The story
Founded by Hong Kong businessman Ma Ying-piu on 8 January 1900 after returning from Australia and partnership with others to form the first Chinese department store in then British Hong Kong. Ma was inspired by his experience with retail stores in Sydney. and modelled Sincere after David Jones. Now, the company is owned by the Ma family.
Sincere's Shanghai branch, operated from 1917 to 1954, was the first Hongkonger-owned Western style department store and the first of the "Four Great Companies". Ma Ying-piu brought the model of modern department stores with egalitarian service pioneered by Anthony Hordern & Sons to Shanghai and quickly became the focal points of Shanghai's commercial district.
Prior to World War II, Sincere operated in China with stores in Shanghai, Nanning and Guangzhou. The Guangzhou store was destroyed by enemy fire during the war. With the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 the remaining locations were eventually taken over by the Communist state, along with all other private companies in the country. The Shanghai department store closed in 1954 while the attached hotel was part nationalised in 1956.
Sincere returned to mainland China in 1993 by opening a shopping centre at 479 East Nanjing Road in Shanghai.
On 15 May 2020, Realord Group Holdings Limited proposed a voluntary conditional general cash offer to acquire the entire share capital of The Sincere Company Limited. The total cash consideration would be $500 million.
From Wikipedia’s article on Sincere Department Store, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4