金融英语阅读：《“万宝之争”拉开中国敌意收购帷幕》

金融英语阅读：《“万宝之争”拉开中国敌意收购帷幕》

　　在这个时代，所有权分散且股价具有吸引力的中国企业将不得不防备身后的“黄雀”，这是中国向市场经济靠拢的自然进化。下面学习啦小编为大家带来金融财经双语阅读：《“万宝之争”拉开中国敌意收购帷幕》，希望大家喜欢!

　　There are not many countries where, in a corporate showdown pitting new money against old, the old money was made in the 1990s. 很少有国家在爆发一场“新钱”与“老钱”的企业争夺战时，“老钱”一方是20世纪90年代才成立的。

　　Such a battle is brewing in China, where a small insurer with less than 300 employees — privately held Baoneng Group — has built up the largest single stake in one of the country’s biggest property companies, China Vanke, which employs more than 38,000 people. 这样一场战斗正在中国打响。员工不到300人的小型私有保险商宝能集团(Baoneng Group)通过增持股票，成了中国房地产巨头之一、员工超过3.8万人的的万科(China Vanke)的最大股东。

　　Vanke is also one of China’s best known corporate brands with a celebrity chairman, Wang Shi. Baoneng and its low-key founder, Yao Zhenhua, were largely unheard of until this year. 万科还是中国最知名的企业品牌之一，董事长王石是知名人士。而宝能连同它低调的创始人姚振华在今年以前基本没什么名气。

　　Adding to the intrigue surrounding what could become China’s first full-blown hostile takeover battle, Vanke has sought a potential white knight in the form of Anbang, another private insurance group but one with a “princeling” pedigree: Anbang founder Wu Xiaohui is married to a granddaughter of Deng Xiaoping, the late paramount leader and architect of China’s economic transformation. 这起事件可能升级为中国第一宗全面的敌意收购，而使其更加耐人寻味的是，万科已求助于一位潜在的白衣骑士，那就是安邦(Anbang)。安邦也是一家私有保险集团，但拥有“太子党”背景，其创始人吴小晖是中国经济转型的建筑师、已故最高领导人邓小平的孙女婿。

　　Over recent months, Baoneng Group companies quietly amassed more than 20 per cent of Vanke’s Shenzhen- and Hong Kong-traded shares. Up to that point Vanke’s largest shareholder was state-owned conglomerate China Resources, with a 17 per cent stake. 近几个月里，“宝能系”在深圳与香港股市悄然买下了万科逾20%的股份。此前万科的第一大股东是国有集团华润(China Resources)，其持股比例为17%。

　　Mr Wang, 64, decried the development as one that could “ruin” his company’s brand. Vanke put a temporary halt to Baoneng’s stake-building by suspending trading in its shares on December 18, pending a “restructuring” announcement expected next month.

　　But according to Credit Suisse, which hosted two investor presentations by Vanke’s chairman on December 23, Mr Wang said there would be no poison pill and that all shareholders’ interests would be protected. Any new equity placement would also require the approval of investors in more than two-thirds of the company. 64岁的王石谴责宝能的增持行为，称此举可能“毁掉”万科的品牌。万科于12月18日申请股票停牌，暂时阻止了宝能的增持行为，停牌理由是下月预计将发布“重组”声明。

　　Baoneng declined an interview request. Vanke did not respond to a request for comment. 但是，根据在12月23日为万科董事长举办了两场投资者交流会的瑞信(Credit Suisse)，王石表示不会实行毒丸计划，所有股东的利益会得到保护。此外，任何新的股权配售都需要超过三分之二的万科投资者批准。

　　Mr Wang is not used to playing defence. He has been a fixture of China Inc since the mid-1990s, when Vanke began building a name for itself in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen. 宝能拒绝了采访要求。万科没有回应记者的置评请求。

　　A former railway official and then foreign trade official in Guangdong province, Mr Wang abandoned the civil service and “jumped into the sea” of commerce just as Deng’s historic economic reforms were gathering pace in the 1980s. 王石并不习惯采取防守姿态。上世纪90年代中期，万科开始在南方繁华城市深圳创建品牌，王石从此成了中国企业界的头面人物。

　　After dabbling in foreign trade, he made a well-timed entry into the property sector and soon cemented Vanke’s reputation as a widely admired developer of quality residential housing in the country’s largest and richest urban centres. 王石曾任铁路局官员，随后又成为广东省外贸官员。上世纪80年代，就在邓小平的历史性经济改革加快步伐之际，王石放弃了公务员职位，“下海”经商。

　　Jeffrey Gao, a Hong Kong-based property analyst with Nomura, says Vanke’s financial performance has been impressive. The developer achieved an 18 per cent return on equity in 2014 compared to an average of 10 per cent for listed Chinese companies. 王石先是涉足外贸领域，随后在有利时机进入房地产行业，很快巩固了万科的声誉。通过在中国最大、最富有的城市中心开发优质住宅，万科成为广受赞誉的开放商。

