中国政府接管安邦保险(Anbang Insurance)并对其创始人吴小晖提起刑事诉讼，这表示了迄今为止官方打击雄心勃勃的大型企业集团高风险融资的最大举措。这些举措导致中国海外并购大幅下滑。
But on the same day as the Anbang seizure was announced, Chinese company Fosun said it would buy a controlling stake in Lanvin, France’s oldest couturier. The move underlines the diverging fates of the four largest private conglomerates — the others are HNA and Dalian Wanda — that Beijing identified last year as borrowing too aggressively to fund offshore deals.
但就在政府宣布接管安邦的同一天，中国公司复星(Fosun)表示将收购法国最古老的女装设计品牌Lanvin的控股权。此举突显了北京方面去年认为过于激进地为海外并购举债的四大私营企业集团(其他两家是海航(HNA)和大连万达(Dalian Wanda))截然不同的命运。
All have captured headlines over the past few years with a series of audacious foreign acquisitions. These include Anbang’s $2bn purchase of New York’s Waldorf Astoria, Dalian Wanda’s takeover of Hollywood studio Legendary Entertainment for $3.5bn, and HNA’s $40bn splurge on stakes in companies including Deutsche Bank and Hilton Worldwide.
在过去几年中，这四家公司全都因为一系列大胆的海外并购交易登上了新闻头条。其中包括安邦斥资20亿美元收购纽约华尔道夫酒店(Waldorf Astoria)、大连万达以35亿美元收购好莱坞传奇影业(Legendary Entertainment)，以及海航豪掷400亿美元收购了德意志银行(Deutsche Bank)和希尔顿全球(Hilton Worldwide)等公司的股份。
Beijing stepped in last year to curb the spree, worried that companies were overpaying for foreign assets and draining China’s foreign currency reserves, while relying on risky financing methods to fund acquisitions.
去年，北京为了遏制这种狂热行为而出手干预，担心这些企业为外国资产出价过高并使得中国外汇储备流失，同时还依靠高风险融资方式为收购提供资金。
Analysts say the government’s treatment of the groups differs depending on their sources of financing, and whether they have co-operated in the government’s campaign to slow capital outflows and cut leverage.
分析师表示，中国政府依照这些集团的融资来源，以及是否配合政府减缓资本外流和削减杠杆的运动来区别对待。
“Conglomerates have been borrowing from Chinese banks and making overseas deals and doing deals which do not [create] much benefit for the regime. If things go wrong, the risk is with state-owned banks,” said Ether Yin of consultancy Trivium China.
北京咨询公司Trivium China的Ether Yin表示：“大型企业集团一直在向中国的银行借钱进行海外并购，而且在进行不会为中国政府带来多少利益的交易。如果事情出错，风险由国有银行承担。”
China’s overseas investment dropped 35 per cent last year to $137bn compared with $204bn in 2016, partly due to tighter restrictions on capital outflows, according to MergerMarket.
MergerMarket的数据显示，中国海外投资去年下降近35%至1370亿美元，而2016年为2040亿美元，部分原因是中国收紧了限制资本外流的措施。
Wanda has co-operated with official directives by unloading more than $4bn in overseas assets over the past nine months and promising to “refocus” on the domestic economy. Last week it sold its 17 per cent stake in Spanish football club Atlético Madrid.
万达配合官方指令，在过去9个月卖掉了40多亿美元的海外资产，并承诺“将注意力重新集中到”国内经济。上周，它卖掉了西班牙足球俱乐部马德里竞技俱乐部(Atlético Madrid) 17%的股份。
HNA, meanwhile, has appeared to win back support as it regroups amid a liquidity crunch. Last week, the debt-laden company announced the HK$15.8bn ($2bn) sale of two plots of land in Hong Kong to local developer Henderson Land.
与此同时，海航在因流动性危机重组后似乎重新赢得了支持。上周，这家负债累累的公司宣布以158亿港元(合20亿美元)的价格将香港的两宗土地出售给当地开发商恒基兆业地产(Henderson Land)。
It was Anbang’s financing model that caused the Chinese authorities most concern. Unlike other groups that relied on bank loans or bond issuances to fund acquisitions, Anbang relied on sales of investment-like products it sold to wealthy Chinese retail investors labelled as life insurance, a part of China’s sprawling shadow-banking system.
安邦的融资模式让中国政府最为担忧。与其他依靠银行贷款或发行债券为收购提供资金的集团不同，安邦依赖的是以人寿保险产品的名义向富裕的中国散户投资者销售类投资产品，这是中国庞大的影子银行体系的一部分。
The insurance regulator banned Anbang from selling several risky investment-like products early last year, shortly before authorities detained Mr Wu, amid a broad crackdown on shadow banking.
