There comes a time in most people’s lives, usually very late in the lives of self-made billionaires, when they settle their affairs and divide up their assets to put everything in order for the Family. It has the added benefit for business moguls of pleasing the shareholders.
多数人在生命的某个时刻——对白手起家的亿万富豪而言，这个时刻通常来得很晚——要把个人事务料理妥当，并对资产进行分割，以便为整个家族把一切打点得有条不紊。对商业大亨而言，这么做还有取悦股东的额外好处。
That is probably the reason Li Ka-shing has split his Hong Kong conglomerate, rather than because he has converted to the US view that conglomerates are inefficient; or is hedging against a collapse in the Chinese property market; or is shifting his companies’ registrations to the Cayman Islands in case he has to leave Hong Kong (having fled there as a child during the Japanese invasion of China).
很可能正因如此，李嘉诚(Li Ka-shing)才重组了他的香港企业集团，而并不是因为他接受了美国人的观点——企业集团的效率不高，或为了防范中国房地产市场的崩盘，抑或为了把旗下公司的注册地换到开曼群岛(Cayman Islands)、以防自己要被迫离开香港（日本侵华期间，还是孩童的他随家人逃到香港）。At 86, Mr Li has followed 83-year-old Rupert Murdoch in dividing his business empire. Like the media mogul, he has been greeted by applause from the stock market, which had lost hope of either man making greater sense of his assets . Mr Li no doubt enjoyed the 14 per cent jump in the combined value of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa on Monday.
86岁的李嘉诚效仿83岁的鲁珀特•默多克(Rupert Murdoch)，拆分了自己的商业帝国。像媒体大亨默多克一样，李嘉诚也得到了股票市场的喝彩，股市此前对这两个人能否更明智地处置自己的资产失去了信心。上周，长江实业(Cheung Kong Holdings)与和记黄埔(Hutchison Whampoa)的市值之和大增14%，这个消息无疑让李嘉诚感到高兴。
I doubt that was why he did it. Sumner Redstone, who split CBS from Viacom in 2006 aged 82, is unusual among moguls in being heavily fixated on the short-term share price. Most postpone reordering their empires for as long as possible, no matter what the short-term cost.
我怀疑这是否就是李嘉诚的用意所在。2006年，82岁的雷石东(Sumner Redstone)将美国哥伦比亚广播公司(CBS)从维亚康姆(Viacom)剥离出来。他特别在乎公司短期股价，这让他在众多大亨当中显得很另类。多数大亨都尽量推迟重新安排自己帝国的时间，不管短期内会付出多大的代价。But mortality and the quest for shareholder value eventually produce the same outcome: the restructuring of business empires that were created through improvisation and inspired asset trading, and can be held together only by the founders. Without their authority, the twin forces of familial rivalry and investor pressure tend to pull these empires apart.
但死亡和追求股东价值最终会带来同一个后果：对那些通过随机应变和灵机一动的资产交易打造而成、唯有创始人才能保证其凝聚力的商业帝国进行重组。倘若失去了创始人的权威，家族争斗和投资者压力这两股力量的作用，往往会让这些商业帝国分崩离析。It makes sense. There are rare cases of later-generation genius, such as that of Ratan Tata, who gained control of his family’s Indian company and turned it into a greater force (as Mr Murdoch did). Usually, however, investors are right to tolerate waywardness in a founder who displays talent, and to be suspicious of successors.
这合乎逻辑。下一代是商业天才的情况并不多见，拉丹•塔塔(Ratan Tata)是一个例外。他掌管家族控制的印度企业之后，把它做强做大（正如鲁珀特•默多克一样）。然而，投资人通常有理由容忍已显露才能的创始人的任性之举，对继任者却心存怀疑。The motives are hard to disentangle. Mr Li and Victor Li, his older son and likely successor, made a sound case that the reshuffling of assets into one property company and one conglomerate brings clarity to Cheung Kong and Hutchison. Shareholders want to be able to invest in the assets they choose rather than having to tolerate corporate confusion.
李嘉诚这样做的动机是个难解之谜。李嘉诚及其长子、可能的继承人李泽钜(Victor Li)给出了一个强有力的理由：将旗下资产重新打包为一家房地产公司“长地”和一家企业集团“长和”，能让外界能看明白长江实业与和记黄埔的区别。股东想要能够投资他们选择的资产，而不是被迫容忍公司业务的混乱。This never bothered Mr Libefore. He first bought a stake in Hutchison, an old Hong Kong trading company that had run into difficulty, in 1979. Since then his family trusts have held a minority stake in Hutchison through Cheung Kong, the company he founded in Hong Kong in 1950 to make plastic flowers.
以前这个问题从未令李嘉诚感到烦恼。1979年，他首次买入和记黄埔一定的股权，当时那是一家陷入困境的老牌香港贸易公司。自那以来，李氏家族信托一直通过长江实业持有和记黄埔的少数股权。长江实业是李嘉诚于1950年创立的一家塑料花生产企业。There is a clue in the name — Cheung Kong means “long river” (Cantonese for the Yangtze) and Mr Li wanted his company to meander around and change course, absorbing smaller businesses along the way. He identified flexibility with longevity — sticking to the straight and narrow would limit growth.
