阿里巴巴招股書未解之疑 迷霧迭起

As Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. prepares for what might be one of the biggest initial public offerings in history, it faces the challenge of convincing investors it will be a good buy.

阿里巴巴集團(Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.)正在爲首次公開募股(IPO)計劃做準備，這可能成爲史上規模最大的IPO之一，不過該公司也面臨一個挑戰：如何讓投資者相信這是一筆有“錢途”的投資。

Some may need more prodding.

部分投資者可能還需要更多理由。

A number of investors and analysts said Wednesday that the more than 2,000 pages the Chinese e-commerce giant filed Tuesday leave many important questions unanswered. They include the individual performance of the major e-commerce platforms that make up the bulk of its revenue, details of the business of electronic-payment affiliate Alipay, its strategy for a string of pricey recent acquisitions, and plans for improving the way it delivers packages to Chinese customers.

一些投資者和分析師週三稱，在阿里巴巴週二提交的超過2,000頁的IPO申請文件裏，有許多重要問題沒有得到解答。這些問題包括：作爲該公司主要收入來源的幾大電子商務平臺的單獨業績數據；提供電子支付服務的關聯公司支付寶(Alipay)的具體業務內容是什麼；近期高價收購的一系列資產的經營策略是什麼；改善向中國客戶包裹投遞方式的計劃是什麼等。

Many investors are eagerly anticipating the offering because Alibaba holds an 80% share in the promising Chinese e-commerce market. The financial results disclosed Tuesday showed a fast-growing company with fat profit margins.

許多投資者正熱切期盼着阿里巴巴的IPO交易，因爲該公司在前景光明的中國電子商務市場的份額高達80%。從阿里巴巴週二公佈的財報中可以看出，這家增長迅速的公司擁有非常高的利潤率。

Still, the offering comes only a year after U.S.-traded Chinese Internet stocks recovered from a long slump prompted by a string of accounting scandals and worries about adequate disclosure.

然而阿里巴巴計劃進行IPO的時機也許不夠好。此前，因一系列會計醜聞和信息披露不充分等問題，在美國上市的中資互聯網公司的股價曾出現大幅下跌，目前距離這些公司的股價擺脫跌勢僅過去一年時間。

'I think there are a lot of holes that haven't been filled,' said Forrester analyst Kelland Willis. 'People in the West have suspicions about the way Chinese companies are operating, and they're going to want to know specific numbers and details about Alibaba's books.'

福里斯特研究公司(Forrester)分析師威利斯(Kelland Willis)稱，有很多問題還沒有得到解答，西方投資者對於中資公司的運營方式抱有疑問，他們希望瞭解阿里巴巴賬簿裏的具體數字和詳細內容。

Alibaba has time to explain more. The e-commerce giant--which valued itself at $109 billion in April and could fetch a valuation as high as $250 billion--is set to go on a long roadshow ahead of the listing expected late in the summer, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is also likely to file further amendments to its initial filing, those people say.

阿里巴巴有時間作出更多解釋。這家電子商務巨頭在4月份時將自身估價爲1,090億美元，上市後估值更可能高達2,500億美元。據知情人士透露，阿里巴巴預計將在夏末上市，此前公司將進行較長時間的巡迴推介。他們表示，阿里巴巴還可能進一步修改初步文件。

Though skepticism has abated since last year, many U.S.-listed Chinese companies still face investor worries about transparency. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has raised questions about the accounting of more than 130 such companies in recent years. The Chinese affiliates of the Big Four accounting firms are appealing a U.S. court ruling that suspended them from auditing U.S.-traded clients for six months. The ruling was part of a broader dispute between Washington and Beijing about U.S. regulators' access to documents related to Chinese audit clients.

雖然公衆的疑慮自去年以來有所減輕，但是許多在美上市的中國公司仍然面臨投資者對於公司透明度的擔憂。美國證券交易委員會(U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 簡稱：SEC)近年來對130多家中國公司的會計問題提出了質疑。四大會計師事務所的中國分支公司正針對美國一法院的裁決提起上訴，該法院裁決這些分支公司暫停在美上市企業審計業務六個月時間。美中之間在美國監管機構獲得中國審計客戶相關文件方面存在廣泛爭議，該裁決屬於爭議的一部分。

Alibaba's structure also raises the bar on disclosure, some investors say. Though company founder Jack Ma owns fewer shares than major shareholders SoftBank Corp. or Yahoo Inc., he and a group of 28 partners can nominate a majority of directors. The filing doesn't name the partners, who it said are members of the management of Alibaba or related companies.

