中國化工藉助“走出去”提升國內競爭力

Back when the Chinese government was encouraging state-owned enterprises and private sector companies to “go out” of the country, few responded as energetically as ChemChina and Ren Jianxin, its entrepreneurial chairman.

當中國政府最初鼓勵國有企業和私營企業“走出去”時，很少有企業像中國化工(ChemChina)及其積極進取的董事長任建新那樣熱情響應號召。

In March 2015, the Beijing SOE paid 7.3bn for Pirelli, the Italian tyre company. Less than a year later it agreed to purchase Syngenta, the Swiss agribusiness group, for $44bn. So far, so standard. At a time of relative euro weakness, ChemChina took advantage of the renminbi’s purchasing power to acquire overseas companies with better technology and brand recognition.

2015年3月，這家總部位於北京的國企以73億歐元收購了意大利輪胎公司倍耐力(Pirelli)。不到一年後，中國化工同意以440億美元收購瑞士農業企業先正達(Syngenta)。到這裏爲止，一切還算平常。在歐元相對疲軟的時候，中國化工利用了人民幣的購買力，收購了擁有更好的技術和品牌認知度的海外企業。

It is what often happens after ChemChina buys a foreign target that differentiates its overseas investment strategy from so many of its Chinese peers. In what might be termed a kind of Trojan horse strategy, ChemChina then uses its foreign acquisitions — and foreign managers — to win market share back at home.

使中國化工的海外投資戰略區別於其他衆多中國企業的，是它在收購一家外國目標企業之後時常採取的做法。中國化工接下來會利用收購的海外企業——和外國管理者——在中國國內贏得市場份額，這或許可以稱爲某種特洛伊木馬策略。

The Pirelli deal is an example. A year after the acquisition, ChemChina’s Aeolus Tyre unit sold most of its car tyre business to Pirelli. Headquartered in Milan and boasting a long association with the Formula 1 motorsport championship, Pirelli has a much more attractive brand than Aeolus, a relatively anonymous company from an even more anonymous city — Jiaozuo, in Henan province.

收購倍耐力就是一個例子。在完成收購一年後，中國化工旗下的風神輪胎(Aeolus Tyre)把絕大多數汽車輪胎業務賣給了倍耐力。總部位於米蘭、與一級方程式賽車(F1)錦標賽建立了長期聯繫的倍耐力，品牌吸引力遠遠超過風神這家相對默默無聞、來自更加默默無聞的河南焦作市的輪胎公司。

An earlier but much lower profile ChemChina deal provides an even better illustration of this strategy at work. In 2011, ChemChina acquired 60 per cent of Adama Agricultural Solutions, an Israeli agrochemical company that competes against global heavyweights such as Bayer, DuPont and Monsanto. Back in China, Mr Ren’s group had four domestic agrochemical companies, the most substantial of which was Shenzhen-listed Sanonda. According to Chen Lichtenstein, a former Israeli paratrooper who now runs Adama, Mr Ren had a vision of uniting its disparate China agrochemical units under the Israeli company.

中國化工另外一筆時間更早、但更爲低調的交易，更好地闡釋了這種有效策略。2011年，中國化工收購了以色列農用化學品製造商安道麥農業解決方案有限公司(Adama Agricultural Solutions)的60%股份，後者是與拜耳(Bayer)、杜邦(DuPont)和孟山都(Monsanto)等全球巨擘競爭的公司。在中國國內，中國化工擁有四家農用化學品公司，其中規模最大的是在深圳上市的沙隆達(Sanonda)。據如今執掌安道麥的前以色列傘兵翰林(Chen Lichtenstein)介紹，任建新的設想是把中國化工旗下各個中國農化業務整合到安道麥之下。

“ChemChina said well, we actually have some agrochemical businesses in China,” Mr Lichtenstein recalls. “The notion was that ChemChina would let [Adama] management study its businesses in the area of agrochemistry and determine which ones were suitable to be integrated into a combined company.”

