德國爲何擔憂中國美的(Midea)收購庫卡
At this year’s Hannover Messe, the world’s biggest industrial fair, it was one of the stars of the show: an elegant, ultra-sensitive robot known as an Iiwa that can pour a beer and brew a cup of coffee.
在今年的德國漢諾威工業博覽會(Hannover Messe)上，一大亮點是機器人“伊娃”(Iiwa)。她身姿優雅且超級靈敏，可以倒啤酒，還能衝咖啡。德國漢諾威工業博覽會是全球最大的工業博覽會。
Angela Merkel and Barack Obama, guests of honour on the Messe’s opening day, were intrigued. “Can it squeeze lemons?” the German chancellor asked.
作爲此次博覽會開幕當天的嘉賓，安格拉•默克爾(Angela Merkel)和巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)很感興趣。默克爾問：“它能榨檸檬汁嗎？”
The Iiwa — or intelligent industrial work assistant — is produced by Kuka, one of Germany’s most innovative engineering companies. But it will not be entirely German for long. Less than a month after the fair, a Chinese appliance-maker called Midea offered to buy Kuka for Euro4.5bn, in the largest ever Chinese takeover of a German company.
“伊娃”的全稱爲智能工業工作助理(intelligent industrial work assistant)，由德國最善於創新的工程公司之一庫卡(Kuka)製造。但過不了多久，該公司就將不完全是一家德國公司了。在此次工博會結束後不到一個月，中國家用電器生產商美的(Midea)提出以45億歐元收購庫卡，這是中國公司向德國公司發起的最大規模的收購。
The idea of a Chinese entity owning one of the nation’s great innovators is a cause for widespread angst in Germany. The hand-wringing started soon after Midea revealed its bid.
德國最善於創新的企業之一完全爲一家中國公司所有，這一前景讓德國民衆普遍感到擔憂。在美的公佈收購要約後，人們很快就開始不安起來。
“Kuka is a successful company in a strategic sector that is important for the digital future of European industry,” said Günther Oettinger, the EU’s digital commissioner and a close political ally of Ms Merkel. He called on other European companies to make a counter offer, but no one came forward. Midea announced on Monday that it now holds 94.55 per cent of Kuka’s shares.
歐盟數字專員、默克爾的親密政治盟友金特•厄廷格(Günther Oettinger)表示：“庫卡是一家成功的企業，它所處的戰略性行業對於歐洲工業的數字未來至關重要。”他呼籲其他歐洲公司發出反要約(counter offer)，但沒有一家企業這麼做。美的8月8日宣佈，目前持有庫卡94.55%的股份。
Even before the Kuka deal, Germany was becoming the top destination for Chinese investment in Europe. Transactions with a total value of $10.8bn were announced in the first half of this year, according to EY, the professional services firm — more than all previous years combined. Chinese investors acquired 37 German companies in that period, EY says — compared with 39 in the whole of 2015.
甚至在美的收購庫卡的交易之前，德國已成爲中國在歐洲投資的首選目的地。根據專業服務機構安永(EY)的數據，今年上半年宣佈的交易總額爲108億美元，超過之前所有年份的總和。安永表示，今年上半年，中國投資者收購了37家德國公司，而2015年全年的數字爲39家。
“In China, we have a lot of respect for German manufacturing excellence, their craftsmanship, their dedication to technology,” says Andy Gu, Midea’s vice-president. “There is lots of goodwill towards German brands, and that is also true in our organisation.”
“在中國，我們對德國製造業的高超水平、精湛的工藝、對科技的執着大爲敬佩，”美的副總裁顧炎民(Andy Gu)表示，“人們對德國品牌很有好感，我們公司也是如此。”
The range of targets has been wide. Last month, Osram , one of the most venerable names in German business, sold its lamp unit to a consortium led by Chinese LED specialist MLS for more than Euro400m. In February, Beijing Enterprises bought EEW, the German waste management company, for Euro1.44bn. Also this year, ChemChina agreed a Euro925m deal to buy German machinery maker KraussMaffei Group.