一些投資者稱，阿里巴巴的結構也提高了披露門檻。雖然公司創始人馬雲(Jack Ma)的持股比例低於主要股東軟銀股份有限公司(SoftBank Co.)或雅虎公司(Yahoo Inc.)，然而他和28位合夥人有權提名多數董事。文件沒有披露這些合夥人的名字，只表示他們是公司管理層或來自關聯及下屬公司。

Company executives also control Alipay, which it describes as important to its operations, but Alibaba itself doesn't own a stake. The filing didn't disclose Alipay's financial results.

公司管理團隊也控制着支付寶，但阿里巴巴本身並不持有股權；阿里巴巴認爲支付寶對公司業務非常重要。文件沒有披露支付寶的財務業績。

The filing said the system is designed to preserve 'the culture shaped by [Alibaba] founders while at the same time accounting for the fact that founders will inevitably retire from the company.'

文件稱，合夥人制度是爲了保持阿里巴巴創始人形成的文化，同時也考慮到創始人最終不可避免要退休的事實。

The scant details raise transparency concerns because Alibaba's structure 'still concentrates power into a few hands,' said Tony Hsu, a Shanghai-based portfolio manager for U.S. hedge fund Dalton Investments. He said he likes its long-term prospects, but added, 'it's a little surprising for a business of this scale not to provide more granular data.'

美國對衝基金Dalton Investments駐上海的投資組合經理Tony Hsu表示，具體內容缺乏引發了人們對公司透明度的擔憂，因爲阿里巴巴的管理權仍然集中在少數人手中。他說，他看好公司的長期前景，但他補充說，對一個如此規模的公司而言，沒有提供更具體數據有些令人意外。

Alibaba's main businesses are its Chinese online shopping sites, Taobao and Tmall. But the company didn't break out individual performance figures for the two, instead lumping them with a third, smaller platform in a business category it calls 'China commerce' that makes up more than four-fifths of its revenue. For the nine months ended Dec. 31, the combined business posted revenue of 35.17 billion yuan ($5.64 billion), up 60% from the year-earlier period.

阿里巴巴的主要業務是兩個購物網站：淘寶和天貓。但該公司並未分開列明這兩個網站的業績數據，而是將這兩家網站的業績與第三個更小的平臺一道放在被該公司稱爲“中國商務”的業務類別中，該類別佔該公司總收入逾五分之四。截至2013年12月31日的9個月中，該合併業務實現收入人民幣351.7億元（合56.4億美元），較上年同期增長60%。

Overall, Alibaba reported net income of 17.71 billion yuan, more than four times the level of a year earlier, on total revenue of 40.47 billion yuan.

這一時期內，阿里巴巴共實現淨利潤人民幣177.1億元，較上年同期增長逾三倍；同期共實現收入人民幣404.7億元。

'What you want to see is some financial metrics on Tmall vs. Taobao vs. Alipay,' said Grace Su, senior research analyst at ClearBridge Investments, which oversees $94.8 billion.

ClearBridge Investments高級研究分析師Grace Su稱，投資者希望看到的是天貓、淘寶和支付寶各自的財務數據。

In its filing, Alibaba said it wanted to avoid putting targets on specific business units to encourage cooperation.

阿里巴巴在上市文件中稱，公司希望避免爲各個業務部門設定目標，以此來鼓勵合作。

Many investors said they weren't concerned, given Alibaba's presence as the dominant e-commerce company in the fast-growing China market.

許多投資者表示，他們對此並不擔心，因爲阿里巴巴是迅速成長的中國市場上佔據主導地位的電子商務公司。

'This is the company in China that really owns the marketplace,' said Sam Le Cornu, senior portfolio manager at Macquarie Investment Management in Hong Kong who manages approximately $1.2 billion. He added his firm will focus more on price. 'Whether or not we participate all comes down to one word: valuation,' he said.

