法國私募女強人 Ardian造就者

On a mild autumn day about three months ago, the head of China’s main sovereign wealth fund visited an office on Place Vendôme in Paris, just across from the Ritz Hotel. Accompanied by his staff — but with no attendant fanfare — Ding Xuedong, chairman of China Investment Corporation, had come to pay his respects to Dominique Senequier.

大約3個月前一個風和日麗的秋日，中國主要財富主權基金負責人來到巴黎旺多姆廣場的一個辦公室，對面是麗茲酒店(Ritz hotel)。中投公司(CIC)董事長丁學東在工作人員的陪同下，低調拜訪了法國私人股本基金經理多米尼克•塞內基耶(Dominique Senequier)。

The meeting, captured by a photograph now sitting on the marble mantelpiece of Ms Senequier’s 18th-century wood-panelled office, is testament to the international clout of the French private equity fund manager.

此次會晤證明了塞內基耶在國際上的影響力。在她的18世紀風格實木裝飾辦公室的大理石壁爐臺上，擺放着兩人會面的相片。

The 61-year-old executive oversees $50bn of assets — the largest and most diversified platform of its kind in Europe — after spinning off her employer , Ardian, from French insurer Axa a year ago.

一年前，這位61歲的首席執行官完成了讓Ardian從法國保險商安盛集團(Axa)剝離的工作，如今管理着500億美元的資產——Ardian是歐洲最大、最爲多元化的私人股本投資平臺。

The creation of Ardian, previously known as Axa Private Equity, turned out to be one of the greatest challenges in Ms Senequier’s three-decade career in the sector, not least because French politics lurched to the left at a crucial time for the deal.

Ardian的前身是安盛私人股本(Axa Private Equity)。它的誕生是塞內基耶在該領域30年職業生涯中最大的挑戰之一，尤其是因爲法國政治在交易的關鍵時期突然向左轉。

Ms Senequier recalls how drastic tax increases on capital gains and high earners announced by President François Hollande jeopardised the planned spin-off. For months, the fund manager was unable to estimate its costs.

塞內基耶回憶道，法國總統弗朗索瓦•奧朗德(François Hollande)宣佈大幅提高資本利得稅稅率和針對高收入人羣的稅收，一度危及剝離計劃。在長達幾個月的時間裏，這位基金經理無法估算其成本。

“We didn’t know what measures parliament would pass. Investors willing to back us in the spin-off were not able to predict our cash flows. That was very complicated,” she says.

她表示：“那時我們不知道議會將投票通過何種舉措。願意支持我們剝離的投資者無法預測我們的現金流。情況非常複雜。”

That experience has helped to feed a general frustration with the way her business and industry is treated in France — in spite of all the attention lavished on it by foreign dignitaries. Ms Senequier would even go so far as to say that being a woman in this male-dominated world has been less of a burden than being French.

這種經歷讓人們普遍對她的企業乃至私人股本業在法國所受的待遇感到沮喪，儘管外國政要對該行業極爲關注。塞內基耶甚至說道，在這個男性主導的世界裏，做法國人比做女人還要煩。

“We get absolutely no support,” she snaps. “France does not really understand what we do. We are one of the biggest in our field, which means something abroad, but not in France. Private equity is not part of the country’s culture.”

她突然提高聲音說道：“我們得不到任何支持。法國不太明白我們是做什麼的。我們是私人股本領域中最大的公司之一，這在國外意義重大，但在法國並非如此。私人股本不是這個國家文化的一部分。”

Unlike the US, home of the world’s biggest buyout firms, such as Blackstone, KKRand Carlyle, France does not have any significant pension funds that are able to provide private equity groups with a local base for growth.

與黑石(Blackstone)、KKR和凱雷(Carlyle)等全球最大收購公司所在的美國不同，法國沒有可以爲私人股本集團提供本土增長基礎的大型養老基金。

In addition, politicians do not fully grasp the role of finance in the economy and have consistently sought to undermine it, she says. Mr Hollande, for instance, identified the world of finance as his “true adversary” during his 2012 campaign.

此外，塞內基耶表示，政客們並不充分理解金融在經濟中的角色，而是一直在尋求削弱這種角色。例如，奧朗德在2012年競選期間曾將金融世界視爲他“真正的對手”。

The hostility at home obliges her to do a lot of explaining when raising money from North American pension plans and sovereign wealth funds in Asia and the Middle East. “For about 15 years, our political leaders have launched attacks against finance. When you travel, you have to answer a lot of questions about that,” she says.

由於國內的這種敵意，塞內基耶在從北美養老金計劃以及亞洲和中東主權財富基金籌集資金的時候，不得不進行大量解釋工作。她表示：“大約15年來，我們的政治領導人對金融發起了攻擊。當你出差的時候，你不得不回答大量的相關問題。”

About 80 per cent of its assets are invested outside France, largely in the US, and its fund of funds team, which invests in buyout funds and is the company’s largest unit, has recently moved to London — not for tax reasons she insists, but to comply with new European legislation.

該公司大約80%的資產投資於法國境外，大部分在美國，其“基金的基金”團隊最近搬到了倫敦，她堅稱這並非是爲了避稅，而是爲了遵守新的歐洲法規。“基金的基金”團隊投資於收購資金，是Ardian最大的部門。

She says she will not relocate her company’s headquarters elsewhere. “France is going through a lot of instability but it is a big, resilient economy,” she says.

塞內基耶說，不會將公司總部搬到其他地區。她表示：“法國正在經歷許多動盪，但它是一個龐大的、具有彈性的經濟體。”

Ms Senequier was born in Toulon; her father was a marine engineer. One of the first seven women to graduate from Ecole Polytechnique, France’s elite engineering school, she spent five years in the finance ministry as an insurance commissioner, then set up insurer GAN’s private equity arm in 1985.

塞內基耶出生於土倫，父親是一名航海工程師。她畢業於法國一流工程院校——巴黎綜合理工學院(Ecole Polytechnique)，是該校首批7名女性畢業生之一。塞內基耶畢業後在財政部當了5年的保險事務專員，隨後於1985年在保險公司GAN創辦了私人股本部門。

A decade later, she attempted to spin off the unit, securing funding from London-based investment firm Electra Fleming. But her bid was rejected in a highly political process that involved a bailout of GAN by the French state.

10年後，她試圖將該部門剝離出去，並從倫敦投行Electra Fleming籌得了資金。但在一個高度政治化的過程（涉及法國政府紓困GAN）中，她的出價被拒絕了。

Forced to leave, she turned to Claude Bébéar, Axa’s then chief executive and a fellow Polytechnique alumnus. Called the “godfather of French capitalism” for his influence over France’s corporate life, Mr Bébéar offered to help her start Axa’s private equity business, pledging to match half of what she raised from other investors.

被迫離開GAN後，她求助於時任安盛首席執行官的克洛德•貝貝阿(Claude Bébéar)。同樣畢業於巴黎綜合理工學院的貝貝阿，因其在法國商界擁有的影響力而被稱爲“法國資本主義的教父”。他提供機會，讓她開創安盛的私人股本業務，他還承諾貢獻資金，數額爲她從其他投資者那裏籌得資金總額的一半。