中國工商銀行海外收購步伐謹慎大綱

When Industrial and Commercial Bank of Chinabought Bank of East Asia's US arm last month, the deal demonstrated how the world's biggest bank by market value approaches foreign acquisitions.

中國工商銀行(ICBC)上月收購了東亞銀行(Bank of East Asia)的美國子公司。這筆交易從一個側面展現出了這家按市值計算全球第一大銀行的海外收購模式。

It is a conservative "follow the money" strategy: ICBC is trailing, not leading, the rest of China Inc.

這是一種保守的“追隨資金流動”策略：工行選擇跟隨而非引領其他中資企業的海外擴張。

China's petrochemical, mining and industrial giants have been aggressive in recent years in buying resources around the world and making strategic investments, from deepwater oil assets in Brazil to iron ore mines in Australia.

近年來，中國的石化、礦業和製造業巨頭們在世界各地積極進行資源收購和戰略投資，從巴西的深海石油資產到澳大利亞的鐵礦石開採都有涉獵。

China's banks, by contrast, have been far more reserved. ICBC has been the boldest in expanding abroad. Yet its acquisitions have all been bite-sized, such that its non-China holdings account for less than 5 per cent of its overall revenues.

相比之下，中國銀行業對海外擴張的態度非常保守。工行已經是其中最爲大膽的了。但工行的海外收購規模一直較小，其非本土業務的營收僅佔該行總營收的5%。

Critics say that ICBC has been cautious to a fault, missing some potentially good opportunities. But Chinese investors were burned by a couple of mega-deals before the financial crisis (the sovereign wealth fund invested in Morgan Stanley and Blackstone just months before their stock prices plummeted), and neither banks nor regulators have any appetite for risky acquisitions.

批評人士指出，工行謹慎過度，錯失了一些有潛力的優秀投資機會。但中國投資者從金融危機前進行的數筆鉅額海外投資中汲取了慘痛教訓(中國主權財富基金對摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)和黑石(Blackstone)投資後僅數月，兩者股價即大幅跳水)，現在無論是銀行自身還是監管當局對於有一定風險的收購機會都提不起興趣。

If the size of ICBC's foreign forays have been small, the pace at which it has completed acquisitions and the global spread of these deals have been far more impressive. Over the past two years it has bought banks in Argentina, Thailand and Canada.

雖然工行的海外投資規模一直較小，但其完成收購的速度以及收購標的全球分佈的地域廣度令人印象深刻。近兩年中，工行已收購了阿根廷、泰國和加拿大等地的數家銀行。

ICBC's game plan has been straightforward. It wants to establish a footprint wherever Chinese companies are most active, hence its focus on resource-rich countries and southeast Asia, China's near abroad.

工行的發展計劃非常明確。該行希望自身業務網絡能夠覆蓋到中國企業較爲活躍的所有地區，因此將海外擴張的重點放在了資源密集型國家以及臨近中國的東南亞地區。

The deal for Bank of East Asia's US operation was, in one respect, groundbreaking: it was the first time that a Chinese bank had acquired full control of a US bank.

工行收購東亞銀行美國子公司具有突破性意義：這是中資銀行首次獲得一家美國銀行的控股權。

But on a strategic level, it was consistent with ICBC's previous deals. First, it was an ultra-cautious move. Bank of East Asia US had just $780m in assets, pocket change for ICBC.

但該交易在戰略層面與工行此前的收購是一致的。首先，交易本身極爲謹慎。東亞銀行美國子公司的資產規模僅爲7.8億美元，對於工行來說這不過是九牛一毛。

Second, the move into the US was a simple reflection of the fact that more and more Chinese companies are operating there and they want to be served by their own bank. In explaining its rationale, ICBC said that it was already serving large corporate clients in the US and that the acquisition would give it "an entry into the middle and small business lending markets".

其次，工行進軍美國是爲了應對越來越多的中國企業赴美開展業務並希望繼續得到本國銀行服務的發展趨勢。工行對收購原因的解釋是，該行已在美國面向大型企業客戶提供服務，此次收購使其“得以進入美國中小企業貸款市場”。

Because they are expanding abroad so slowly, Chinese banks do not pose any sort of competitive threat to the Citigroups or JPMorgans of this world for the time being. Yet in following the money, ICBC and its peers are, little by little, turning themselves into institutions with true global reach.

由於海外擴張速度較慢，中資銀行短期內不會對花旗集團(Citigroup)、摩根大通(JPMorgan)等國際銀行巨頭構成任何競爭威脅。但通過跟隨資金流動的策略，以工行爲代表的中資銀行正一點一滴地向真正意義上的全球化金融機構轉型。