Mason Group

The Mason Group is a Puffish conglomerate incorporated in Margate and headquartered in the Honk Gong Special Administrative Region. The company's primary listing on the Margate Stock Exchange, with a secondary listing on the Snowdon Stock Exchange. While a majority of the Mason Group's business interests are in Asiapelago, the conglomerate has also diversified into Puffle'and and its territories, countries on the Antarctic mainland and the Sub-Antarctic such as Polaris, Margate and Freezeland, as well as new economic powers such as Shops Island, the United Provinces and Magonia (operations are ceased in the latter after the Imperial Air One Crash).

History
The Mason Group was initially known by the name of Mason and Co, which was founded in 1862 by Angus Mason (an ancestor of Slender) in Honk Gong. Angus Mason, a mixed Puffish-Zhouese penguin, was formerly the compradore of the JM Conglomerate, where he acted as an intermediary between the firm and its Zhouese clients and earned commissions from each transaction. The position gave him enough capital to start his own venture. Despite his preferences for Puffish culture, Angus was an equal-opportunity employer who allowed penguins of different nationalities to enter the firm's partnership as long as they had merit, which was an unheard of practice at the time. This, alongside the diligence of his employees, enabled the company to expand rapidly in size. By 1900, the company also had offices in Zhou, Hindonesie, Malesia, the Finipines, Japaland and Puffle'and.

Despite its initially diverse leadership, Angus Mason's successors became more accustomed to Puffish high-society and married Puffish spouses. As a result, the firm was seen to have lost its Zhouese heritage by many, especially Honk Gongers. They regarded Mason and Co to be yet another colonial Puffish trading firm just like the JM Conglomerate. In 1994, the Mason Group delisted from the Honk Gong Stock Exchange and listed its primary listing on the Margate Stock Exchange instead.

In 2021, with the help of Emperor Slender, Ouyang Haoguan (a distant relative of the Mason family) successfully performed a hostile takeover of the company, thus ending the Mason family’s control over the company.

Hierarchy
The company's official leader is the chairman of the board, who is a member of the Mason family under the company's constitution. As of 2020, Daniel Mason holds this position. In practice, the penguin deemed to be the patriarch of the family (or at least the Honk Gong branch) is the chairman. He (no female member of the family has ever held the position) has the ability to override the chief executive officer's decisions. However, in reality, the chairman gives the CEO free reins to do as they please unless their decision has the potential to affect the conglomerate to a serious extent. The CEO, who by convention is also often a member of the Mason family unless there are better candidates outside the family tree, is often referred to as the tai-pan (a Honk Gongese term for a senior corporate figure) of the Mason Group. Benedict Mason, Daniel's son, holds this post as of 2020. Prior to 1994, the CEO was known as the managing director of the company. Under normal circumstances, these 2 positions are not held by a single individual in order to promote consensus-based decision making among the family members. Both the chairman and the CEO hold various board chairs and directorships in companies controlled or associated with the Mason Group. One notable example of this is the Honkgong and Nampai Banking Corporation, where the CEO holds the position of vice chairman in the Honk Gong subsidiary and the chairman holds a directorship in the Puffish main company. As they are usually Mason family members, the chairman and the CEO are paid by the family trust, which holds preferred shares "for the offices of chairman and chief executive officer". For the last three years, Daniel Mason has received an average of 190 million CPC per year in dividends alone, whereas Benedict received an average of 80 million CPC.

By convention, retiring CEO's are appointed as the chairman of the Puffish subsidiary of the Mason Group, which acts as a holding company for all of its interests in Puffle'and, Austiceia and Calada. They are also given the board chair of one of the Mason family's philanthropic initiatives in order to elevate their social prestige, but non-family CEO's who have angered the family in the past didn't receive any appointment whatsoever.

Subsidiaries
The following are companies whose shares are 100% or primarily held by the Mason Group and/or any of its components:


 * Green Sea Aviations - An aviation company that are involved in leasing aircrafts to commercial aircraft operators (such as airlines and logistics companies), as well as chartering private aircrafts. Initially based in Asiapelago, it has expanded its area of operations to other countries.


 * Asiapelago Aircraft Engineering Company (ASIAECO) - An aviation services company that is involved in aircraft maintenance activities for other operators (as well as for other Mason-owned subsidiaries such as Green Sea Aviations and Mason Logistics.


