全球私人股本交易额升至2007年以来最高水平

Record sums of unspent capital, cheap debt and highly favourable borrowing terms have pushed the value of global private equity transactions to $212bn, its highest level since the boom years of a decade ago.

创纪录的未使用资本、低成本债务加上非常有利的借款条款，推动全球私人股本交易金额达到2120亿美元，为10年前繁荣年代以来的最高水平。

Buyout values surged nearly 25 per cent in the first nine months of the year, representing just under one-tenth of total M&A dealmaking, according to data from Thomson Reuters, with activity in the US and Europe at its strongest since 2007 when it reached $526bn in the same period.

汤森路透(Thomson Reuters)的数据显示，今年前3个季度的并购交易金额激增近25%，美国和欧洲的并购活动达到自2007年同期达5260亿美元以来的最强水平。

Worldwide M&A activity totalled $2.4tn during the year-to-date 2017, up 2 per cent compared with the same period last year.

今年迄今，世界范围的并购活动总金额达到2.4万亿美元，较去年同期升高了2%。

The latest figures include some of the private equity industry’s biggest deals since the financial crisis, including an $18bn deal for Toshiba’s memory chip unit by a Bain Capital-led consortium, a planned $6.5bn takeover of US office supply retailer Staples by Sycamore Partners and the $5.3bn buyout of Scandinavian payments processor Nets A/S by Hellman & Friedman.

最新数据包括了自金融危机以来私人股本行业一些最大的交易，比如由贝恩资本(Bain Capital)领衔的一家财团以180亿美元收购东芝(Toshiba)的存储芯片业务、Sycamore Partners计划以65亿美元收购美国办公室用品零售商史泰博(Staples)，以及赫尔曼•弗雷德曼(Hellman & Friedman)以53亿美元收购斯堪的纳维亚支付服务提供商Nets A/S。

From CVC in Europe to Apollo Global Management in the US, private equity groups have rapidly raised record-sized funds backed by institutional and sovereign investors who are chasing high returns in a low-interest rate environment. Moreover, Saudi Arabia’s aggressive shift into private equity investing has prompted the creation of SoftBank’s $93bn Vision Fund and a planned $40bn infrastructure fund led by Blackstone.

从欧洲的CVC到美国的阿波罗全球管理公司(Apollo Global Management)，私人股本集团已快速融到了规模创纪录的资金，出资者为机构和主权投资者——它们正在低利率环境里追逐高回报。此外，沙特阿拉伯雄心勃勃地切入私人股本投资领域，推动成立了软银(SoftBank)旗下930亿美元规模的愿景基金(Vision Fund)，以及由黑石集团(Blackstone)主导的一只计划金额为400亿美元的基础设施基金。

Fuelling the boom are more relaxed debt terms and an ability to access loans more easily, which is also propelling deal activity. The rates at which private equity sponsors can raise bonds and loans has hit all-time lows, helped by a marked increase in the issuance of collateralised-loan obligations — the biggest buyers of leveraged loans.

更宽松的贷款条件和更容易获得贷款的能力，也增加了交易活动的热度，助推了这场繁荣。在贷款抵押债券(Collateralised Loan Obligation)发行量显著增加的帮助下，私人股本出资人发行债券和取得贷款的利率已达到了历史最低点。

In total, buyouts in Europe reached $69bn in the first nine months of 2017, representing a 60 per cent increase from the same period a year earlier. In the US, buyouts amounted to $105bn, or a 31 per cent rise. Asia-Pacific buyouts fell by nearly half to $24bn.

总体而言，2017年前3个季度，欧洲的并购交易金额达到690亿美元，较去年同期增加了60%。在美国，并购交易金额达到1050亿美元，同比增加31%。亚太地区并购交易金额则下降近一半，降至240亿美元。

Large corporations, including Unilever, Akzo Nobel and Sanofi, are all looking to dispose of multibillion units in the coming months and are all likely targets for private equity. Multiple dealmakers told the FT that they expect to see a $10bn — or greater — private equity deal targeting a publicly traded company before the end of the year.

包括联合利华(Unilever)、阿克苏诺贝尔(Akzo Nobel)和赛诺菲(Sanofi)在内，大型企业都寻求在未来几个月内卖掉数十亿美元的旗下部门，都可能成为私人股本公司的目标。多家交易撮合机构告诉英国《金融时报》，它们预计在今年年底前，将发生一宗规模为100亿美元或更高的私人股本公司收购一家大型上市公司的交易。