低調打造商業帝國的袁亞非

Yuan Yafei may be one of China’s richest men, but before his bid for House of Fraser, few in his own country had heard much about him.

袁亞非或許是中國最富有的人之一，但在競購House of Fraser之前，他在自己的祖國鮮爲人知。

The 49-year-old entrepreneur served as a local government official in Nanjing, the former Chinese capital, from 1988 to 1993, before founding Sanpower Group, which controls Nanjing Xinjiekou, one of China’s oldest department stores.

1988年至1993年，這位現年49歲的企業家曾是中國故都南京的一名地方政府官員。後來，他創建了三胞集團(Sanpower Group)，該集團控股着中國老牌百貨商店——南京新街口百貨。

Sanpower, which according to its website has more than 100 subsidiaries and employs 60,000 people across a range of industries, including retail, technology and real estate with assets worth almost $5bn, is not a major player in China.

三胞集團網站顯示，集團旗下擁有超過100家獨資或控股企業，員工總數超過6萬人，經營範圍橫跨零售、科技、房地產等一系列行業，資產價值近50億美元。但該集團在中國算不上什麼名頭特別響的企業。

Chinese media has not written much about Mr Yuan. And two senior Hong Kong-based executives involved in the Chinese real estate market told the Financial Times last week that they had never heard of Sanpower.

中國媒體對袁亞非報道不多。兩名駐香港的涉足中國房地產市場的資深高管上週向英國《金融時報》表示，他們從未聽說過三胞集團。

Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of the Hurun Report which ranks Mr Yuan as the joint 92nd wealthiest person in China, said the tycoon has stayed under the radar as he quietly builds his business.

胡潤百富榜(Hurun Report)創始人胡潤(Rupert Hoogewerf)表示，袁亞非一直在悄悄地拓展自己的業務，沒有引起太多的關注。在胡潤百富榜上，袁亞非與他人並列第92位。

“He has been quite an important entrepreneur,” Mr Hoogewerf said. “He is one of those entrepreneurs who has been around but has never courted the media.”

“他一直是位相當重要的企業家。”胡潤說，“他是那種資歷很深、但從不討好媒體的企業家。”

A retired foreign diplomat described Mr Yuan, who speaks little English, as “very forthcoming, very open” and said he was a “bright leader” who had amassed an impressive collection of Chinese art, which is housed in his office in Nanjing.

一名已退休的外國外交官稱，不會說多少英語的袁亞非“非常坦率、非常直爽”，是位“聰明的企業領導人”，他在自己位於南京的辦公室裏收藏了許多中國藝術品，令人印象深刻。

Another person said Mr Yuan was a “classic Chinese entrepreneur”, a very self-confident man who employed a Chinese hierarchical management style and was very involved in all the details of his businesses.

另一名人士稱，袁亞非是“典型的中國企業家”，非常自信，奉行的是中式管理風格，講究層級，對各類業務事必躬親。

He said Mr Yuan was also similar to other Chinese entrepreneurs who put a lot of emphasis on growth, and are expanding rapidly across many industries.

他表示，袁亞非像其他中國企業家一樣，非常重視增長，眼下正在許多行業迅速擴張。

“They are flying to the moon,” the person said. [Will they get there?] No, but they will have a great ride.”

“他們正在‘奔向月亮’。”這名人士說。“（他們會到達目的地嗎？）不會，但他們會做一個很大的跳躍。”

Along with many Chinese tycoons, Mr Yuan is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the main advisory body to the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber stamp parliament.

與中國許多企業大亨一樣，袁亞非也是中國政協委員。政協是向中國橡皮圖章式國會——全國人大——提供建議的主要機構。

Following the announcement of the House of Fraser deal on Friday, Chinese media group 21st Century Business Herald said Mr Yuan had privately told people that the negotiations had gone through a number of twists and turns over several months because some of the shareholders were “conservative”.

在上週五有關House of Fraser交易的消息傳出之後，中國報紙《21世紀經濟報道》稱，袁亞非在私下談論時說，個別股東觀念“保守”，令（這幾個月的）交易過程一波三折。

“The situation was really stressful at the time. Whenever I got unfavourable news, I could barely sleep for 20 hours,” the media outlet cited Mr Yuan as saying.

該報援引袁亞非的話稱：“當時情況很緊張。傳來不利的消息後，我連續20多個小時沒合過眼。”