Indian-Style Mergers: Buy A Brand, Leave It Alone
2008年03月24日18:50
福特汽车(Ford Motor Co.)旗下的捷豹(Jaguar)和陆虎(Land Rover)两大品牌或许看上去会成为一场变革的刀下“鱼肉”。然而，估计将在接下来这周斥资20亿美元收购这两个品牌的印度塔塔汽车(Tata Motors Ltd.)实际上很可能会用不同的方式对待它们，那便是：原封不动。
Ford Motor Co.'s Jaguar and Land Rover brands might seem ripe candidates for a radical overhaul and a swift swing of the ax. Instead, India's Tata Motors Ltd., which is expected to formally agree to buy the brands in the coming week for $2 billion, likely will take a different approach: Do next to nothing.
塔塔汽车希望的不是从这两个长期亏损的品牌中榨取利润，而是利用这它们的管理团队和员工、吸取他们的经验，进而推动自己的汽车业务向国际扩张。
Rather than seeking to wring profits out of two luxury automotive brands that frequently have lost money, Tata is looking to learn from them to help launch its own global expansion in autos, using the brands' own management team and a full roster of employees.
塔塔汽车看中的是这两个品牌的经验、技术和销售网络。虽然它们一直受到制造成本高昂和其他问题困扰，但看上去塔塔汽车并未将短期损失放在心上。
Tata sees benefits from their knowledge, their technology and their sales networks. Although the brands have been plagued by high manufacturing costs and other difficulties, Tata doesn't seem concerned about short-term losses.
塔塔汽车最后可能会将捷豹和陆虎两个品牌引入印度，而对外出口自有品牌汽车。该公司期望，其自有品牌长期而言能创造利润。要知道，收购要比白手起家打造国际品牌更划算。这种策略在印度公司中间很常见。不过，这是头一次有印度公司打算将国内市场的快速增长力转化成向国际扩张的动力。这是一种正在形成的印度式的并购思路。
Eventually, it may bring Jaguars and Land Rovers to India and sell its own cars overseas, which the company hopes will translate into profits over the longer term. An acquisition is less expensive than creating a global brand from scratch. This approach is common for Indian companies that, for the first time, are seeking to translate fast growth at home into an international presence. It is coming to define mergers and acquisitions, Indian-style.
印度Essar Global Ltd.去年斥资17亿美元收购加拿大的Algoma Steel Inc.后保留了后者的管理层和供应商。Essar Global非但没有实施大裁员、将工作岗位转移到印度，反而给了他们提升。此外，Essar Global还向Algoma Steel派出不少董事去取经。
India's Essar Global Ltd. last year paid more than $1.7 billion to acquire Canada's Algoma Steel Inc. and kept its management and its suppliers. Far from laying off employees and sending their jobs to India, Essar gave them a raise. Meanwhile, it sent a few directors to Canada to learn from the company.
高科技和外包公司Infosys Technologies Ltd.设置了20亿美元收购专项资金，但只有在得到收购目标现有管理层欢迎并愿意合作的情况下才会出手。
Technology and outsourcing company Infosys Technologies Ltd. has $2 billion set aside for acquisitions, but will buy only when it is welcomed by, and can work with, the current management of targets.
印度最大的汽车零配件厂商Bharat Forge Ltd.在欧美进行了多宗小规模并购，但都没有对这些公司大动干戈。
Bharat Forge Ltd., one of India's largest auto-parts makers, has made many small acquisitions in the U.S. and Europe and done little to shake them up.
普华永道(PriceWaterhouseCoopers)咨询和税务全球执行合伙人吉恩?唐纳利(Gene Donnelly)表示，印度公司及其文化显示出一种不愿大动干戈的倾向性，若换作是一家西方公司，便会单刀直入的要求压缩成本。唐纳利曾为许多印度公司担任并购事务顾问。
'Indian companies and culture show a tendency not to come in and turn things upside down,' said Gene Donnelly, global managing partner for advisory and tax at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York, who has helped advise many India companies on how to deal with mergers and acquisitions. 'A Western acquirer goes in and says, 'I need to take costs out.''