去年初，就在吴小晖被当局带走前不久，保监会禁止安邦出售数款高风险类投资产品，并全面打击影子银行业务。
Several investment products offering high returns went bust in recent years, on some occasions sparking street protests by disgruntled investors. Taking over Anbang reflects “the government’s need to protect individual investors for the sake of social stability,” said Mr Yin.
一些承诺高回报的投资产品在近几年崩盘，有时还引发不满的投资者上街抗议。Ether Yin说，接管安邦反映“政府为了社会稳定需要保护个人投资者”。
Anbang “clearly violated regulatory requirements, but that’s not as clear for the other [conglomerates],” said Zhu Ning of the National Institute of Financial Research at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
清华大学国家金融研究院(National Institute of Financial Research)的朱宁表示，安邦“显然违反了监管规定，但对于其他的(企业集团)这一点并不那么明显”。
Anbang’s finances were also in a more precarious state than other companies due to the mismatch between the short-term nature of its assets and the longer-term nature of its liabilities. The company’s reliance on high-yield products was signalled when the insurance regulator allowed it to begin reselling them in October, analysts say.
此外，由于资产短期性以及负债较长期性的错配，与其他企业相比，安邦的财务状况也更加不稳定。分析人士表示，去年10月，在保监会允许安邦开始恢复销售高收益投资产品时，安邦对这些产品的依赖就体现了出来。
"Anbang was the most aggressive in terms of the ratio of its overseas assets to its domestic assets and it had a more serious mismatch between its funding sources and its acquisitions. In other words, it represented more speculation that the renminbi would fall," said Mr Zhu.
朱宁表示：“从海外资产与国内资产的比率来看，安邦是最激进的，其融资来源与并购之间存在更严重的错配。换句话说，这代表着对人民币将贬值的更大投机。”
HNA is also under acute pressure. The group, which started as an airline company before expanding into finance, is the most acquisitive of all the groups and has been facing a liquidity crunch, forcing it to tap riskier sources of funding.
海航也面临巨大压力。该集团最初是一家航空公司，后来业务扩大到金融，是四家集团中收购胃口最大的，一直面临流动性紧张，这迫使其利用风险较高的融资来源。
The company, whose ownership has been called into question by foreign regulators, has been attempting to convert political capital into financial capital, with its co-chairman Wang Jian calling the company’s critics part of a conspiracy to undermine China, according to speech leaked online.
外国监管机构对海航所有权提出质疑。海航一直试图将政治资本转变为金融资本，根据网上流出的言论，海航联合董事长王健把批评该公司的人称为破坏中国的阴谋的一部分。
The efforts appear to have paid off, with state-controlled Citic bank granting a $3.2bn credit line to the company this month.
这些努力似乎收到了成效，国有控股的中信银行(Citic)本月向海航授信32亿美元。
Still, the company is facing questions about its shareholders. “When you’re dealing with Chinese companies you’ve got to be aware that the risk of it failing is high because of the potential political pressures, so due diligence should remain high,” said Fraser Howie, an expert on Chinese financial regulation.
然而，海航正面临有关其股东的质疑。中国金融监管专家侯伟(Fraser Howie)表示：“如果你与中国企业打交道，你应该知道，由于潜在的政治压力，失败风险很高，因此尽职调查应非常完善。”
Fosun, which owns property and insurance assets, has slowed the pace of its acquisitions in the past year. A high-profile deal for a stake in Russian gold miner Polyus fell through, but in October it completed an approximately $1bn deal for a controlling stake in India’s Gland Pharma and an $868m purchase of stake in China’s Tsingtao brewery.
过去一年，拥有房地产和保险资产的复星放慢了并购速度。该集团入股俄罗斯黄金矿商Polyus的高调交易流产，但去年10月，复星完成了控股印度制药商Gland Pharma的约10亿美元交易，并以8.68亿美元入股中国青岛啤酒(Tsingtao)。
The Shanghai-based company has taken steps to lower its leverage and position its investments as contributing to government efforts to make China’s economy more high-tech and consumption-driven.
这家总部位于上海的公司已采取措施降低杠杆，并把其投资定位为助力中国政府让中国经济更多由高科技和消费驱动的努力。
Chinese groups have been helped by a decline in worries about China’s currency, which has strengthened over the past year while China’s foreign exchange reserves have grown for 12 straight months. “That panic has abated,” said Mr Howie.
对人民币的担忧减轻让中国企业受益，过去一年，人民币汇率走强，中国外汇储备连续12个月增长。侯伟表示：“恐慌减轻了。”
“The issue is how the deals are funded, and whether they fit into state aims and can be said to be benefiting the country,” he added. “Doing east London real estate deals doesn’t seem to benefit China Inc. It's about how well-funded they are and the price they were paying.”
“问题是这些交易如何融资，以及它们是否符合政府目标并可以说有利于这个国家，”他补充称，“收购伦敦东部的房地产似乎并不有利于中国企业界。这关乎他们的资金实力有多雄厚以及他们付出的价格。”
