盈德气体内斗带来的曙光
孙忠国与特雷弗•雷蒙德•斯特拉特(Trevor Raymond Strutt)第一次有成立自己的公司的想法，是因为受到了为他们当时老板进行的一场收购战的刺激。16年后，两人又陷入了自家公司控制权的争夺战——这场大戏吸引了整个亚洲金融界的目光。
The tussle over their group Yingde Gases has involved a rare public boardroom battle that ousted Mr Sun and Mr Strutt from the group and an equally unusual public “bear hug” bid directly to shareholders. Most recently, Yingde has been the subject of a lowball bid from an Asian private equity house with the potential to win the day. Small wonder the situation has excited bankers and investors.
围绕他俩创立的盈德气体(Yingde Gases)的纷争，包含了一场罕见的公开化的董事会斗争(结果导致孙忠国与斯特拉特被罢免)，以及一项同样不寻常的、直接向股东发出的高溢价公开收购要约。最新的进展是，一家亚洲私人股本公司对盈德发出了低溢价收购，且有可能成功。难怪这一情形令银行业者和投资者感到兴奋。
The fight offers a faint hope that genuine, value-maximising dealmaking in Asia could pick up if more competitive bids emerge for groups that lack a controlling shareholder. In the case of Hong Kong-listed Yingde, stakes held by groups such as Aberdeen Asset Management and BlackRock, among others, in theory hold the balance of power. Two shareholder votes are due on Wednesday.
这场争斗带来了一丝希望，即如果更多针对缺乏控股股东的公司的竞争性收购要约涌现的话，亚洲促使价值最大化的诚意交易可能会加速涌现。就在香港上市的盈德而言，安本资产管理公司(Aberdeen Asset Management)、贝莱德(BlackRock)等公司持有的股份，在理论上掌握着局势的平衡。该公司将于周三举行两项股东投票。
“This is as far from vanilla as you get in Hong Kong — its an extraordinary situation,” said one longtime dealmaker. “It is what we all live for.”
“在香港，再也不可能有比这更不寻常的情形了——劲爆极了，”一位资深交易撮合者表示，“这是我们所有人一生一遇的大戏。”
History, however, suggests the Yingde battle might be the most dramatic situation most Asian financiers will see for years. Dealmaking in the region has picked up recently: mergers and acquisitions involving an Asian group were worth $1.3tn last year according to Dealogic, up 50 per cent from a decade ago. The rise has been spurred by corporate China’s appetite for overseas purchases as well as high-profile Japanese deals. Last year these were typified by ChemChina’s $47bn deal for Syngenta and Softbank’s $32bn swoop on ARM Holdings.
然而，历史经验显示，盈德的这场内斗，可能对多数亚洲金融家而言都是数年一遇的大戏。亚洲的并购交易近期已经加速：根据Dealogic的数据，去年，涉及亚洲公司的并购达到了1.3万亿美元，比10年前增长了50%。中国企业进行海外收购的欲望及日本企业的高调交易，促成了这一增长。去年的典型并购包括中国化工(ChemChina)斥资470亿美元收购先正达(Syngenta)以及软银(Softbank)以320亿美元闪电收购ARM控股(ARM Holdings)。
Both of those were exceptional by Asia standards. ChemChina’s deal involved a competitive bidding process. Softbank’s was a bold gambit in the weeks following the UK’s vote to leave the EU. Both involved the sort of fees and related work bankers dream of.
以亚洲标准看，这两笔交易都不寻常。中国化工的交易包括了一个竞争性出价过程。软银在英国公投决定退出欧盟之后数周进行收购是一步大胆的棋。两笔交易都带来了银行业者梦寐以求的报酬和业务。
But more than two-thirds of deals in Asia are intra-regional affairs where controlling shareholders and mostly supine minority investors combine to frustrate hopes of a competitive process.