印度的高科技巨擎维布络(Wipro Technologies)最近几年斥资逾10亿美元开展海外并购，他们希望自己的收购对象能“教”给他们一些东西，比如说如何了解当地文化、顾客的购买习惯以及员工对休假的期望等等。
Tech giant Wipro Technologies, which has spent more than $1 billion on overseas acquisitions in the past few years, looks in part to its new takeover targets to teach it things, like how to understand local culture, the buying habits of customers, or the expectations employees will have about vacation.
许多时候，维布络会安排被收购公司的经理们去管理旗下更大的部门。以提姆?马特拉克(Tim Matlack)为例，他原担任American Management Systems Inc.的能源和公用事业咨询业务经理，维布络于2001年收购了该公司，而如今他主管着维布络的全球咨询业务。
In many cases, managers later are given a larger part of the Wipro Ltd. unit to run. For example, Tim Matlack, who headed the energy and utilities consultancy business of American Management Systems Inc., which Wipro bought in 2001, now heads up Wipro Technologies' global consulting business.
维布络并购事务总监Lakshminarayana称，在公司看来，让原有团队继续管理业务无论从文化上、战略上、某些情况下还有技术上都非常重要。
'From our point of view, it's important; culturally, strategically, sometimes even technologically and of course, financially to get the team to continue to run that business,' said Lakshminarayana, chief strategy and M&A officer for Wipro Technologies (who goes by one name).
上图为Tata董事长和“人民汽车”Nano的合影；下图为Tata集团在孟买的总部大楼作为印度工业的王牌企业，活跃在国际并购市场的塔塔集团(Tata Group)在孕育这种并购理念方面所发挥的作用之大在印度市场无出其右者。身兼塔塔汽车和塔塔集团控股公司塔塔之子(Tata Sons Ltd.)董事长的拉坦?塔塔(Ratan Tata)最近接受专访时表示，我们在收购一家公司后会尽力让管理层维持原样，我们为自己能够激励管理层的能力感到自豪。
No company has played a greater role in crafting that approach to acquisitions than Tata Group, India's flagship industrial conglomerate and most active international acquirer. 'We have sought to keep management in place after we acquire a company,' Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors as well as Tata Sons Ltd., the holding company for the conglomerate, said in a recent interview. 'We pride ourselves on our ability to motivate management's plans.'
塔塔集团在国际上的第一次大规模收购发生在2000年，其旗下的Tata Tea Ltd.将英国最大的茶饮料品牌特立(Tetley Tea)收入囊中。
One of the first major international acquisitions by an Indian company was Tata Tea Ltd.'s takeover of one of the U.K.'s biggest tea brands, Tetley Tea, in 2000.
至今特立公司没有一位董事或高管被要求离开公司。而且，塔塔还向特立派出经理学习茶叶采购、品牌宣传和开辟新市场方面的知识和经验。至于Tata Tea，则向特立提供更多资金，协助后者通过自己的收购扩张业务。
To this day, no Tetley directors or senior management have been asked to leave. Tata, instead, has sent its managers to work for Tetley and learn about tea buying and branding and exporting to new markets. Tata Tea, for its part has invested more money in Tetley and helped it expand through its own acquisitions.
Tata Tea副董事长R. K.克利须纳?库马(R. K. Krishna Kumar)表示，专家告诉我们必须对收购的企业进行重新洗牌，但我们并没如此。可能有人会认为我们是在做蠢事。有时候，一场收购也会对收购方造成同样的影响。
'Experts say you have to slash, burn, cut and we have not. People might say that is foolish,' says R. K. Krishna Kumar, vice chairman of Tata Tea. 'Sometimes acquisitions should have an equivalent impact on the acquiring company.'
