高地价刺激中国开发商并购

Property developers in China spent more than $42bn on domestic mergers and acquisitions in 2016, as high land prices prompted large companies instead to swallow smaller rivals and snap up discounted existing projects.

2016年，中国房地产开发商在国内并购上的支出超过了420亿美元，高地价推动大企业吞并规模较小的同行，并吃下折价的现有项目。

A government push for state mergers added further fuel to property sector deals, which hit an all-time high last year — up 32 per cent in value from 2015, according to Wind Information, a Chinese financial data provider.

根据中国金融数据提供商万得资讯(Wind Information)的统计，政府对国企合并的推动为房地产行业交易提供了更多动力，去年该行业并购交易额创下历史新高，较2015年增加32%。

Analysts expect the trend to carry on in 2017 as land prices continue to climb in first- and second-tier mainland cities.

分析师们预计，随着中国内地一、二线城市的地价继续攀升，这一趋势在2017年将延续下去。

“There is a lot of competition for land right now in the open land auction market,” said Van Liu, a Shenzhen-based analyst at Guotai Junan Securities. “But there are lots of opportunities for [corporate] acquisitions coming up now and those prices will look more attractive to buyers.”

“目前公开土地拍卖市场上存在激烈竞争，”国泰君安证券(Guotai Junan Securities)驻深圳分析师刘斐凡(Van Liu)说。“但是，现在出现很多(企业)收购的机会，在买家看来，买地不如买企业。”

Residential land prices in China’s three largest cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou rose by an average of about 3 per cent between July and September from the quarter before, according to the latest available data from the Ministry of Land and Resources.

根据中国国土资源部(Ministry of Land and Resources)的最新数据，今年第三季度，中国三个最大城市北京、上海和广州的住宅土地价格环比平均上涨约3%。

However, the rise in prices in the same cities for newly built homes slowed to 0.1 per cent in November from the month before, according to the National Statistics Bureau. Price growth has slowed sharply from highs of 3-4 per cent earlier in the year as regulators put in place controls to make it more difficult tom buy second homes.

然而，根据中国国家统计局(NBS)的数据，11月这三个城市新建住宅价格环比涨幅已放缓至0.1%。随着监管机构实施调控，增加了购买第二套房的难度，价格涨幅较今年早些时候3%至4%的高点大幅回落。

The higher cost of land but softening sales prices for homes pushed an increasing number of smaller companies to exit the market last year.

地价上升但房价涨幅放缓，推动越来越多的小型房企去年退出市场。

In one of the largest deals of the year, Legend Holdings, the investment manager and owner of Lenovo computers, sold all of its property development assets for $2.1bn to Sunac China in September.

去年9月，投资集团、联想电脑的所有人联想控股(Legend Holdings)将其所有房地产开发资产以21亿美元出售给融创中国(Sunac China)，成为去年房地产行业规模最大的交易之一。

“It’s too expensive for them to expand their businesses so they are quitting the market,” David Yang, a Shanghai-based analyst at UOB Kay Hian, said of companies with smaller property developments. “We think this trend will continue in 2017.”

“对它们而言，扩张业务的成本太高了，所以它们在退出市场，”大华继显(UOB Kay Hian)驻上海分析师David Yang说。“我们认为，这一趋势将在2017年继续下去。”

State-backed groups brokered some of the biggest property transactions in 2016. In the largest domestic property deal to date, state-run conglomerate Citic Ltd sold nearly $5bn in property assets to China Overseas Land & Investment. The deal was flagged at the time as a bellwether for government-backed deals in the future.

2016年，政府支持的集团完成了一些最大的房地产交易。国营企业中信股份(Citic Ltd)向中国海外发展有限公司(China Overseas Land & Investment)出售了近50亿美元的房地产资产，是中国内地迄今最大的一宗房地产交易。该交易在当时被视为政府支持交易的未来风向标。

With smaller property companies often laden with external debt as a result of China’s cooling housing market, said Mr Yang, M&A typically has not been the first choice for developers. But better terms of onshore financing for some of the larger, well-connected property companies has helped encourage more takeovers.

David Yang表示，由于中国房地产市场的冷却，小型房地产公司往往背负着外债，这意味着并购通常不是开发商的首选。但一些规模较大、关系过硬的房地产公司在国内拥有更优越的融资条件，帮助鼓励了更多收购交易。