黑石集团(Blackstone)和光明食品(Bright Food)携手、可能出价25亿至30亿美元竞购美国维生素零售商健安喜(GNC)之事，充分说明了外资私募股权基金(PE)在中国的功用。辅助，而非领导。提供知识资本，而不是出钱。
像光明食品这样由上海市政府持有多数股权的竞购者，是不太稀罕资金援助的。（今年早些时候，光明食品以17亿澳元竞购澳大利亚西斯尔公司(CSR)糖业资产，在报价中低调而诱人地宣告“无需融资”。）相反，黑石所能提供的是管理消费品企业的经验。让黑石分一小杯羹，或许再给它一个董事会席位，光明食品就能时不时地向这个参谋请教意见。同样重要的是，在这起有望超越联想集团(Lenovo)6年前以12.5亿美元收购IBM个人电脑业务的交易、成为中国历来最大规模的海外并购中，光明食品还可以利用黑石在跨境并购方面的知识和技巧。仅凭一己之力，光明食品迄今在并购方面表现拙劣，而且优柔寡断。
外资私募股权基金一向很难打入中国。目前他们中确实有一小撮获准募集以人民币计值的基金，但最称得上具有里程碑意义的投资，却是来自高盛(Goldman Sachs)：2006年高盛通过一只私募基金，收购了中国工商银行(ICBC)的部分股权。除此之外，外资并购一般规模都很小，而且集中在成长型行业：被认为鼓舞人心、而非至关重要的生物科技、清洁能源等行业。但谁知道呢，通过协助中国国有企业成功展开海外收购，没准有一天能攻开这座堡垒？届时，由主权财富基金中国投资公司(CIC)持有6.3%股权的黑石所处的地位应该是相当有利的。
译者/杨远
Lex专栏是由FT评论家联合撰写的短评，对全球经济与商业进行精辟分析
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001035952
The pairing of Blackstone and Bright Food in a possible $2.5bn-$3bn bid for US vitamins retailer GNC is a neat illustration of the function of foreign private equity in China. Supporting, rather than leading. And providing intellectual capital, not cash.
A bidder like Bright Food, majority-owned by the municipal government of Shanghai, needs little financial assistance. (Its $1.7bn bid earlier this year for the sugar unit of Australia’s CSR, in a delicious understatement, was “not subject to finance”.) What Blackstone can offer instead is experience in managing consumer products companies. By giving it a small slice of the deal and perhaps a seat on the board, Bright Food can periodically call on its consigliere for advice. As importantly, it can make use of Blackstone’s know-how in cross-border M&A, in what could be China’s biggest-ever outbound deal, eclipsing Lenovo’s $1.25bn purchase of IBM’s PC business six years ago. Left to its own devices, Bright Food has so far proven itself a peculiarly artless and dithering would-be acquirer.
Foreign PE firms have found it hard to crack China. Yes, a handful of them have received permission to raise renminbi-denominated funds, but the closest any foreign firm has got to a truly landmark investment was Goldman Sachs, which acquired a stake in ICBC in 2006 through a PE fund. Otherwise, inbound deals have been small and concentrated at the growth end of the spectrum, in industries deemed encouraging – biotech, clean energy – rather than vital. But who knows: by helping state-owned companies pull off deals overseas, the fortress may, in time, be jemmied open. And when it is, Blackstone – in which China Investment Corporation, the sovereign wealth fund, still holds a 6.3 per cent stake – should be in as good a position as any.
没有评论:
发表评论