大連萬達 從好萊塢到養豬場

Dalian Wanda, the Chinese retail conglomerate aiming for a listing in Hong Kong this month, has added pig farming to its expansive list of business units, which includes such diverse things as Chinese property and the popcorn sold in its chain of US cinemas.

中國零售綜合企業大連萬達(Dalian Wanda)開始進軍養豬業。萬達旗下業務繁多，既在中國開發房地產，也在美國其擁有的電影院線售賣爆米花，其地產子公司本月將在香港上市。

Yesterday the company announced a Rmb1bn ($163m) investment in pork production in Guizhou, China’s poorest province. The investment is being billed as a charitable donation, although the pork will eventually be sold in the group’s retail chain or partner stores, according to a Dalian Wanda statement.

萬達昨日宣佈，將向中國最貧窮省份貴州的豬肉生產領域投資10億元人民幣（合1.63億美元）。萬達在聲明中將這筆投資宣傳爲扶貧捐助，但這些豬肉最終將在萬達的零售連鎖商店或合作商店銷售。

Would-be investo­rs in the likely $3bn-$4bn initial public offering of a property division will scrutinise the investment for what it says about the company – which is either a cleverly diversified financial titan or, to its critics, a random grab-bag of investments across two continents.

大連萬達商業地產(Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties)將赴港首次公開發行(IPO)，可能融資30億美元至40億美元。其潛在的股票投資者將審視萬達最新這筆養豬場投資——它將說明萬達究竟是一家明智多元化、財力雄厚的巨擘，還是批評者眼中的隨意投資的大雜燴公司。

Wang Jianlin, Wanda’s billionaire founder, is China’s fourth-richest man, with a net worth of $13.2bn according to Forbes. He is upfront about the source of much of his wealth – cheap real estate sold by local governments anxious to attract developers.

根據《福布斯》(Forbes)的數據，萬達億萬富翁創始人王健林在中國富豪榜上排名第四，淨資產爲132億美元。他對自己很大一部分財富的來源——也就是由急切吸引開發商的地方政府出售的廉價房地產——相當坦率。

Among his business trophies are the 100 Wanda Plaza shopping centres, along with department stores, tourism businesses and chain of cinemas, in China, and AMC Entertainment, the second-largest cinema chain in the US, which he bought in 2012 for $2.6bn.

他的企業王國包括在中國的100座萬達廣場購物中心，以及百貨商店、旅遊公司和電影院，還包括它在2012年以26億美元收購的美國第二大電影院線AMC娛樂(AMC Entertainment)。

Mr Wang plans to invest Rmb50bn to build an entertainment park in Qingdao, in eastern China, which will include a movie museum and 20 studios, scheduled for completion in 2017.

王健林計劃在中國東部城市青島投資500億元人民幣建設一座娛樂產業園，其中包括一家電影博物館和20個攝影棚，計劃2017年建成。

Then there is the matter of the $1.2bn his company spent on a plot of land in Beverly Hills, which Mr Wang is developing into an office from which to clinch Hollywood deals. He told Bloomberg on Monday he was in talks to buy a stake in Lions Gate Entertainment, the Canadian-US entertainment company whose shows include the Emmy award-winning drama Mad Men, and that he aimed to control 20 per cent of the global film market by 2020.

萬達還投資了12億美元在比弗利山購置地塊。王健林正在這裏設立一個辦事處，用於處理萬達在好萊塢的房地產交易。他週一還告訴彭博社(Bloomberg)，他正就購入加拿大-美國娛樂公司獅門娛樂(Lions Gate Entertainment Corp)部分股權進行談判。獅門娛樂的作品包括獲得艾美獎(Emmy)的電視劇《廣告狂人》(Mad Men)。他還計劃到2020年控制全球電影市場的20%。

“Many people come knock at my door, but Wanda is only interested in the big players and we want control,” said Mr Wang.

王健林表示：“很多人來敲我的門，但萬達只對大企業感興趣，我們希望獲得控制權。”

When shares in Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties go on sale, investors will be forgiven if they ask where pig farming fits in with the company’s existing assets. But back-to-basics farming is something that has uniquely fascinated many of China’s most successful companies.

當大連萬達商業地產的股票發售時，如果投資者問：養豬場與萬達現有資產有什麼關係？那也是是情有可原的。但中國很多最成功企業對於迴歸基本的養殖業特別感興趣。

William Ding, founder of NetEase, the Chinese gaming company that operates World of Warcraft in the territory, opened a pig farm in 2011 and began selling pork online in exchange for vouchers. In 2013 Legend Holdings, parent company of the computer maker Lenovo, surprised investors when it began selling blue­berries and kiwifruit.

2011年，中國遊戲公司網易(NetEase)創始人丁磊(William Ding)開設了一家養豬場，並開始在線銷售豬肉，購買者可用兌換券支付。網易是《魔獸世界》(World of Warcraft)在中國的運營商。2013年，電腦製造商聯想(Lenovo)的母公司聯想控股(Legend Holdings)開始銷售藍莓和獼猴桃，令投資者感到意外。

Wanda’s venture in Guizhou would create 10,000 jobs, the company said, and “combine short-term and long-term goals, merging industry with education in a way that will eventually increase per capita income and poverty alleviation as a whole”.

萬達表示，該公司在貴州的項目將創造1萬個就業崗位，並將“長期與短期結合、產業與教育結合、提高人均收入與整體脫貧相結合”。

The project will recruit students from local technical schools, many of whom will go on to work at Wanda, according to the company. In China the labour of technical school students normally costs less than fully employed workers.

萬達表示，該項目將從當地職業技術學校招聘學生，其中很多將在畢業後繼續在萬達工作。在中國，職業技術學校學生的勞動力成本要低於全職工人。

Chinese companies nearing an IPO have a tendency to make the most of their regulator-imposed “silent periods” by issuing many public announcements and staging PR stunts. Alibaba, the ecommerce giant, perfected the art of the not-so-silent silent period when it bought stakes in more than a dozen companies in the lead-up to its $25bn September IPO. The nearly weekly deals offered headlines, accompanied by a polite “no comment – silent period” from Alibaba.

即將啓動IPO的中國企業往往會充分利用監管機構設定的“緘默期”，發佈很多公開聲明並上演公關噱頭。電商巨擘阿里巴巴(Alibaba)深諳在緘默期不那麼緘默的藝術，在今年9月的250億美元IPO前夕，該公司購入了超過12家公司的股權，幾乎每週都有交易登上新聞頭條。而阿里巴巴的禮貌迴應是“不做評論，在緘默期”。