西方銀行爭搶“一帶一路”蛋糕

Their political leaders may be refusing to endorse China’s Belt and Road Initiative, but British and US banks are still rushing to seize opportunities thrown up by Beijing’s vast investment in the “new silk road” trade corridors spanning 65 countries.

西方政治領導人或許仍拒絕支持中國的“一帶一路”倡議(BRI)，但英美銀行急於抓住北京方面大舉投資覆蓋65個國家的“新絲綢之路”貿易走廊所帶來的機遇。

The hundreds of billions of dollars China has committed to trade and infrastructure projects across much of central and south-east Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa has whetted the appetite of big western banks with operations in those areas, such as Citigroup, HSBC and Standard Chartered.

中國承諾在中亞和東南亞、中東、歐洲和非洲大片地區的貿易和基建項目上投入的數千億美元，激起了花旗集團(Citigroup)、匯豐(HSBC)、渣打(Standard Chartered)等在這些地區有業務的大型西方銀行的興趣。

“It’s huge — the private sector capital that comes in afterwards will be really impactful, assuming it all happens,” says Bill Winters, chief executive of Standard Chartered. “Our job is to try and pull the different pieces together, because there will be some local financing that is required as well.”

“（機會）巨大——如果一切按計劃實現的話，隨之而來的私人部門資本將非常有影響力，”渣打行政總裁溫拓思(Bill Winters)說，“我們的工作就是嘗試穿針引線，把不同的碎片湊成一塊拼圖，因爲還必須有一些當地的融資。”

The big banks have held conferences on BRI, appointed senior bankers to champion their role in the initiative and set up committees to co-ordinate their approaches across different business activities. They say these efforts are bearing fruit, listing dozens of financing deals they have won that are related in some way to the project.

這些大型銀行舉行了關於“一帶一路”的會議，任命資深銀行家爲他們在這項倡議中爭取有利角色，還設立了委員會來協調跨越不同業務活動的戰略。他們表示這些努力正在取得成果，並列出了已經贏得的與“一帶一路”多少相關的數十項融資交易。

Gerry Keefe, head of corporate banking in Asia-Pacific at Citigroup, says: “Our multinational clients — both from the US and in Asia — see the Belt and Road Initiative as a generational opportunity to expand the scale and reach of their businesses.”

花旗亞太區企業銀行業務主管傑瑞?基夫(Gerry Keefe)表示：“我行的跨國客戶——無論是來自美國還是在亞洲——都把‘一帶一路’倡議視爲一代人難遇的良機，能夠擴大業務規模和觸角範圍。”

Despite their public enthusiasm, however, nagging doubts exist among western bankers about whether BRI will provide the instant bonanza that some may have initially hoped.

然而，儘管西方銀行家們在公開場合熱情高漲，但對於“一帶一路”能否像某些人最初希望的那樣立即帶來效益，他們仍心存疑慮。

Their position is undermined by the ambivalence of their own governments towards the initiative. Theresa May refused to give written support to the project during the UK prime minister’s trip to China last month, while the US has viewed it with suspicion, particularly since president Donald Trump’s designation of China as a “strategic competitor”.

他們的地位被本國政府對這一倡議的矛盾態度削弱。英國首相特里薩?梅(Theresa May)上月訪華期間拒絕簽署支持“一帶一路”倡議的諒解備忘錄，美國則對該倡議持懷疑態度，尤其是因爲唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)總統將中國列爲“戰略競爭對手”。

The vagueness of the project invites scepticism. “It is pretty broad: based on what Beijing has put out it covers half the world,” says another western banker. “It is just part of China’s outbound policy. I don’t know any BRI bankers. I don’t even know what they are.”

“一帶一路”倡議的模糊性使其招致懷疑。“它相當寬泛：基於中國政府所發佈的內容，它覆蓋了半個地球，”另一位西方銀行家表示，“它只是中國走出去政策的一部分。我不認識任何‘一帶一路’銀行家。我甚至不知道他們是什麼。”

Western banking executives also say they are leaving the big state-sponsored infrastructure projects to local banks and development finance institutions. Instead they are focused on picking up ancillary business, such as providing foreign exchange, trade finance, interest rate swaps, or cash management to the multinational companies that work on projects.

西方銀行業高管還表示，他們把國家支持的大型基建項目留給本地銀行和發展金融機構，自己聚焦於爭取配套業務，比如向從事“一帶一路”項目的跨國公司提供外匯兌換、貿易融資、利率互換或現金管理等服務。

Citigroup has led large bond issues for Bank of China and Beijing Gas to finance their BRI plans. It has also won cash management and foreign exchange hedging contracts for several Fortune 500 companies operating on BRI projects.

花旗集團牽頭安排了中國銀行(Bank of China)和北京燃氣(Beijing Gas)的大宗債券發行工作，爲它們參與的“一帶一路”項目融資。花旗還獲得了多家參與“一帶一路”項目的《財富》(Fortune) 500強公司的現金管理業務和外匯對衝合約。

StanChart is set to highlight its strong position for BRI business when it reports annual results on Tuesday as this is a key part of its plan to generate the revenue growth necessary to achieve its target of making a return on equity above 10 per cent.

渣打在本週二報告年度業績時，將着重介紹該行在“一帶一路”相關業務上的強大地位。這些業務是該行營收增長計劃的關鍵部分，目標是實現10%以上的股本回報率。

The bank lists 20 financing deals it has won in the past four years that are linked to BRI. These include a $515m project financing for a power plant in Zambia that was guaranteed by China; a $200m loan for a Bangladesh electricity plant being built by a Chinese consortium; and a $42m export credit facility for a Sri Lanka gas terminal that was guaranteed by China.

渣打列出了過去4年期間贏得的與“一帶一路”相關的20筆融資交易。這些交易包括爲贊比亞一家發電廠提供的5.15億美元項目融資（中國提供擔保）；爲一箇中國財團承建的一家孟加拉國發電廠提供2億美元項目貸款；爲斯里蘭卡一個天然氣碼頭提供4200萬美元出口信貸安排（中國提供擔保）。

But Ben Hung, head of Greater China and North Asia at StanChart, says investors will need to be patient. “You have to look at it in a 10 to 20-year horizon — things won’t happen in one or two years,” he says.

渣打銀行大中華及北亞地區主管洪丕正(Benjamin Hung)表示，投資者將需要耐心等待。他說，“你必須用10到20年的長遠眼光來看待——不是一兩年內就會出結果。”

“People excessively focus on whether there needs to be project financing, but in reality there is a lot of that and bit by bit, step by step, guarantees, FX, escrow accounts, etc — all those things — are very important to these Chinese players.”

“人們念念不忘是否需要項目融資，但現實是有很大需求；一點一點，一步一步，擔保、外匯、託管賬戶等所有這一切對這些中國參與者都非常重要。”