全球并购连续4年破3万亿美元

Worldwide mergers and acquisitions activity has exceeded $3tn for the fourth consecutive year, extending an unprecedented wave of dealmaking that bankers say is set to accelerate in 2018.

全球并购活动已连续四年超过3万亿美元，延续一场空前的并购热潮，银行家们称这场浪潮将在2018年愈演愈烈。

Although global M&A dipped slightly compared with 2016, the final month of 2017 was capped by three blockbuster transactions sparked by companies taking action against the threat of disruption from the likes of Amazon, Facebook and Netflix, which are using their size and scale to push into new sectors.

虽然与2016年相比，全球并购活动略有下降，但2017年最后一个月却因由几家公司发起的三笔巨额交易而达到顶峰，这些公司是为了应对亚马逊(Amazon)、Facebook及Netflix等公司利用自身规模挺进新行业的破坏性威胁而采取行动。

“We believe the momentum around large deal activity will continue into next year as we see a number of industries undergoing massive strategic shifts and further consolidation,” said Marc Nachmann, co-head of global investment banking at Goldman Sachs, which ranked as the top advisory firm by volume of deals this year.

“我们相信，大宗交易活动的势头将持续至明年，因为我们看到许多行业都在进行大规模的战略转变和进一步的整合。”高盛(Goldman Sachs)全球投行业务联席主管马克•奈什门(Marc Nachmann)说，今年这家咨询公司的交易额为业内最高。

The total volume of dealmaking hit $3.5tn in 2017, a 1 per cent drop from a year ago and the lowest figure since 2014, according to data from Thomson Reuters. But it also marked the fourth straight year that deal levels surpassed $3tn, a record streak.

汤森路透(Thomson Reuters)的数据显示，2017年的并购交易总额达到3.5万亿美元，比去年下降了1%，也是2014年以来的最低数字。但这也标志着连续四年交易水平超过3万亿美元，创下历史纪录。

In recent deals, CVS Health, the biggest US drugstore chain, agreed to acquire healthcare insurer Aetna for about $69bn as it faced the prospect of Amazon’s entry into the pharmacy business. Meanwhile, Amazon’s effect on retail worldwide prompted Australia’s billionaire Lowy family to sell its global shopping-centre business Westfield to France’s Unibail-Rodamco for $24.7bn.

在最近数宗交易中，因面临着亚马逊进入药品行业的前景，美国最大的连锁药店CVS Health同意以约690亿美元的价格收购医疗保险公司安泰保险(Aetna)。与此同时，亚马逊对全球零售业的影响促使澳大利亚的亿万富豪罗伊(Lowy)家族以247亿美元的价格将其全球购物中心业务西田集团(Westfield)出售给了法国的尤尼百-洛当科集团(Unibail-Rodamco)。

Further encroachment by Facebook and Netflix into sports rights, media and film production led Rupert Murdoch to sell much of his 21st Century Fox empire to Walt Disney in a $66bn deal.

迫于Facebook和Netflix向体育转播权、媒体与电影制作行业进军的压力，鲁珀特•默多克(Rupert Murdoch)以660亿美元的价格将其21世纪福克斯(21st Century Fox)的大部分资产出售给华特迪士尼公司(Walt Disney)。

Goldman Sachs advised Amazon on its $13.7bn purchase of grocer Whole Foods, in a deal that underscored the ecommerce group’s ability to rattle an entire industry with one swift move.

高盛为亚马逊以137亿美元收购连锁食品超市全食(Whole Foods)提供了咨询，这宗交易突显出这家电商集团仅凭一次快速行动就撼动一整个行业的实力。

Eileen Nugent, an M&A partner at Skadden, said: “Every industry is being disrupted, everyone is trying to respond to technological changes, nobody wants to be left out and that’s why many companies are buying strategic assets to better compete on a global scale.”

世达律师事务所(Skadden)并购业务合伙人艾琳•纽金特(Eileen Nugent)说：“各行各业都在被颠覆，人人都在试图应对技术的变革，没人愿意被丢下，这就是为什么许多公司都在购买战略资产以期更好地在全球范围内竞争。”

The US remained the most active region, with $1.4tn of deals, although the value of M&A there fell 16 per cent from a year ago. Still, the number of US deals climbed above 12,400, a record figure.

美国仍是并购浪潮中最活跃的地区，已达成1.4万亿美元的交易，尽管并购交易的价值比一年前下降了16%。不过，美国交易数量超过了12400宗，创下历史新高。

The largest deal of 2017 has yet to be resolved, as Broadcom pursues a hostile $130bn bid for rival chipmaker Qualcomm. European deal activity climbed 16 per cent to $856.3bn despite the failure of the $143bn bid by Kraft Heinz to acquire Unilever.

2017年度最大的一单交易仍悬而未决，即博通(Broadcom)意欲以1300亿美元的报价恶意收购竞争对手芯片制造商高通(Qualcomm)的交易。虽然卡夫亨氏(Kraft Heinz)向联合利华(Unilever)提出的1430亿美元收购要约已落空，但欧洲的并购活动还是攀升了16%，达到8563亿美元。

Activity in the Asia-Pacific region reached $911.6bn, up 11 per cent from a year ago. Chinese companies maintained an aggressive rate of overseas buys, committing themselves to $140.5bn of cross-border deals, making it the country’s second biggest year.

亚太地区的收购活动达到9116亿美元，比去年增长了11%。中国企业在海外并购中仍来势汹汹，达成了1405亿美元的跨境交易，使今年成为中国海外并购的第二大年份。