中国汽车业海外并购雷声大雨点小

Stalled: The Great Chinese Car Industry Merger Binge

中国汽车业海外并购雷声大雨点小

To go by a spate of recent rumors and reports, China is on the verge of a slew of deal in the global auto industry. But beleaguered car companies in the U.S. and Europe ─ as well as their investors ─ might not want to hold their breath in anticipation of every purported deal that’s mentioned.

近期有关中国可能将在全球汽车业进行一系列并购交易的传言和报导沸沸扬扬。但陷入困境的欧美汽车公司以及它们的投资者美国和欧洲可能没有必要对提到的每个潜在交易抱太大希望。

The latest notion to surface, and to be quickly denied, is that Beijing Automotive Industry is interested in buying vehicle and engine manufacturing facilities from Chrysler. That follows reports last week that Sichuan Auto, a tiny car-and-bus maker in China’s southwest, was in talks to buy General Motors’ Hummer line ─ a report that was also quickly denied. And earlier this month, Geely Automobile Holdings denied that it was in talks to buy Ford Motor’s Volvo brand.

最新一个传闻（但迅速遭到否认）是北汽控股(Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings)有意收购克莱斯勒的汽车和发动机生产设施。此前，上周有报导说生产轿车和客车的小厂四川汽车工业集团(Sichuan Auto)正在同通用汽车(General Motors)商谈收购旗下悍马(Hummer)品牌的事宜──这条报导也迅速遭到否认。本月初，吉利汽车(Geely Automobile Holdings)也否认，它正在与福特汽车(Ford Motor)就收购其旗下沃尔沃(Volvo)品牌进行谈判。

Some of these deals, or others, may yet happen. With its recent flurry of multi-billion-dollar natural resources investments, China Inc. has shown what it can do when it decides to make a global move in a sector. Even if Geely wasn’t in talks with Ford as of early February, Chinese car makers are thought to be among the serious candidates to take over Volvo.

不过，这里提到或未提到的一些交易可能达成。随着近期价值数十亿美元的一系列对自然资源的投资，中国企业已表现出能够在认为有必要的情况下对全球某一领域采取行动。即使在2月初时吉利未同福特汽车进行谈判，但中国汽车制造商也被认为是收购沃尔沃的重要候选人。

At least one small deal has already happened, albeit not as expected. Chinese engine maker Weichai Power, which last week denied rumors it would acquire a GM plant in France, announced Monday that it had reached a deal (Chinese PDF) to pay 2.99 million euros for Moteurs Baudouin SA, a French diesel engine and gearbox maker.

至少一项规模较小的交易已经达成，尽管同外界的预期相比可能有所差距。中国发动机制造商潍柴动力(Weichai Power)周一宣布，已经达成以299万欧元收购法国柴油发动机和变速箱制造商Moteurs Baudouin SA的协议。上周，潍柴动力曾否认将收购通用汽车在法国一处工厂的传言。

Still, there are reasons to be skeptical of at least some of these supposed tie-ups. China’s government is pushing clean-energy technology in its auto industry, so it’s hard to see why Beijing would support the purchase of the gas-guzzling Hummer line, for instance. And China’s auto makers, though generally in better shape than their U.S. counterparts, are facing their own relatively tough times . Given the tremendous uncertainty of foreign car markets, they might prefer to focus on consolidating their positions at home.

不过，我们有理由对其中至少一些收购传言表示怀疑。比如，中国政府正在汽车业中推广清洁能源技术，因此很难理解北京有何理由支持购买耗油巨大的悍马生产线。而且，尽管状况要普遍好于美国同行，但中国的汽车制造商自己的日子也不好过。鉴于海外汽车市场巨大的不确定性，它们可能更愿意将重点放在巩固在国内的市场上面。

Jason Dean

http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20090225/chj145044.asp