软银拟减持至少79亿美元阿里巴巴股份
SoftBank plans to sell at least $7.9bn worth of its stake in Chinese ecommerce group Alibaba to raise cash and pay down debt, in the first offloading of Masayoshi Son’s most successful investment.
软银(SoftBank)计划减持价值至少79亿美元的阿里巴巴(Alibaba)股份，以筹措资金偿还债务。这是软银对孙正义(Masayoshi Son)最成功的一项投资的首次减持。
The Japanese telecoms and internet group, founded by Mr Son, is expected to remain the largest shareholder in Alibaba even as the sale reduces its stake to about 28 per cent, from 32.2 per cent as of the end of March.
尽管这次减持会使其持股比例从3月底的32.2%降至约28%，但这家由孙正义创立的日本电信及互联网集团预计仍将是阿里巴巴的最大股东。
The sale of Alibaba shares is SoftBank’s first since Mr Son made a $20m bet in the Chinese startup founded by Jack Ma in 2000. That stake is now worth $65bn following Alibaba’s record initial public offering in the US in 2014.
这是自2000年孙正义向马云(Jack Ma)创建的阿里巴巴投资2000万美元以来，软银首次减持阿里巴巴的股份。2014年，阿里巴巴在美国举行了规模创下纪录的首次公开发行(IPO)，孙正义当初投的那笔钱如今已价值650亿美元。
“This investment has been phenomenally successful and, over the past 16 years, we have built a close relationship, working together on many exciting projects. There are huge opportunities ahead for Alibaba and SoftBank Group looks forward to the continued partnership,” Mr Son said in a statement on Wednesday.
周三，孙正义在一份声明中表示：“事实证明我们对于阿里的投资获得了惊人的成功，过去16年里，我们建立了紧密的合作伙伴关系。我们在此期间从未出售过阿里巴巴的股份。阿里巴巴未来还有巨大的发展空间，软银集团期待与之继续紧密合作。”
The companies said Mr Ma and Mr Son will remain on the boards of SoftBank and Alibaba, respectively.
两家公司表示，马云和孙正义将各自保留在软银和阿里巴巴的董事会席位。
“The deal would enhance SoftBank’s creditworthiness and make it easier to raise funds at lower costs in the future” now that investors see that Mr Son is willing to sell down the Alibaba stake, said Satoru Kikuchi, analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities.
三井住友银行日兴证券(SMBC Nikko Securities)分析师Satoru Kikuchi表示，“这笔交易将提高软银的信用可靠程度，方便它未来以较低成本筹措资金”，因为投资者看到了孙正义愿意减持阿里巴巴的股份。
Under the deal SoftBank intends to sell $2bn of shares to Alibaba itself, $400m to Alibaba Partnership, an entity including executives and outsiders, and $500m to “a major sovereign wealth fund”. It has also established a trust to offer $5bn in securities that convert into Alibaba’s American Depositary Receipts.
根据协议，软银将向阿里巴巴集团出售20亿美元阿里股份，向阿里巴巴高管和外部人士组成阿里巴巴合伙人出售4亿美元阿里股份，向“一家主要的主权财富基金”出售5亿美元阿里股份。软银还成立了一个信托基金，发行50亿美元的可转换债券，这些债券可转换成阿里巴巴的美国存托凭证(ADR)。
“As SoftBank looks to strengthen its own balance sheet, Alibaba determined that it was the best use of our capital to re-invest in our own business through an efficient buyback of a large number of shares in our own company that is accretive to our stockholders,” Mr Ma said in a separate statement.
马云在另一份声明中表示：“当软银在寻求改善它的财报时，阿里巴巴相信，通过购回我们自己的股票，再投资于我们自己的业务，是对我们的资金最好的利用方式，也将为我们的股东带来实际的利益。”
SoftBank said the sale would allow it to increase its liquidity cushion and reduce its debt load. The company’s interest-bearing debt increased more than three-fold to ￥11.92tn ($108bn) after it acquired Sprint, now the fourth-largest US telecoms company, in 2013 for $22bn.
软银表示，这笔交易将使其能够扩大其流动性缓冲，降低债务负担。2013年，软银斥资220亿美元收购了美国目前第四大电信企业Sprint。在那之后，软银付息债务增长了两倍以上，达到11.92万亿日元（合1080亿美元）。
It comes three months after SoftBank said its global operations including its holdings in Alibaba and Sprint would be separated from its Japanese businesses and overseen by Nikesh Arora, the former Google executive and Mr Son’s handpicked successor.
三个月前软银曾表示，软银全球业务（含在阿里巴巴及Sprint持有的股份）将与日本业务分隔开，并由谷歌(Google)前高管、孙正义亲自挑选的继任者尼克什•阿罗拉(Nikesh Arora)负责。
Mr Arora has been reassessing SoftBank’s vast portfolio of investments and analysts say the cash from the Alibaba sale would enable the Japanese group to boost its investments in technology and internet startups.
阿罗拉一直在重新评估软银庞大的投资组合。分析师表示，减持阿里巴巴股份所得的资金，将令这家日本集团能够加大对科技和互联网创业型企业的投资。
The company has invested in taxi-hailing companies Ola in India and Didi Kuaidi in China. Most recently, it invested $250m in the talent and sports agency WME-IMG.
软银已投资印度Ola和中国滴滴快的(Didi Kuaidi)等叫车公司。最近，它还向经纪与体育赛事管理公司WME-IMG投资2.5亿美元。
Shares in SoftBank rose as much as 3.5 per cent on Wednesday morning in Tokyo while shares in Alibaba were down 2.9 per cent in after-hours trading in New York.
周三东京股市早盘，软银的股价一度上涨高达3.5%。阿里巴巴的股价则在纽约股市盘后交易中下跌2.9%。
