You cannot keep all of the people happy all of the time. China’s latest restructuring of a state-owned enterprise is likely to make only a small number of people very happy – and upset a great deal more.
你不可能总是令所有人满意。中国一家国有企业的最新改制很可能只会让一小部分人极为满意，却让大部分人沮丧。
Over the weekend, state-owned China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec Group) announced two deals which will hurt shareholders who own its Hong Kong subsidiary, Sinopec. First, Sinopec will sell a 30 per cent stake in its fuel retailing business. Chinese white goods maker Haier, finance companies and domestic investment funds are paying $17.5bn for assets Bernstein thinks could be worth $22bn.
上周末，国有的中国石油化工集团公司(Sinopec Group)宣布了两笔交易，这两笔交易将对其香港子公司中国石化(Sinopec)的股东造成伤害。第一笔交易中，中石化将出售其销售公司近30%的股权。中国的白色家电制造商海尔(Haier)、金融公司及国内投资基金以175亿美元购入这些股权，而伯恩斯坦(Bernstein)认为这些股权可能价值220亿美元。The second deal will save the group from a writedown on its 40 per cent stake in affiliate Yizheng Chemical. Under mainland rules, lossmaking Yizheng faced delisting next year, resulting in a writedown for Sinopec of as much as $1.7bn. To save Yizheng from delisting, the Sinopec Group parent will inject its profitable oil services group into Yizheng in return for just under $4bn in new shares of Yizheng. The price Yizheng will pay for this new business, at 10 times 2014 earnings, looks cheap – especially for a company expecting to increase earnings by nearly one half next year.
第二笔交易将让集团免于减记旗下子公司仪征化纤(Yizheng Chemical) 40%的股权。根据内地规定，亏损企业仪征化纤面临着明年退市，导致中石化资产减记多达17亿美元。为保仪征化纤免于退市，母公司中石化将把旗下利润丰厚的石油服务公司注入仪征化纤，换取近40亿美元的仪征化纤新股票。仪征化纤为这一新业务付出的金额是其2014年盈利的10倍，看起来很便宜，尤其是所购入公司预计明年盈利会增加近一半。
Good news – but the Hong Kong shareholders will not have exposure to the new Yizheng. Their company is selling its 40 per cent stake in Yizheng back to Yizheng for just over $1bn in cash (an 80 per cent premium to the previous close) – and buying Yizheng’s old, lossmaking assets for just over $1bn. The transaction is only a marginal cash outlay for Sinopec but leaves it with poor assets in a fibre business and no exposure to the newly revitalised oil services company. Investors in Hong Kong quickly had their say on the fairness of the deal. Sinopec’s shares fell 8 per cent.
这是一个好消息，但中国石化的香港股东将不会受益于仪征化纤的新股票。中石化将以略高于10亿美元（相对于此前收盘价格有80%溢价）让仪征化纤回购中石化所持的40%股份，并以10亿美元多一点买下仪征原有的亏损资产。这笔交易在中石化只是一小笔支出，但给其留下一家化纤企业的不良资产，而且对新近重振的石油服务公司没有敞口。香港投资者很快就对这笔交易的公平性表了态——中国石化股价下跌了8%。China is committed to allowing market forces to play a bigger role in economic development. Deals of this sort seem to be driven by market forces with Chinese characteristics.
中国致力于让市场力量在经济发展中发挥更大作用。这类交易似乎受到中国特色市场力量的推动。