中国化工与倍耐力的恋爱史
Bells ringing from a church next to ChemChina’s headquarters yesterday morning provided a fitting soundtrack for the group’s chairman to explain its proposed 7.3bn takeover of Italian tyre group Pirelli.
“There is an old Chinese saying that it is better to knock down 10 temples than wreck one marriage,” Ren Jianxin, head of the state-owned chemicals group said. “It means that one must do everything in one’s power to facilitate a marriage. We are hoping that all the pieces can come together for our wonderful marriage with Pirelli.”
任建新说：“中国有句老话，宁拆十座庙不毁一桩婚。这句话的意思是，人们要竭尽全力来成就一桩婚事。我们希望与倍耐力的联姻能美满。”Mr Ren and his counterpart at Pirelli, Marco Tronchetti Provera, believe the Italian group, which has a strong position in the high-end automotive tyre segment, can use its partnership with ChemChina to bolster its comparatively weak industrial tyres division, especially in China. “Pirelli’s size in this [industrial] segment is limited,” Mr Ren said. “Pirelli needs an Asian partner to develop its industrial tyre business.”
倍耐力在高端汽车轮胎市场拥有强大地位，任建新与倍耐力负责人马可•特隆凯蒂•普罗维拉(Marco Tronchetti Provera)相信，这家意大利集团可以利用与其与中国化工的合作伙伴关系，做强它相对较弱的工业轮胎业务，尤其是在中国。任建新说：“倍耐力在工业轮胎市场的规模相对有限，它需要一个亚洲合作伙伴来发展这一业务。”
China is the world’s largest automotive market, with 23m vehicles sold last year, but still has only 107 cars for every 1,000 people. That figure is expected to rise to 252 cars over the next 10 years.
中国是全球最大的汽车市场，去年汽车销量230万辆，但每千人仍只拥有107辆汽车，预计未来10年这一数字将攀升至252辆汽车。The courtship between Pirelli and ChemChina began three years ago. But Mr Ren said the two companies’ hopes for a tie-up in 2012 were dashed when rumours of his approach leaked and “disturbed” the share price.
倍耐力与中国化工的缘份开始于三年前。任建新表示，两家公司在2012年时就希望结盟，结果因为他接触倍耐力的消息走漏，引起股价“波动”，最终不了了之。Six months ago Mr Ren renewed negotiations with industrialist Mr Tronchetti Provera. “We really saw eye-to-eye,” ChemChina’s chairman said. “Our strategies and visions had not changed over the past three years.”
半年前任建新再次与实业家特隆凯蒂•普罗维拉洽谈，他说：“我们的看法完全一致，过去三年我们的战略和愿景都没有变过。”The first step in ChemChina’s complex takeover of Pirelli took place last week, when the Chinese group agreed to acquire holding company Camfin, Pirelli’s controlling shareholder.
中国化工对倍耐力的收购过程颇为复杂，上周中国化工同意收购倍耐力控股公司Camfin所持倍耐力股份，踏出了整个收购计划的第一步。ChemChina will then make its more than 7bn offer for the entire company and take it private. According to Mr Ren, it ultimately intends to relist Pirelli’s automotive business in Italy and the two companies’ combined industrial tyre units in Asia.
然后中国化工将发出整体收购要约，将倍耐力私有化，整个收购价超过70亿欧元。根据任建新的介绍，中国化工的最终打算是让倍耐力的汽车业务在意大利重新上市，以及两家企业合并后的工业轮胎业务在亚洲重新上市。He worries, however, that a rival bidder could scupper his plans. “I’m still worried about the deal, because after all it’s a public bidding process,” Mr Ren said. “Due to cheap liquidity, there might be blind counterbids that will hurt Pirelli investors and also the company’s longer-term strategy.”
但任建新担心会出现竞购对手破坏他的计划，他说：“我还是担心这笔交易，因为这毕竟是个公开收购的过程。由于流动性便宜，可能会出现盲目还价，这样会既伤害倍耐力的投资者，也伤害这家公司的长期战略。”He hopes his promise to preserve Pirelli’s reputation as the “Prada of the tyre industry” will help to quell doubts about the ability of a Chinese state-owned Goliath with Rmb300bn in revenues and 140,000 employees to run one of the jewels in Italy’s industrial crown.
任建新承诺要保住倍耐力“轮胎行业普拉达(Prada)”的声誉，他希望自己的承诺有助于消除关于一家中国国企是否有能力管理好倍耐力的质疑，倍耐力是意大利工业皇冠上的一颗明珠。作为中国的国企巨人，中国化工年收入3000亿元人民币，拥有14万名员工。“Our biggest pressure is to carry forward Pirelli’s culture, management and technology,” Mr Ren said. “Pirelli is a global brand that grew out of Italian soil. Can it grow if you change its soil? I don’t know and I don’t want to try . . . So we won’t move its headquarters, change management or transfer its technologies. This is all written in our agreement.”
任建新说：“我们最大的压力是要继续发展倍耐力的文化、管理和技术。倍耐力是在意大利土壤上成长起来的国际品牌。如果改变土壤环境，它是否还能继续成长？我不知道，也不想尝试……因此我们不会迁移总部位置，变更管理层或转让它的技术。这些全写在我们的协议里。”Such reassurances appear to have won over Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi’s reformist government, which is highlighting the ChemChina-Pirelli deal as a sign of its more open policy on foreign investment as it seeks to boost the economy. On Saturday, Italy’s economic development minister, Federica Guidi, said Rome had “no right to intervene” in any such deal, especially as ChemChina’s takeover would make Pirelli “even more competitive”.
上述保证似乎已赢得了意大利总理马泰奥•伦齐(Matteo Renzi)的改革派政府的赞同。伦齐政府正在寻求提振经济，因此对外国投资采取更开放的政策，它将中国化工与倍耐力的这笔交易视为政府开放立场的体现。上周六，意大利经济发展部部长费代丽卡•圭迪(Federica Guidi)表示，意大利政府“无权干涉”此类交易，尤其是中国化工的收购将让倍耐力“更具竞争力”。It is all part and parcel of a much broader Sino-Italian love affair which has seen Chinese investors take stakes in half a dozen prominent Italian companies, including the one that controls the country’s electricity grid and gas distribution. Italy, meanwhile, was one of the first European countries to sign up to the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, despite strenuous objections from Washington.
这笔收购交易是更广泛的“中意恋曲”的一个重要部分，中国投资者已投资入股6家著名的意大利公司，其中一家公司控制着意大利的电网和天然气分销系统。同时，意大利是申请加入北京牵头的亚洲基础设施投资银行（Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank，简称“亚投行”）的首批欧洲国家之一，尽管华盛顿对该银行强烈反对。“The Italian public and government have been quite open to Chinese investment,” Mr Ren said. “We . . . feel grateful for the Italian government’s remarks regarding this transaction.”
任建新说：“意大利的民众和政府已对中国投资敞开怀抱。我们……非常感谢意大利政府对此次收购交易的立场。”Additional reporting by Wan Li and Rachel Sanderson
万丽、雷切尔•桑德森(Rachel Sanderson)补充报道