公司的名字“长江”为我们解开这个谜题提供了一条线索：李嘉诚希望他的公司蜿蜒而行，该改道就改道，一路上吸纳一些中小型企业。他认为灵活才能长久，坚守笔直而狭窄的河道会限制发展。The confusion between what Cheung Kong and Hutchison each do has grown in the past few years. Cheung Kong used some of the cash from its property portfolio to buy an aircraft leasing group last year, and runs a joint property venture in China with Hutchison.
过去几年来，长江实业与和记黄埔的业务界限变得越来越模糊。去年，长江实业动用来自其地产投资组合的部分现金收购了一家飞机租赁公司；长江实业还与和记黄埔合资在内地经营着一家房地产企业。That is the Asian way. Family-controlled conglomerates dominate the economy in South Korea, India and China. According to a McKinsey & Co study, they form 80 per cent of the largest 50 companies by revenue in South Korea, and 90 per cent in India. Many have diversified into activities unrelated to their original businesses, although such “stepping out” often fails.
这正是亚洲特色。家族控制的企业集团在韩国、印度和中国的经济中占据重要地位。麦肯锡(McKinsey & Co)的一份研究显示，按营收计，家族企业占到韩国50家最大企业（以营收计)的80%，在印度的这个比例则达90%。许多家族企业多元化发展，进入跟原始业务无关的领域，不过这种“业务拓展”常以失败告终。Mr Li cares more about control than clarity. This deal exchanges his 43 per cent stake in Cheung Kong for a 30 per cent stake in each company. In the past he would have seen reducing his holding as a risk, but his companies are now large enough and he is old enough to feel more secure.
李嘉诚关心控制权胜过关心清晰度。根据最新的重组方案，他将把所持43%的长江实业的股权，置换成长和与长地各30%的股权。过去，他会把持股比例降低视为风险，但目前他的公司已足够大，他的年岁也已足够高，能够给他更多安全感。He has the salutary example of Mr Murdoch, who bought Star TV from Mr Li and Richard, his younger son, in 1993. Mr Murdoch resisted splitting News Corp into entertainment and publishing arms until 2013, when he acted under pressure from the phone-hacking scandal in the UK.
默多克为李嘉诚提供了一个有益的榜样。1993年，默多克从李嘉诚和他的次子李泽楷(Richard Li)手中买入了星空传媒(Star TV)。直到2013年之前，默多克一直不愿把新闻集团(News Corp)拆分为娱乐和出版两家公司。2013年，他迫于英国电话窃听丑闻的压力，才不得不这么做。Since then he has not only gained from the rising value of 21st Century Fox, but has also been able to give jobs to James and Lachlan, two of his children, at the top of Fox and News Corp . Splitting the empire while remaining chairman of both companies has provided greater scope to fix his succession.
自那以来，默多克不但从21世纪福克斯(21st Century Fox)的市值上升中获益，而且能够在福克斯和新闻集团的最高层给他的两个孩子詹姆斯•默多克(James Murdoch)和拉克伦•默多克(Lachlan Murdoch)安排职位。拆分商业帝国，同时留任两家公司的董事长，给他处理家业继承问题提供了更大空间。On the face of it, Mr Li has settled the matter at Cheung Kong and Hutchison. In 2012 he transferred Richard’s stake in the family trust to Victor and named the latter as his successor. It is, however, inescapable that having two cleanly separated companies makes it easier for him to change his mind.
表面上看来，李嘉诚已解决了长江实业与和记黄埔的继承问题。2012年，李嘉诚把李泽楷在家族信托中的份额转移至李泽钜名下，并指定李泽钜为他的继承人。但不容忽视的是，有了两家分割清楚的公司之后，他要改变主意也更容易了。The risks of not dividing the spoils before you go are obvious. Reliance, an Indian conglomerate, broke apart in 2005 when Mukesh and Anil Ambani started to feud after their father’s death. America’s Pritzker business empire was painstakingly divided over several years amid family tensions.
离世前不分割财产的风险是显而易见的。穆克什•安巴尼(Mukesh Ambani)和安尼尔•安巴尼(Anil Ambani)在父亲死后不和，导致印度企业集团信实(Reliance)在2005年一分为二。美国普里茨克(Pritzker)家族的商业帝国，也因家庭不和在几年间被分成多份，令人叹息。As long as a strong-minded patriarch holds it together, there are strengths to letting a conglomerate seek growth where it can and ignore the corporate finance textbook. But the older you are, the higher the cost.
只要有一位意志坚强的家长仍让一家企业集团凝聚在一起，那么让这家集团尽其所能在有增长机会的领域寻求增长，忽略公司财务教科书怎么讲，是有不少优势的。但你年龄越大，这么做的代价也就越高。