　　Unusually for his peer group, Mr Wang has cultivated a celebrity profile as an avid mountain climber, parachutist and environmentalist. He has taken sabbaticals to study at prestigious overseas universities such as Harvard and Cambridge, while gossip websites track his love life with enthusiasm. 野村(Nomura)驻香港的房地产分析师高剑锋(Jeffrey Gao)表示，万科的财务表现一直令人印象深刻。这家开放商在2014年实现了18%的股本回报率，相比之下，中国上市公司的平均股本回报率为10%。

　　He is also unusual amongst Chinese entrepreneurs in not having sought to retain a controlling stake in the company he founded, leaving him vulnerable to unwanted suitors. 与同龄群体不同，王石为自己塑造了一种名人形象——执着的登山者、跳伞爱好者、环保主义者。他利用休假到海外名校——如哈佛(Harvard)、剑桥(Cambridge)——游学，而八卦网站也热衷于追踪他的感情生活。

　　“Wang is always on social media,” says Edward Tse, a veteran China consultant and author of a recent book on the country’s entrepreneurial “disruptors”. “Before he seemed untouchable but he’s actually at very serious risk right now. That is what has drawn everyone’s attention.” 他还有一个不同于其他中国企业家的独特之处——从未试图在自己创立的公司保留控股权，这使得他容易受到不请自来的收购者的觊觎。

　　By contrast, Mr Wang’s nemesis at Baoneng was almost unheard of before Vanke’s criticism of his share purchases put him on the map. Mr Yao, 45, studied industrial management and food engineering at university. His first company was a grocery chain, from which he quietly expanded into logistics, property and eventually insurance. “王石总是在社交媒体上曝光，”资深中国顾问、近期出版的《中国的商业颠覆者》(China’s Disruptors)一书作者谢祖墀(Edward Tse)说，“以前他似乎高高在上，而现在他实际上面临非常严重的风险。这正是吸引每个人注意的地方。”

　　Mr Yao now stands on the cusp of becoming Communist China’s first corporate raider. 相比之下，在万科对宝能购股行为的指责使后者一举成名之前，几乎没人听说过王石的这个死对头。45岁的姚振华大学期间学习的是工业管理以及食品工程专业。他创立的首家公司为一家连锁超市，后来将业务悄然扩展至物流、房地产以及最终的保险业。

　　Some analysts think Mr Yao spotted an opportunity that could herald a new corporate era in which Chinese companies with diversified ownership structures and attractive share prices will have to watch their backs. 姚振华如今即将成为共产党统治的中国的首位“企业掠夺者”(corporate raider)。

　　“This is a natural evolution in China’s development into more of a market economy,” Mr Tse says. “You had a situation where Vanke’s share price was depressed for a long time and its ownership is quite diversified.” 有分析师认为，姚振华发现了一个可能开启新的企业时代的机遇，在这个时代，所有权分散且股价具有吸引力的中国企业将不得不防备身后的“黄雀”。

　　Others say Mr Yao may not need to launch a bid for full control of Vanke to achieve his aims. Mr Gao at Nomura argues that it makes sense for Chinese insurance companies like Baoneng and Anbang to invest in property developers with good portfolios for purely financial reasons. “这是中国向市场经济靠拢的自然进化，”谢祖墀说，“万科的股价曾经低迷了好一阵，而其所有权相当分散。”

　　Many have done exactly that as returns from equities and other investments shrink and the government eases restrictions that previously limited their property exposure. According to Mr Gao, the average dividend yield for China’s listed property developers is around 5 per cent, while insurance companies have averaged annual investment returns of 4.7 per cent over the past decade. 也有人称，姚振华或许不需要获得对万科的完全控制就可以实现自己的目标。野村的高剑锋认为，像宝能、安邦这样的中国保险公司纯粹出于财务原因而投资拥有优良资产组合的房地产开发商是有道理的。

　　The dividend yield on Vanke’s Shenzhen-listed shares has fallen to 2 per cent because of the jump in the share price linked to Baoneng and Anbang’s recent stake-building. But the company has said it plans to increase its dividend payout. 随着股票及其他投资的回报缩水，随着政府放松此前对房地产敞口的限制，许多保险商实际上都在这样做。高剑锋表示，中国上市地产开发商的平均股息收益率约为5%，而保险公司过去10年的年均投资回报率为4.7%。

　　An additional benefit for Baoneng is that, having acquired more than 20 per cent of Vanke, it can now classify the developer as an associate and therefore include its dividends in its own profit and loss statement. 由于宝能和安邦的近期增持引起股价暴涨，万科深圳上市股票的股息收益率已降至2%。但该公司已表示计划增加派息。

　　If that were Mr Yao’s goal, however, he could have stopped his stake-building in Mr Wang’s company at 20.1 per cent. He did not. Unless a truce can be negotiated during Vanke’s trading suspension, hostilities will resume next month. 对于已获得万科逾20%股份的宝能而言，额外的好处是，它现在可以将万科列为自己的联营企业，从而将万科的股息纳入自己的损益表。

　　Additional reporting by Wan Li and Luna Lin 然而，如果这是姚振华的目标，他本可以在增持至20.1%时停下来。但他没有这么做。除非在万科停牌期间双方能达成妥协，否则这种敌对状态将在下个月重现。