Macquarie Investment Management駐香港的高級資產組合經理勒科爾尼(Sam Le Cornu)稱，阿里巴巴是中國電子商務市場上的絕對老大。他還稱，Macquarie Investment Management將更關注阿里巴巴IPO的定價。他表示，他所在的公司是否會參與都將取決於一個因素：估值。勒科爾尼管理着約12億美元的資產。

The company makes money by charging vendors, large and small alike, fees for display and performance ads. It also charges commissions of between 0.5% and 5% on companies that operate on Tmall, a site that features storefronts run by larger branded companies like Apple Inc. and Gap Inc.

阿里巴巴通過向中小商家收取展示和排名廣告費來賺錢，此外還向在天貓運營的公司收取0.5%-5%的服務費。在天貓上開設店面的是一些大品牌公司，其中包括蘋果公司(Apple Inc.)和Gap Inc等。

Analysts say Tmall's size is particularly important, as the site faces more intense competition with --China's second largest e-commerce site that sells goods directly through its own logistics network. Making more threatening is a recent tie-up with Alibaba rival Tencent Holdings Ltd. The partnership will help the site leverage Tencent's WeChat mobile messaging application, which currently has more than 355 million monthly active users.

分析師們表示，天貓的規模尤爲重要，因爲該網站面臨來自中國第二大電子商務網站京東()的激烈競爭。京東通過自己的物流網絡直接銷售產品。京東最近又與阿里巴巴的競爭對手騰訊控股有限公司(Tencent Holdings Ltd., , 簡稱：騰訊控股)結盟，從而對天貓構成了更大的威脅。京東和騰訊的合作將有助於京東利用後者的微信(WeChat)移動通訊應用促進業務增長。這一應用目前的月活躍用戶數已超過3.55億人。

Investors and analysts also said Alibaba didn't clearly spell out the financials of its cooperation with 14 domestic logistics companies that ensure packages ordered online get to end consumers. In 2012, Alibaba founder Mr. Ma said 'terrible' logistics were slowing the growth of Internet retailing in the country.

投資者和分析師還稱，阿里巴巴也沒有清楚地說明該公司與14家國內物流公司合作的財務條款。這些物流公司確保在網上下單的包裹能遞送到最終消費者手中。阿里巴巴的創始人馬雲在2012年表示，“糟糕的”物流阻礙了中國互聯網零售行業的增長。

The prospectus does detail the fact that Alibaba's 14 partners are organized through agreements on data sharing, delivery commitments and pricing with a company called China Smart Logistics, in which Alibaba holds a 48% stake. It doesn't, however, go into specifics about the financial terms of Alibaba's cooperation with its logistics partners.

阿里巴巴的招股說明書確實提到，該公司與14家物流公司的合作是通過與一家名爲中國智能物流骨幹網(China Smart Logistics)的公司簽訂的數據共享、投遞承諾和定價協議來實現的。阿里巴巴持有中國智能物流骨幹網48%的股權。不過招股書中並未提到阿里巴巴與這些物流公司合作的詳細財務條款。

'[Alibaba] was very vague about logistics, and that's one of the areas they're missing as a major e-commerce player competing with ,' said Forrester's Ms. Willis.

福里斯特研究公司的威利斯表示，阿里巴巴在提到物流時非常含糊，而作爲一家大型電子商務公司，物流正是該公司與競爭對手京東相比之下的軟肋之一。

Alibaba was also quiet on laying out a vision for its push into entertainment. The company and some executives have spent almost $3 billion on investments in online video and video production companies in the past three months, but beyond descriptions of those transactions, there is little explanation in the filing of how the company plans to pull together its new holdings to attract users.

阿里巴巴對該公司進軍娛樂領域的計劃也閉口未談。在過去的三個月中，阿里巴巴及其部分高管總計斥資近30億美元投資網絡視頻和視頻產品公司，但除了對這些交易的描述外，阿里巴巴幾乎未在招股書中解釋公司打算如何整合這些新投資來吸引用戶。

The company said in the filing it would continue to make investments in digital media, mobile services, logistics and other areas.

阿里巴巴在招股書中表示，將繼續在數字媒體、移動服務、物流和其他領域進行投資。