但亚洲超过三分之二的交易为区域内交易——控股股东加上基本上逆来顺受的少数股股东，抹煞了出现竞争性收购过程的希望。
Take the region’s biggest deal the year before ChemChina and SoftBank grew so bold: the $90bn reorganisation of Li Ka-shing’s empire in two parts. Investors approved the deal with no public questioning, even though the effective share price for Hutchison Whampoa, Mr Li’s crown jewel, was below its one, five and 10-year average prices. “Controlling shareholders are the biggest reason we don’t see more real situations,” says one hedge fund manager, citing investor attempts to convince Panasonic to pay more to buy back its homebuilder subsidiary. “Look at Japan — you know as a minority investor you will get messed around.”
举个例子，在中国化工和软银变得如此勇敢之前那一年，亚洲最大规模的交易是李嘉诚(Li Ka-shing)两部分商业帝国900亿美元的重组。股东们批准了这笔交易，没有任何公开质疑，即便对李嘉诚商业帝国“王冠上明珠”和记黄埔(Hutchison Whampoa)给出的实际股价低于其1年、5年和10年的平均价。“控股股东是我们看不到更多激烈竞购的情形的最大原因，”一位对冲基金经理表示，他还引述了投资者试图说服松下(Panasonic)出更高价回购其住宅建筑子公司的例子。“看看日本——你就会明白，少数股股东会受欺负。”
State-owned enterprises pose many of the same problems for minority investors as family-run empires. The biggest deal of 2014 was the $60bn merger of China’s two largest trainmakers, CSR and CNR. Shares in the two were suspended for three months as the details were worked out — a practice that effectively shut down market discussion.
像家族企业一样，中国国有企业也给少数股股东带来许多同样的问题。2014年最大规模的并购交易是中国最大两家列车制造商——中国南车(CSR)和中国北车(CNR)——600亿美元的合并。在合并细节敲定前，两家公司的股票停牌了3个月，这是有效阻止市场讨论的办法。
Another factor frustrating would-be dealmakers is an often slow response from regulators. Asian bankers and hedge funds often refer wistfully to the rapid rulings of London’s Takeover Panel in live bid situations.
另外一个困扰着有意进行交易者的因素是，监管者的回复通常很慢。亚洲银行业者和对冲基金往往在实时竞价时向往着伦敦收购委员会(Takeover Panel)那种迅速的裁决。
“If you want this market to be more activist and see shareholders fight for their rights, you have to be ready for that,” said one banker of the fast-moving Yingde situation.
“如果你希望这个市场出现更多积极行动的股东，希望看到股东捍卫自己的权益，你就必须准备好迎接那种情况，”一名银行业者提到盈德快速变化的局面时表示。
Stakeholders in the Yingde battle on Friday asked Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission to intervene with as yet no response. Wednesday’s shareholder votes are proposals from each side to remove the other from the board amid competing bids for the company from Air Products of the US and PAG, the Asian private equity group. The PAG offer is the subject of complaint because Zhao Xiangti, Yingde’s chairman, signed an irrevocable agreement to sell PAG his 12 per cent, raising its stake to 42 per cent just as Mr Zhao is purportedly running a competitive auction for the whole thing.
上周五，参与盈德内斗的股东请求香港证监会(SFC)出手干预，目前尚未得到回复。周三的股东投票是围绕内斗双方把对方踢出董事会的提议，与此同时美国空气产品公司(Air Products)和亚洲私人股本公司太盟投资集团(PAG)对盈德发出了相互竞争的收购要约。引发抱怨的是PAG的要约，因为董事会主席赵项题签订了一份不可撤销的协议，把他持有的12%的股份出售给PAG，使得PAG的持股增加至42%，而赵项题名义上有义务保证对盈德的收购须经过激烈的竞价过程。
Yingde’s battle may be decided in the coming days but Asia’s M&A landscape will take longer to evolve. Controlling shareholders are a fact of the region’s markets, meaning it is up to investors to make their voices heard. They will need regulators to support them in doing so.
盈德内斗的结果或许会在未来几天见分晓，但亚洲并购交易的格局将需要更长时间演变。控股股东是亚洲市场的既存事实，这意味着需要股东自己发出声音。要做到这一点，他们需要监管者的支持。
