: "There are going to be tough times and people will continue to go bust, and there are opportunities for people like us who have the capital to invest," adding: "You get guys appearing at times like this who are vulture funds - picking up things cheap, and what has happened at Axeon is a great example. That is not the way we believe in behaving. From my knowledge of William Thomson, who is a very strong character, he will not take advantage of people. EG Thomson will drive a hard bargain but it will not unnecessarily screw people - it is not the right thing to do."

As with the management of the group's companies, so with its investments, Young says. "It is not a case of look after the family business, don't put money at risk. Provided you can put a solid argument up, an idea will be given a chance."

The Thomson board has committed to investing from £20,000 to £50,000 in unquoted companies, and among its stars is Exakt, an Aberdeen-based power tool supplier which sources in China and sells across the UK.

"As with any of these things, a number have disappeared, a number are suffering and a number are doing extremely well," Young says. But he admits to sharing the market's diminished appetite for early-stage risk and adds: "I also like to think I have become more savvy."

Meanwhile, Young has built the foundations of a new Thomson mini-empire by acquiring the Lawrie business travel specialist to create Ben Lawrie Travel, and the former Jenners property department, founded in 1919, from House of Fraser to relaunch it recently as Ben Property.

"It was a very oddball thing for House of Fraser to have in it," he says. "We agreed a deal to take it, and initially operated under a franchise arrangement using Jenners management. What we ideally wanted was to put in senior management to drive the business forward."

At that point Ed Thomson, William's youngest son, turned his attention from running a London entertainment management company to joining the family business, and professionalising the property agency.

The group says: "Given the current dynamics within the housing market, we see a tremendous opportunity over the next few years for the property lettings market."

The current turbulence offers many opportunities for growth, Young says. "Because banks are not providing finance, someone with wealth will be able to step in and take the part of traditional banker-funder." Travel agents, for instance, need bonds in place, and if they are losing money the bond goes up. "They find themselves needing more bonding and it is becoming harder to get."

Other companies were under pressure from suppliers stretching credit and "going bust because banks aren't giving them working capital". Family companies, unencumbered by borrowings, could fill the gap.

"We will come in and take an equity stake, maybe as a prelude to a more major holding in time. We won't be alone in that. I am not saying we would be any cheaper than the bank, but would potentially put in money where others might not."

Young notes that one area of potential might of course be "family-owned businesses with succession problems".

That does not appear to be a problem for EG Thomson Holdings, as Ed Thomson is currently on secondment in the Far East, steeping himself in the lore of Ben Line's former trade routes.

It seems the family empire, under Charles Young, is sailing back into the future.