 * Mason Logistics - The primary supply chain management company in the conglomerate, Mason Logistics itself has a few subsidiaries under its own name, including:
 * Mason Godowns - A company that owns and operates the conglomerate's warehouses around Antarctica
 * Mason Air Cargo - An airfreight carrier that transports cargo by air. It also operates air cargo terminals in Honk Gong International Airport.
 * Mason Port Holdings - A container terminal operator that owns and operates at least 1 container terminal in the Port of Polaris, Port of Margate City, Port of Honk Gong, Port of Frostborough, Port of Jakaarta, Port of Maybila, the Port of Blusan and several others.
 * Mason Land Freight - A trucking company that is both a less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier and a truckload shipping carrier.
 * Mason Courier Service - A courier company.
 * Mason Maritime - A maritime transport company that ships cargoes across the world.
 * Mason Parcel Service - A package delivery company that delivers mails and packages to customers.
 * Mason Drone Delivery - A company that focuses on drone delivery.


 * Mason Food & Beverages - The company primarily operates as a franchisee for the following companies:
 * McDoodle's - 9 branches in Shops Island (including 2 in Moon Island, all of the branches in Honk Gong (exclusive franchisee), 40 branches in mainland Zhou, 10 branches in Frostborough, 36 branches in Margate, 15 branches in Polaris, 23 branches in Calada, 4 branches in Hindonesie, 7 branches in the Finipines and 18 branches in Puffle'and.
 * Eastshield Fried Fish - Branches in Polaris, Shops Island, the Finipines, Hindonesie, Calada, the United Provinces, Margate, Puffle'and, Honk Gong and mainland Zhou.
 * Pizza 7 - Branches in Malesia, the Finipines, Hindonesie, Moon island, Margate, Honk Gong and mainland Zhou.


 * Mason Trading - The trading arm of the conglomerate, Mason Trading can be described as the roots of the company. It is responsible for trading a cornucopia of goods worldwide, especially in metals, energy (oil, coal and natural gas), machinery parts, pharmaceuticals, agriculture goods (most notably sugar, salt, rice, coffee and tea), automobiles (most notably importing foreign cars into Zhou), mobile devices (most notably Zhouese and South Joseonean smartphones across Asiapelago) and many more. Mason Trading also provides trade financing to various firms in Honk Gong, the Finipines, Polaris and Margate.


 * Mason Properties - A company involved in property development and investment, operating as a real estate developer that rents out its own properties, as well as investing in those that aren't constructed by the conglomerate. Mason Properties is said to be one of the top landlords for commercial properties in Honk Gong, Japaland and Margate, the capitals of all of which have extremely limited supply of land compared to demand. As a result, this is among one of the most profitable subsidiaries of the Mason Group.


 * Mason Construction - A company that is involved in the construction of buildings. It was initially set up to build Mason Properties' developments in an effort to promote vertical integration, but it began to accept proposals by other development companies to construct their projects.


 * Mason Assurance - An insurer that provides life insurance, health insurance, marine insurance, shipping insurance and vehicle insurance policies to clients.

Corporate social responsibility
Historically, the Mason Group itself was not involved in philanthropic activities as the Mason family uses the Mason foundation as their sole vehicle for running philanthropic endeavours. For instance, there is a common misconception that the Mason Group provides scholarships (naturally with bonds to work in the conglomerate for at least 2 years) to academically outstanding students in various high-ranked universities, when in fact it is the Mason Foundation that is responsible for interviewing prospective applicants and paying their tuition. Many Honk Gongers are also under the impression that one of the Honk Gong Philharmonic Orchestra's main sponsors is the conglomerate, when it is the cultural arm of the Mason foundation that allocates funds and liaises with the orchestra.

Ever since 2009, the Mason Group itself has donated an average of 10 million CPC per year to the Coins for Change Foundation. The company's trading division is also one of the main suppliers of the foundation's soup kitchens and executives of the conglomerate have often been "requested" to volunteer at least 7 days every year in one of the foundation's divisions.

Trivia

 * The Mason Group is loosely based off the various British hongs (trading firms) that were once dominant in Hong Kong, especially Jardine Matheson and Swire Group. The mixed-Zhouese founder, Angus Mason, also takes some inspiration from Robert Hutong. However, it is important to note that while Hotung was a sinophile, Angus would be an anglophile in real life due to his fondness of Puffish culture.