【中英互譯】能源之爭-歐洲公用事業(yè)掀起合并風(fēng)潮

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1、 【中英互譯】能源之爭 -歐洲公用事業(yè)掀起合并風(fēng)潮 Power struggles 能源之爭（陳繼龍 編譯） Nov 30th 2006 From The Economist print edition Political and business interests collide as Europes energy firms conso lidate 歐洲能源公司合并引發(fā)政治與商業(yè)利益沖突。 “WE expected a wave—but what ha ppened w

2、as a tsuna mi,” says Emmanuel Turpin, a utilities a nalyst at Morgan Sta nley, an investment b ank. Energy-industry insiders predicted a series of mergers and acquisitions in European utilitie s at the beginning of this year. But hardly anyone expected the announce ment in

3、February of two of the biggest-ever takeovers in corporate Europ e: the bid for Endesa, a Spanish electricity company, by E.ON, a German power giant; and the merger of Gaz de France (GDF), a French gas fir m, and Suez, another French utility. 摩根斯坦利投資銀行的公用事業(yè)分析專家伊曼紐爾 ? 特爾平講：“我們 本來期待的是一陣浪潮，

4、可發(fā)生的卻是一場海嘯。 ”能源產(chǎn)業(yè)內(nèi)部人士早就 預(yù)言今年伊始歐洲公用事業(yè)將實施一連串的并購，但今年 2 月公諸于眾的 兩宗迄今為止歐洲最大的并購案卻是大多數(shù)人始料未及的：一個是德國能 源巨頭 E.ON 公司競購西班牙 Endesa電力公司，另一個是法國燃氣公司 （G DF）與另一家法國公用事業(yè)公司 Suez 的合并。 The latest takeover in the industry, announced this week, is smaller, l ess spectacular and not much of a s

5、urprise. Iberdrola, a Spanish electricity company, announced on November 28th its euro17.2 billion ($22.5 billio n) bid for Scottish Power, a British utility. Compared with the E.ON bid, now valued at euro37 billion, and the euro78 billion merger of Suez and GDF, the deal looks like small beer

6、. （1）Yet the acquisition will create one of Europes six biggest utilities and a world leader in renewable ener gy. And in striking contrast to the two bigger deals, which are bogged do wn[1] in legal and political quagmires, it is likely to proceed smoothly. 相比之下，本周宣布的能源產(chǎn)業(yè)最近一次并購則比較小，不太引人注 目

7、，而且也不如何出人意料。 11 月 28 日，西班牙 Iberdrola 電力公司宣布將以 172 億歐元（約合 225 億美元）收購英國公用事業(yè)公司 Scottish Power。相比 E.ON 競購案（現(xiàn)價已達 370 億歐元）及蘇伊士與 GDF 之間 780 億歐元的合并案，這筆交易看上去看起來微不足道，只是此次并購將造就一個 躋身歐洲前六位的大型公用事業(yè)公司及全球可再生能源先鋒。而且，與陷入法律和政治泥潭而停滯不前的前述兩單大買賣形成鮮亮對比的是，這一次有可能一帆風(fēng)順。 （ 2）The catalyst for the frenetic[2] merger ac

8、tivity among European utilities is the run-up to full deregulation of the European Unions energy market. For more than a decade the European Commission has been tryin g to enable energy producers and distributors to compete freely across nat ional borders. The final deadline of the EUs bul

9、ky legislative programme to liberalise the market is July 2007. By then member states are suppose d to have implemented all EU energy directives. 歐洲公用事業(yè)領(lǐng)域之因此掀起這場合并風(fēng)潮，是因為有關(guān)方面正在醞 釀完全放寬歐盟能源市場。十多年來，歐盟委員會一直努力促進能源生產(chǎn) 商和銷售商展開跨過國界的自由競爭。歐盟旨在實現(xiàn)市場自由化的一攬子 立法打算完成的最后截止時刻是 2007 年 7

10、月，屆時各成員國應(yīng)當(dāng)均已遵照 執(zhí)行歐盟各項能源指導(dǎo)方針。 Ignacio Galn, the boss of Iberdrola, said this week that the fast-ap proaching deregulation in Europe, which will put big, cross-border firms i n a stronger position, was one of the reasons for his bid for Scottish Po wer. But Mr Galn did not mention the mo