库马表示，Tata Tea从特立身上所学到了要保证产品质量统一这一点，并将之应用到所有的茶饮品牌身上。Tata Tea还协助特立品牌扩展新市场，例如邻国巴基斯坦和孟加拉国。
He says Tata Tea has applied what it learned from Tetley about making quality consistent for all its tea brands. It has also taken the Tetley brand to new markets, like neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh.
塔塔集团另一家子公司Tata Steel Ltd.去年斥资约120亿美元收购了英荷钢铁公司Corus Group PLC，并原封不动的保留了后者的管理团队和雇员。Tata Steel希望通过这笔交易学习优质钢材冶炼方法，来满足需求激增的印度汽车行业的需要。
Another Tata company, Tata Steel Ltd., bought the Anglo-Dutch steel company Corus Group PLC last year for around $12 billion, leaving its management team intact and retaining its employees. From the Corus deal, Tata Steel plans to learn about making higher-quality steel for the booming automotive industry in India.
然而，也有一些人对塔塔汽车能否消化这次收购表示怀疑。塔塔汽车是一家廉价汽车和卡车生产商，其产品包括单价2,500美元的“人民汽车”Nano。美国基金公司Cabot Money Management总裁兼首席投资长罗伯特?拉茨(Robert Lutts)表示，塔塔目前生产的汽车“基本上就是一大堆螺母螺钉”。拉茨是塔塔的投资者之一，目前管理着5亿美元的资产。
Still, some are skeptical about the latest potential acquisition by Tata Motors, maker of inexpensive cars and trucks, including the $2,500 'people's car' called the Nano. Tata's current vehicles are 'basic nuts and bolts,' says Robert Lutts, a Tata shareholder who manages about $500 million as president and chief investment officer at Cabot Money Management in Salem, Mass.
拉茨称，塔塔如果插手捷豹和陆虎，将有可能犯下大错......豪华车业务是块非常难啃的骨头。
'Once you get into Jaguar/Land Rover, you can make big mistakes . . . The luxury business is very fickle.'
左图为2008款捷豹 XJ； 右图为不过塔塔的并购理念让它在与私人股权收购公司竞购捷豹和陆虎时占了上风。英国工会Unite的管理人士罗杰?麦迪逊(Roger Maddison)表示，当他与其他工人代表了解到塔塔收购捷豹和陆虎的兴趣所在时，顿时松了一口气。
Tata Motors' approach gave it an edge over competing private-equity firms looking at Land Rover and Jaguar. Roger Maddison, an official with the U.K. trade union Unite, said that when he and other labor representatives first learned of Tata's interest in the auto brands, they were relieved.
工会要求塔塔保证不会通过从印度采购某些零配件的方式来削减成本。在英国，除了捷豹和陆虎直接雇佣的大约1.6万名工人外，另有多达4万名工人为这两个品牌的供应商工作。
The unions asked for assurances that Tata wouldn't cut costs in the U.K. by outsourcing assembly of certain components to India. As many as 40,000 jobs in the U.K. -- mainly in the supplier industry -- depend on the Jaguar and Land Rover brands. That doesn't include the roughly 16,000 people that Jaguar and Land Rover directly employ.
麦迪逊回忆起去年11月与塔塔汽车高管在伦敦的会面时称，我们当时直言不讳的问道：“很明显我们对你们在亚洲庞大的零配件基地感到担心，你们是否会从亚洲采购零配件运到英国来？”他们也直截了当的回答道：“绝不会。”
During a London meeting with Tata Motors executives in November, Mr. Maddison recalls, 'We came straight down and said 'We've obviously got fears that you've got a massive component base across Asia. Would it be your intention to source from Asia into the U.K.?' They hit it straight back and told us 'No way.''
麦迪逊表示，其他竞购捷豹和陆虎的私人股权投资公司也表示会尽量控制裁员规模。但塔塔汽车凭藉其过往历史赢得了工会的支持。
He said the other private-equity bidders also said they would try to limit layoffs, but the unions support Tata Motors because of its history.
Eric Bellman /Jackie Range
没有评论:
发表评论