中國企業的收購目標非常廣泛。上月，德國商界最負盛名的品牌之一歐司朗(Osram)以逾4億歐元的價格，將其照明業務出售給由中國LED廠商木林森(MLS)牽頭的一個財團。今年2月，北京控股(Beijing Enterprises)以14.4億歐元收購德國垃圾能源公司EEW。同樣是今年，中國化工(ChemChina)同意以9.25億歐元收購德國機械製造商克勞斯瑪菲(KraussMaffei)。
Martin Reitz, chief executive of Rothschild Germany, says 35-40 per cent of German inbound investment in the first half of the year came from China. “We have several deals on the go with Chinese involvement right now,” he says.
羅斯柴爾德投行德國分公司(Rothschild Germany)的首席執行官馬丁•賴茨(Martin Reitz)表示，今年上半年德國獲得的外商投資有35%至40%來自中國。他表示：“我們現在有好幾筆正在進行的交易都有中國的參與。”
The pivot towards Germany “reflects [China’s] strategic plan to be much more focused on innovation, on high-tech brands, to enable them to shift to a more advanced industrial society”, he adds.
他補充稱，重心轉向德國“反映出（中國的）戰略計劃，即大大加強對創新和高科技品牌的關注，從而能夠向更先進的工業社會轉型”。
German technology firms are a key focus, but the Chinese net has widened to include everything from pharma and biotech companies to clinics and care homes. Meanwhile, “since the Brexit vote, several top managers in China are thinking about moving their European headquarters from Britain to Germany”, says Yi Sun, a partner at EY Germany.
德國科技公司是中國企業重點關注的領域，但中國的收購大網已擴大到無所不包——從製藥和生物科技公司，到診所和養老院。與此同時，安永德國公司合夥人孫軼表示，“自從英國脫歐公投以來，中國好幾家頂級資產管理公司都正考慮將其歐洲總部從英國遷到德國”。
Regulatory scrutiny
監管審查
Midea’s announcement of its offer for Kuka on May 18 rang alarm bells in the German political elite, given the company’s place at the heart of “Industrie 4.0” — Germany’s ambitious drive to link the real-life factory with the virtual world. The company is best-known for big industrial robots used to make things like cars and planes. But it is working on more intelligent machines that can send and receive data from the cloud and connect to the much-vaunted “internet of things”.
5月18日，美的宣佈對庫卡發出收購要約，這令德國政治精英感到警惕，因爲庫卡處於德國“工業4.0”宏偉計劃的核心，該計劃旨在將實體工廠與虛擬世界聯繫起來。庫卡的大型工業機器人最出名，這種機器人是用來製造汽車和飛機等產品的。但庫卡正致力於製造更智能的機器，可以從雲端收發數據並與大受吹捧的“物聯網”連接。
However, Chinese ownership of Kuka “could be problematic for customers that want to go into the cloud”, says Roland Klose, a business professor and board member of the DSW independent shareholders’ association. “Some of them worry about the security of sensitive industrial and corporate data if the owner of the company is Chinese.”
然而，商學教授、德國獨立股東協會DSW董事羅蘭•克洛澤(Roland Klose)表示，中國企業對庫卡的所有權“對那些想進入雲端的客戶可能會是個問題”。“如果庫卡的所有者變成中國人，一些客戶會擔心敏感工業和企業數據的安全性。”
Such concerns are not confined to Germany. Last month, British prime minister Theresa May delayed the final go-ahead for Hinkley Point C, a massive new nuclear plant backed by China General Nuclear Power Group, amid signs of a rethink on Chinese investment in the UK. Nick Timothy, her policy guru, wrote last year that China could use its stake in the British nuclear industry to engage in energy blackmail, threatening to turn off the power in the event of an international crisis.
這些擔憂並非德國獨有。上月，英國首相特里薩•梅(Theresa May)推遲了欣克利角C(Hinkley Point C)核電站的最終放行，這個大型新建核電站得到中國廣核集團(China General Nuclear Power Group)的投資；與此同時，有跡象表明英國正對中國投資進行重新評估。梅的政策專家尼克•蒂莫西(Nick Timothy)去年寫道，中國可能會利用其在英國核電行業的的持股做出能源訛詐之事，也就是在發生國際危機時威脅切斷電力供應。
Elsewhere, too, a number of Chinese deals targeting sensitive foreign assets have fallen foul of regulatory scrutiny, particularly from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US. In January CFIUS shot down Philips’ attempt to sell its lighting business to a Chinese-led consortium. In February, Tsinghua Unigroup withdrew from a $3.8bn investment in Western Digital after the deal was flagged for an investigation by CFIUS. ChemChina’s planned $44bn takeover of Swiss chemical group Syngenta is now also looking under pressure after the company was forced to refile its application to CFIUS in June.
