中国金融机构海外并购热情上涨

China’s banks and insurers have more actively sought overseas assets in 2014 than at any time in the past decade, hinting at a new found confidence to look abroad among the country’s financial institutions.

2014年，中国的银行及保险公司在收购海外资产方面是过去十年内最为积极的，凸显中国金融机构对海外扩张越发自信。

Last week’s 379m purchase of Banco Espirito Santo’s investment bank by Haitong Securities took the 2014 deal tally to 30 and the sector’s combined spend to $4.8bn, according to Dealogic. While that remains just shy of 2013’s $5.1bn, itself the biggest year since the financial crisis, the number of deals has nearly doubled.

上周，海通证券(Haitong Securities)斥资3.79亿欧元，收购了葡萄牙圣灵银行(Banco Espirito Santo)的投资银行业务。至此，根据Dealogic的数据，2014年中国金融机构海外并购交易达到30宗，总投资额48亿美元。尽管并购金额依然略低于2013年的51亿美元（该年是金融危机以来此类并购规模最大的一年），交易宗数却将近翻了一番。

Alongside Haitong’s recent deal, notable bank transactions have included ICBC’s $765m purchase of a majority stake in Standard Bank’s London trading business, while China Construction Bank’s $730m purchase of a 72 per cent stake in Brazil’s BicBancoreceived regulatory approval.

除了海通证券近期的交易，值得注意的银行并购交易还包括：中国工商银行(ICBC)斥资7.65亿美元，收购了标准银行(Standard Bank)伦敦交易业务的多数股份；与此同时，中国建设银行(China Construction Bank)以7.3亿美元收购巴西工商银行(BicBanco)72%股份的交易也得到了监管机构的批准。

“What we’ve seen this year is some opportunistic seeking of footholds in new markets, beyond the traditional ‘comfort zone’ markets for investment such as North America, Europe and Australia,” said Colin Banfield, head of Asia M&A at Citigroup. “Brazil for one is clearly an emerging market where valuations have come down to more attractive levels during 2014.”

花旗集团(Citigroup)亚洲并购交易主管彭高年(Colin Banfield)表示：“今年以来，除了北美、欧洲及澳大利亚等传统的‘舒适区域’的投资市场，我们看到一些机构在新市场寻找立足机会。巴西明显就是一个估值在2014年跌落至更具吸引力水平的新兴市场。”

Individual deals are still dwarfed by financial crisis-era transactions, such as China’s purchase of a $5.6bn near 10 per cent stake in Morgan Stanley through its sovereign wealth fund in 2007 — the biggest Chinese outbound deal in the industry. But the smaller, more frequent deals highlight a growing dealmaking trend within Chinese institutions.

单笔交易规模仍低于金融危机时期，比如，2007年，中国通过主权财富基金，以56亿美元代价收购了摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)近10%的股份，这是中国在金融业领域迄今规模最大的海外并购。今年交易规模较小，但次数却更多，显然中国金融机构在海外并购方面越来越火热。

“They are not now taking down generally more than they can chew,” said Keith Pogson, head of the Asia financial services practice for EY. “If it is something larger, then they are typically taking a smaller stake, then sitting there long enough to understand it better.

安永(EY)亚洲金融服务业务主管包凯(Keith Pogson)表示：“如今它们不会收购超过它们消化能力的目标。如果收购的对象较为庞大，它们通常会收购少许股份，等候足够长的时间，以便更好地理解收购对象。”

“Banks are going in, bit by bit, and saying: ‘OK, we know there are things such as culture and management we need to understand, and if we go in there too strong, we could end up destroying value’,” added Mr Pogson.

包凯补充说：“银行正在一点一点地开展并购，并且说：‘没错，我们知道我们需要理解文化和管理方面的事情，如果我们动作太快，最终可能会损害估值。’”

China’s developing trade corridors have also become a focus for investment — helped by western banks’ decisions to pull back from some countries.

中国正在发展的贸易走廊也已成为投资的热点——西方银行决定从部分国家撤出，助长了这种现象。

“Those exits have left room for Chinese banks and others to come in,” said Chris Harvey, global head of Deloitte’s financial services team. “In trade financing it pays to get on both ends of a transaction, but you can’t do that unless you’ve got a presence in the receiving country, too.”

德勤(Deloitte)金融服务团队全球主管克里斯•哈维(Chris Harvey)表示：“西方银行的撤出，为中资银行及其他机构的进入留下了空间。在贸易融资领域，为交易双方提供服务会有很大好处。不过，如果你在贸易融资的接收国没有立足点，是无法做到这一点的。”

Portugal has been the biggest beneficiary of China’s spending this year. Dwarfing Haitong’s deal was Fosun’s $1.5bn purchase of the country’s largest insurance company, Caixa Seguros — one of a series of European transactions by Fosun, China’s largest privately-held conglomerate.

今年，葡萄牙是中国金融机构海外并购投资的最大接收国。其中，复星集团(Fosun)以15亿美元收购葡萄牙最大保换险公司Caixa Seguros的交易，令海通证券的收购交易也相形见绌。作为中国最大的民营集团，收购Caixa Seguros只是复星在欧洲一系列并购交易之一。