The Wall Street Journal

Will China Buy The World?: The Beijing Debate

2009年 03月 10日 17:58

Is there debate in China over the wisdom of opportunistic overseas acquisitions? You betcha.

Xiang Wenbo, president of Chinese machinery maker Sany Heavy Industries, brought the issue front and center yesterday during the National People's Congress meetings in Beijing. Mr. Xiang, one of the country's most outspoken corporate executives, confronted Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan during a meeting of the delegation from Hunan province, where Sany is based.

Sany's Xiang asked Wang, China's cabinet official in charge of financial affairs, whether he could fork over some money to help fund Sany's international expansion — a reasonable request, some might say, given China's central government sits on nearly $2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves.

Here's Mr. Wang's response: [South China Morning Post translation]

'Do you have a handle on your own management capabilities? Have you analyzed the cultural differences of the two sides? Do you understand the relationship between unionized labor and management in that place? If the other side's engineers resign, are you really going to send people from Changsha [Hunan's capital] overseas, and make the whole company speak Hunanese [the local dialect]? If you don't know yourself and know your opponent, then this kind of confidence scares me.'

Ouch!

It wouldn't be the first time government officials have rebuffed Xiang's overseas ambitions. The local Hunan government last year passed over Sany and chose a crosstown rival when it picked a preferred bidder for Italian machinery maker Compagnia Italiana Forme Acciaio SpA, according to people familiar with the situation. Zoomlion, teamed with Hony Capital and Goldman Sachs' private-equity arm, won the bidding with a $422 million offer in June.

Mr. Xiang's ambitions are a smaller part of a larger debate within China over whether its homegrown companies are ready to gobble up foreign firms. For example, as Geely's interest in Ford Motor's Volvo unit shows, many of China's auto makers are run by corporate chieftains with similar global ambitions. And natural resources companies appear to have wide leeway to make deals, as Chinalco's bid to invest in natural resources giant Rio Tinto shows.

But Chinese officials believe resource companies are better-positioned to expand. Hard assets such as iron ore and copper mines which tend to perform in line with the commodities cycle -- require less from management to make a deal work.

Expansion-minded companies outside the natural resources business face considerably more skepticism. Mr. Wang's comments point to concerns within policy circles that Chinese managers still don't have the skill to successfully build global brands. Lenovo's recent decision to refocus on the safer shores of the China market after its purchase of IBM's PC business shows how difficult it can be for even the best, most flexible managers to strike gold in overseas deals.

It's also helpful to remember that Chinese corporate chieftains like Mr. Xiang aren't always in favor of cross-border M&A. He rose to prominence in 2006 by stoking nationalistic sentiment against Carlyle Group's planned acquisition of an 85% stake in Sany's rival machinery maker Xugong Group for $375 million. The controversy stirred by Mr. Xiang helped scuttle what would have been among the biggest private equity investments in China.

Rick Carew / cn.wsj.com

中国要买下世界吗？

2009年 03月 10日 17:58

中

国有人争论投机性的海外并购是否明智吗？你可以肯定地回答。

Associated Press

中国副总理王岐山去年参加陆家嘴论坛时的照片

在周一的人大会议上，中国机械制造商三一重工股份有限公司总裁向文波提出了这个问题，引起了关注。向文波是中国最直言不讳的企业高管之一，他在湖南代表团的会议上向国务院副总理王岐山提出了这个问题。湖南是三一重工总部所在地。

向文波问主管金融事务的王岐山，他是否能为三一重工的国际扩张提供一些资金。一些人或许会说，考虑到中央政府坐拥近2万亿美元的外汇储备，这个请求合情合理。

以下是王岐山的回答。（译自《南华早报》）

据《南华早报》报导，王岐山问，你对自己的管理能力有把握吗？分析过双方的文化差异了吗？了解（目标公司所在国家）当地的工会劳资关系吗？他最后又说，如果不能知己知彼，这种信心会让我害怕。

哎呀！

这并非政府官员第一次回绝向文波的海外并购雄心。知情人士说，去年湖南地方政府在挑选收购意大利机械制造商Compagnia Italiana Forme Acciaio SpA的竞购者时，没有选三一重工，而是选了同在湖南的另外一家竞争对手。去年6月，中联重科联手弘毅投资和高盛(Goldman Sachs)旗下的私人资本运营公司，以4.22亿美元的价格赢得了交易。

中国国内对本土企业是否准备好了吞下外国公司存在着争论，而向文波的雄心是一个缩影。举例来讲，正如吉利汽车控股有限公司有兴趣收购福特汽车(Ford Motor)旗下的沃尔沃(Volvo)品牌所表明的，很多中国汽车厂商的领导都有着类似的全球雄心。自然资源企业看起来有更大的活动余地达成交易，正如中国铝业公司投资自然资源巨头力拓(Rio Tinto)所显示的。

不过，中国官员认为，自然资源企业有着更好的扩张条件。铁矿石和铜矿等硬资产在收购后的运营上对管理层的要求较少。这类硬资产的表现往往符合大宗商品周期。

关注扩张的非自然资源企业面临着更多的质疑。王岐山的话表明，政府中有人担心中国管理人员仍没有能力来成功地打造全球品牌。联想在收购了国际商业机器公司(IBM)的个人电脑业务后，最近撤退到更为安全的国内市场，这显示出就算是对最出色、思想最开放的中国管理人士来说，在海外并购交易上获得成功也可能是多么的难。

像向文波这样的中国企业领导并不总是喜欢跨境并购，记住这一点也会有所帮助。2006年，凯雷投资集团(Carlyle Group)计划斥资3.75亿美元收购三一重工的竞争对手徐工机械85%的股份，向文波发文激发了国人对交易的反对，他也因此成名。他引发的论战搅黄了这桩买卖，而这项投资本有望成为中国规模最大的私人资本运营公司投资之一。

Rick Carew

（“中国日志”（China Journal）关注全球第一人口大国的发展变化，《华尔街日报》获奖团队数十位记者倾情献稿，Sky Canaves主笔。欢迎读者发送邮件至chinajournal@wsj.com或在下面评论栏中发表评论和建议。）