“中國化工說，我們實際上在中國有一些農化公司，”翰林回憶道，“意思是，中國化工會讓（安道麥的）管理層研究它在農化領域的公司並決定哪些公司適合整合到合併後的企業中。”

The result, it was envisioned, would be the world’s “first integrated global China” agrochemical group. Like so many other industries, the global agrochemical sector and that of China resemble two parallel but separate universes. Just as multinational companies often struggle to get a foothold in China’s intensely competitive domestic market, Chinese companies often make little progress internationally.

根據設想，結果將打造全世界“第一家全球性一體化中國”農化集團。像其他很多行業一樣，全球農化行業和中國農化行業類似於兩個平行但獨立的宇宙。正如跨國企業往往很難在中國競爭激烈的國內市場站穩腳跟，中國企業往往在國際化方面幾乎毫無進展。

In 2015 China’s crop protection market was the world’s third-largest, valued at $5.4bn, but it was also incredibly fragmented. No one player had more than a 10 per cent market share, and foreign entrants had a total share of less than 25 per cent. A combined Adama-Sanonda entity, Mr Ren reckoned, would have a solid foothold on both sides of the divide.

2015年，中國作物保護市場爲全球第三大，總值達到54億美元，但該市場四分五裂的程度也令人難以置信。沒有任何一家企業擁有10%以上的市場份額，外國企業所佔的總份額不足25%。任建新認爲，安道麥和沙隆達組成的合併企業在兩邊都會擁有穩固的立足點。

So ChemChina boosted its interest in Adama to 100 per cent last year and injected it into Sanonda. The merged entity, which in October reported a 5.4 per cent increase in third-quarter sales to $844m, will retain the Adama brand, not Sanonda’s.

因此去年中國化工將對安道麥的持股增至100%，並把它與沙隆達合併。這家合併後的企業將保留安道麥的品牌，而不是沙隆達的品牌。10月，該企業公佈財報稱第三季度銷售額增長5.47%，至8.44億美元。

It is also headed by Mr Lichtenstein, highlighting another unusual aspect of Mr Ren’s strategy. While many Chinese SOE bosses retain existing managers to run overseas acquisitions, Mr Ren has appointed foreign nationals to senior positions within ChemChina itself. Before the Adama-Sanonda merger, Mr Ren asked Mr Lichtenstein to head the ChemChina division that oversaw both units. In February 2016 he hired Michael Koenig, a German national and former Bayer executive, to run China National Bluestar, another ChemChina division.

該企業仍然由翰林執掌，這突顯了任建新策略的另一個不同尋常的方面。儘管中國很多國企老總會選擇讓現有管理者繼續掌管收購來的海外企業，但任建新是任命外國人擔任中國化工的高級職位。在安道麥與沙隆達合併前，任建新讓翰林領導中國化工負責管理兩家企業的部門。2016年2月，他聘請前拜耳高管、德國人米夏埃爾?柯尼希(Michael Koenig)來執掌中國化工旗下另一家公司中國藍星(China National Bluestar)。

Many observers attribute Mr Ren’s willingness to do things differently to his experiences in building ChemChina from a small state-owned industrial cleaning company into one of China’s largest industrial groups. ChemChina has always had to compete to survive. As Mr Lichtenstein says, “they are always coming from behind with this notion, OK, let’s be a bit more clever”. At a time when SOE reform in China largely consists of using mergers to create ever larger domestic monopolies, ChemChina’s strategy of “going out” to improve its domestic competitiveness shows another way.

很多觀察人士把任建新願意另闢蹊徑的思路，歸功於他把中國化工從小型國有工業清洗企業打造爲中國最大工業集團之一的經驗。中國化工一直都不得不在競爭中搏生存。正如翰林所說的那樣，“他們總是帶着‘好吧，我們做得聰明點’的想法後來居上”。在中國國企改革主要利用合併來打造更大的國內壟斷企業之際，中國化工通過“走出去”來提高其國內競爭力的策略展示了另一條改革之路。