在其他國家，很多中國收購外國敏感資產的交易都因監管審查而遭遇麻煩，特別是來自美國外國投資委員會(Committee on Foreign Investment)的審查。今年1月，該委員會否決了飛利浦(Philips)將其照明業務出售給一家由中國企業牽頭的財團的計劃。今年2月，清華紫光(Tsinghua Unigroup)撤銷了以38億美元投資西部數據(Western Digital)的交易，此前這筆交易接到美國外國投資委員會的調查通知。中國化工以440億美元收購瑞士化工集團先正達(Syngenta)的計劃現在看似也面臨壓力，此前在6月，中國化工被迫重新向美國外國投資委員會提交相關文件。
Mr Reitz says it is “legitimate” to think about what happens when you transfer control of high-tech companies like Kuka to the Chinese. “The more iconic a company, the more this will be debated,” he says. “But if you really want to be China’s strategic partner, you can’t try and stop these deals.”
賴茨表示，當你將庫卡這樣的高科技公司的控制權轉讓給中國人的時候，想想會發生什麼是“合情合理的”。他說：“一家公司越具有象徵意義，引起的爭議就會越大。但如果你真的想要成爲中國的戰略合作伙伴，你就不能試圖阻止這些交易。”
World’s largest robot market
全球最大的機器人市場
Founded by Josef Keller and Jakob Knappich in the Bavarian town of Augsburg in 1898, Kuka began life as a producer of acetylene gas for street lighting, and later branched out into welding machines. In 1973, it developed one of the world’s first industrial robots.
1898年，約瑟夫•凱勒(Josef Keller)和雅各布•克納皮克(Jakob Knappich)在巴伐利亞州的奧格斯堡創立庫卡。這家公司最初生產街道照明用的乙炔氣體，後來將業務拓展至焊接機領域。1973年，庫卡開發出一臺工業機器人，是全球首批工業機器人之一。
Midea’s relationship with Kuka goes back years. The company has installed about 100 Kuka robots in its factories, producing everything from vacuum cleaners to washing machines. Last year, Midea acquired a small stake in the German company, building it up to 13 per cent by this spring. Then in May, it unveiled a tender offer for all the remaining stock, offering Euro115 per share — a chunky 36 per cent premium to the previous day’s closing share price.
美的與庫卡的關係可追溯到數年前。美的在自己的工廠安裝了大約100臺庫卡機器人，生產從吸塵器到洗衣機的各種產品。去年，美的收購了庫卡的少量股權，到今年春季其持股增至13%。隨後在今年5月，美的披露對庫卡所有剩餘股份發起要約收購，出價每股115歐元，較該公司股票前一天收盤價足足溢價36%。
Midea says it saw a chance to help expand Kuka’s presence in its home market. Most Chinese factories are not automated: the country had just 36 robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers in 2014. In contrast, average robot density is 85 in Europe and 79 in the Americas.
美的表示，它看到了幫助庫卡擴大中國市場業務的機會。大多數中國工廠沒有實現自動化：2014年，中國的機器人密度爲36（每1萬名製造業工人有36臺機器人）。相比之下，歐洲和美國的平均機器人密度分別是85和79。
But as it moves away from heavy industries towards a more consumer-driven economy, China intends to become one of the world’s top 10 automated nations. By 2020, it plans to have 150 units per 10,000 workers, Wang Ruixiang, president of the China Machinery Industry Federation, said last month.
但在從重工業轉向消費驅動型經濟之際，中國打算成爲全球前十大自動化國家之一。中國機械工業聯合會(China Machinery Industry Federation)會長王瑞祥上月表示，到2020年，中國計劃將機器人密度提高至150。
“China is becoming the largest robotics market in the world, [and] we want to capture that growth potential,” says Midea’s Mr Gu. “There’s demand not just from us, but from all industries.”
美的副總裁顧炎民表示：“中國正成爲全球最大的機器人市場，（而）我們希望抓住這種增長潛力。需求不僅來自我們，而且還來自各個行業。”
Kuka is already big in China, with 15 per cent of the market, but it wants to be even bigger and having Midea as its owner will help.
