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{{Short description|International development organisation}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Crown Agents Ltd
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}}
'''Crown Agents Ltd''' is a not-for-profit international development company with head office in London, [[United Kingdom]], and subsidiaries in the United States and Japan. Incorporated as a private limited company Crown Agents Ltd has only one shareholder – the Crown Agents Foundation, a not-for-profit company.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://app.duedil.com/|title=DueDil|website=app.duedil.com}}</ref> Crown Agents Ltd's registered office is in [[Southwark, London]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk//compdetails|title=Companies House Webcheck|accessdate=20 March 2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081229053844/http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/|archivedate=29 December 2008}}</ref> Crown Agents was placed into insolvency on the 1 August 2024.<ref name=insolvency/>
Crown Agents fully owns Greenshields Cowie, a freight forwarding limited company incorporated in 1938,<ref>Companies House, [https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00337651/filing-history?page=6 Greenshields Cowie & Co Ltd.], accessed 16 June 2022</ref> also based in the United Kingdom.▼
==History==
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====Background====
The financial collapse of the Crown Agents, which necessitated a bail-out by the Government, was one of the most high-profile failures of the 1974 property and secondary banking crisis, and widely considered a scandal.<ref name="Lord Chancellor">{{cite web|title=Lord Chancellor Memorandum to Cabinet Crown Agents The Fay Report. National Archives CAB 129/198/12 |date=7 November 1977 |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9948482}}</ref> The decline in its traditional government business had led the Crown Agents “to consider ways of diversifying…and operating on their own account rather than acting as agents for others…So began a short but disastrous period in an otherwise long and distinguished service to others” <ref>Ireton, Barrie: Britain's International Development Policies: A History of DFID and Overseas Aid, (2013), Palgrave</ref> The move into own account trading dated back to March 1967 <ref>Sunderland, David, Managing British Colonial and Post-Colonial Development: The Crown Agents, 1914–1974 (2007) Boydell & Brewer, {{ISBN|9781843833017}}</ref> and by the end of the 1960s, the activities of the Agents were being publicly queried by ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' and ''[[Private Eye]]''.<ref name="Lord Chancellor"/> By 1970, concerns were being raised in Parliament
====The Fay Report and Tribunal====
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The best-known of the Crown Agents’ investments was with the [[William Stern (businessman)|
William Stern]] group; Stern himself became Britain's largest ever bankrupt to date and the losses of the Crown Agents were reported to be £54m.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Daily Telegraph obituary |date=30 March 2020 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2020/03/30/william-stern-property-developer-financier-obituary/ |title=William Stern, property developer and financier – obituary }}</ref> Less well-known but also a substantial problem were the Australian property investments held under the umbrella of English and Continental Group, where losses were estimated as a possible £35m.<ref name="Lord Chancellor"/> There was also a commitment to a wide range of secondary banks. Margaret Reid regarded the Crown Agents’ support for them as “much the biggest and widely discussed amount of finance for the [[Bank of England]]'s Lifeboat support operation”. Institutions singled out included Triumph Investment Trust, Sterling Industrial Trust and Burston Group.<ref>Reid, Margaret: The Secondary Banking Crisis, 1973–75,(1982), Macmillan</ref>
▲Crown Agents
====Recovery====
The appointment of John Cuckney in October 1974 was the first step in rescuing the Crown Agents and restoring confidence in its traditional functions. He instituted a programme of controlled disposals, realizing what he could from the property and banking investments. Probably the most intransigent were the Australian property investments which took some years to bring under the Agents' full control. One of the most important organizational decisions made by Cuckney was in March 1977, concerning the Agents’ subsidiary, Millbank Technical Services. Millbank had been established in 1967 to offer services “outside their traditional agency role.” In effect, it had become a substantial exporter of military equipment. Millbank was transferred to the [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]], thereby returning the Agents to its traditional activity.<ref>{{cite web|title=Millbank Technical Services|publisher= Hansard |date=29 March 1977 |url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1977-03-29/debates/1373633a-4555-4fb1-befa-7a7b726dae67/MillbankTechnicalServices}}</ref> However, uncertainty continued over the legal status of the Crown Agents and it was not until the Crown Agents Act 1979 that the legal and constitutional position was regularized. The Act established the Agents as a corporate body under formal name of Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations.<ref>{{cite web|title=Crown Agents Act 1979|url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/43/contents}}</ref>
In April 2016 its financial services arm, [[CAB Payments|Crown Agents Bank and Crown Agents Investment Management]], was sold to [[Helios Investment Partners]].<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.gtreview.com/news/africa/helios-acquires-crown-agents-financial-services-business/ |title= Helios acquires Crown Agents’ financial services|date=6 April 2016|newspaper=Global Trade Review| access-date=23 August 2023}}</ref>
====Insolvency====
On 28 July 2024, Crown Agents was reported to be on the verge of collapse.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.devex.com/news/exclusive-crown-agents-faces-collapse-108036 |title=Exclusive: Crown Agents faces collapse |website=[[Devex]] |date=26 July 2024 |access-date=30 July 2024}}</ref> Crown Agents was placed into insolvency on the 1 August 2024, largely due to cuts in funding from the UK Government and cost reduction efforts in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. An additional contributing factor that management mentioned was the ongoing cost of funding a pension liability.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.crownagents.com/|title=It is with sadness and regret that we share the news that Crown Agents has closed its operations.|date=1 August 2024|publisher=Crown Agents|access-date=2 August 2024}}</ref><ref name=insolvency>{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/two-crown-agents-companies-in-liquidation-information-for-employees-and-creditors|title=Two Crown Agents companies in liquidation: information for employees and creditors |publisher=The Insolvency Service|date=1 August 2024|access-date=2 August 2024}}</ref>
==International development work==
=== Disaster response and COVID-19 PPE and vaccine procurement & logistics work ===
The company provided support for the victims of the [[2010 Haiti earthquake|2010 Earthquake in Haiti]], the [[2014 Ebola outbreak]] and [[Hurricane Irma]] in 2017. Since the outbreak of the
On 15 January 2021, Crown Agents was appointed procurement agent to secure Covid-19 vaccines on behalf of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Crown Agents will purchase COVID-19 vaccines for Ukraine - Stepanov|url=https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-society/3171295-crown-agents-will-purchase-covid19-vaccines-for-ukraine-stepanov.html|access-date=2021-04-06|website=www.ukrinform.net|language=en}}</ref> On
=== Flagship programmes and global presence ===
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