庫卡已經在中國佔據了15%的市場份額，但它還希望佔據更多市場份額，美的成爲它的東家將會有助於它實現目標。
“Midea has a clear picture of how Kuka will benefit from the Chinese market,” says Till Reuter, Kuka’s chief executive. But the reaction from Kuka’s workforce to the offer was one of shock.
庫卡首席執行官蒂爾•羅伊特(Till Reuter)表示：“美的清晰地描繪了庫卡將如何受益於中國市場。”但庫卡員工對此次收購的反應是震驚。
“Anyone who hears China and Chinese investments being mentioned initially takes fright,” says Armin Kolb, the workers’ representative on Kuka’s supervisory board. “I’d be lying if I said everyone kept calm and everything proceeded as normal.”
庫卡監事會的員工代表阿明•科爾布(Armin Kolb)表示：“任何人最初聽到提及中國和中國人投資時都大吃一驚。如果我說所有人都很平靜，一切照常，那我就是在撒謊。”
The political reaction was just as negative. Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s deputy chancellor, said it would be “appropriate if there was at least one alternative offer from Germany or Europe”.
政治上的反應同樣負面。德國副總理西格馬爾•加布里爾(Sigmar Gabriel)表示，“如果至少有一個來自德國或歐洲的替代報價，那還較爲妥當”。
Ms Merkel, who happened to be on a trip to China with a delegation of German businessmen, also reportedly expressed her concern. A key source of irritation in Berlin is that such a deal would be impossible in China, which in many industries restricts foreign companies to joint ventures. “We expect reciprocity on the Chinese side too,” she told officials during the trip.
有報道稱，正好帶着一個德國商務代表團在訪華的默克爾也表達了擔憂。在柏林，令人們不滿的一個關鍵因素是，此類交易在中國是不可能發生的——中國在許多行業限制外國公司與中國公司合資經營。默克爾在訪華期間向官員們表示：“我們希望中方也能給予我們同等待遇。”
Yet there was no way her government could block the deal. Ministers can only intervene to prevent a takeover by a non-EU investor when it involves “strategic” infrastructure such as energy networks, or defence companies. Kuka does not qualify.
然而，默克爾政府沒有能夠阻止該交易的手段。部長們只有在涉及能源網絡等“戰略性”基礎設施或防務公司的時候，才能出手阻止一家非歐盟投資者的收購。庫卡不在此列。
Mr Reuter spoke to other potential bidders, while continuing to negotiate with Midea’s boss Paul Fang. There were hopes that the Swiss engineering group ABB might step in. Friedhelm Loh, a German industrialist who owned 10 per cent of Kuka, was also approached, but said in June that he could not afford to buy the whole company. “Lots of names were floated, but were they prepared to do something?” says Mr Reuter. “We had one offer on the table.”
羅伊特接洽了其他潛在競購者，同時繼續與美的老闆方洪波(Paul Fang)談判。此前人們曾寄望於瑞士工程集團ABB可能參與競購。羅伊特還與持有庫卡10%股份的德國工業家弗裏德黑爾姆•洛(Friedhelm Loh)進行了接洽，但後者在今年6月表示，他可能買不起整家公司。羅伊特表示：“許多名字我們都考慮過了，但他們打算做什麼嗎？我們有一份要約擺在面前。”
Midea was surprised by the backlash. “We didn’t expect such a high level of negative comments,” says Mr Gu. “But you have to accept that there are certain fears in Germany and so you must thoroughly explain the rationale of the deal.”
美的對這種反彈感到意外。顧炎民表示：“我們沒有預料到有這麼高層次的負面評論。但你必須接受這一事實，即在德國存在一些擔憂，因此你必須充分解釋這筆交易的理由。”
Much of the anger at the Chinese bid was directed at Mr Reuter. Mr Loh and another big shareholder, the German engineering group Voith, both criticised him for publicly supporting the offer. In the end, though, both sold their stakes.
對中國這筆收購要約的怒氣有許多撒到了羅伊特身上。洛和另一個大股東——德國製造商福伊特(Voith)——都因羅伊特公開支持中國的收購要約而指責他。然而，到頭來，他們都賣掉了自己的股份。