11、re probable driver of the dea l. ACS, a Spanish construction company, recently bought a 10% stake in Iberdrola with a view to merging it with Uni n Fenosa, another Spanish power company in which ACS has a 40.5% stake. Mr Galn is oppose d to the deal. Iberdrola is the worlds leading operator of

12、 wind turbines, but Fenosa relies heavily on coal-fired plants, so a merger would sully[3] Iberdrolas image. 本周 Iberdrola 公司總裁伊格萊西奧 ? 加蘭講，該公司收購蘇格蘭電力公司的緣故之一確實是歐洲放寬市場在即，大型跨國公司因此將處于更加 大勢的位置。只是這筆交易專門可能另有所圖， 但加蘭并未提及。 西班牙 A CS 建筑公司最近收購了 Iberdrola10％的股份，期望 Iberdrola 能與西班牙另一家電力公司 Uni n Fenosa合并，而 A

13、CS 已持有 Uni n Fenosa 40.5％的股份。加蘭并不贊成這一合并交易。 Iberdrola 是全球風(fēng)力發(fā)電機的要緊運營商，但 Fenosa則高度依靠火力發(fā)電，因此合并會招致 Iberdrola 形象受損。 Investors and analysts are lukewarm[4] about his proposed alternative, however. （3）There is an obvious logic to buying PPM Energy, an Ame rican wind-power developer owned by

14、Scottish Power, given that Iberdrola took over two other wind-power companies in America earlier this year. But PPM is only one-fifth of Scottish Powers business. Combining Iberdr ola with Scottish Power will achieve very few cost savings as there is no other geographic overlap. And

15、 Iberdrola is taking on lots of debt to fina nce the pricey takeover. 然而，投資者和分析人士對他收購 Scottish Power 的主張反應(yīng)都比較冷 淡。鑒于伊維爾德羅拉公司今年早些時候差不多并購了另外兩家美國風(fēng)力 發(fā)電公司，接下來收購美國 PPM 能源公司（ Scottish Power 旗下的一家風(fēng) 力發(fā)電開發(fā)公司）明顯是順理成章的情況。只是 PPM 僅占 Scottish Power 公司總交易量的五分之一。由于 Iberdrola 與 Scottish Power 在運營地域上并

16、不存在重疊，因此雙方聯(lián)手并不能縮減多少成本，而且 Iberdrola 為了籌措巨額收購費也將重債纏身。 （ 4）But at least the objections to the deal are commercial, rather th an political or legal, which is more than can be said for Europes two ot her big energy mergers. It is a full year since a failed bid for Scottish P ower prompted Wulf

17、 Bernotat, the boss of E.ON, to plot his big coup: a takeover of Endesa, which would make E.ON one of the worlds largest e lectricity and gas firms, with over 50m customers in more than 30 countr ies. 只是即便有人反對這次收購，那也是出于商業(yè)角度考慮，而與政治抑或法律無關(guān)。然而，兩宗能源巨頭的合并案就不行講（是否受到政治或法 律因素干涉）了。自從競購 Scottish Powe

18、r 失敗整整一年來， E.ON 公司總裁伍爾夫 ? 伯諾泰特一直都圖謀卷土重來——收購恩德薩， 從而使 E.ON 公司成為在 30 多個國家擁有 5 千余萬客戶的全球最大電力與燃氣公司之一。 伯諾泰特的宏偉藍圖正面臨馬德里方面強有力的阻止。西班牙政府期 望 Endesa連續(xù)掌控在西班牙人手中，因此該國監(jiān)管機構(gòu)對德國人的收購強加了不下 19 個限制條件（后來又追加了一些條款） 。這場收購還卷入了西班牙燃氣公司 Gas Natural 與其欲收購的 Endesa之間的法律爭辯之中。其 間， GDF 與 Suez的合并也遇到了大苦惱。 11 月

19、21 日，巴黎一位法官判令禁止 GDF 連續(xù)實施合并。該法官認為，擔(dān)憂合并會招致裁員的工人代表需要更多的時刻來考慮這筆交易的各項條款。 GDF 趕忙提出了上訴，但上訴法庭堅持了一審法庭的判決。 （ 5）The delay will postpone a shareholders vote on the deal until n ext spring, when the campaign for the French presidency will be in full s wing[6]. Doing the deal just before the elect

20、ion will be tricky, but trying to do it afterwards will be even harder. Sgolne Royal, the Socialist c andidate for the presidency, has vowed to renationalise GDF if she wins. And Nicolas Sarkozy, the most promising candidate of the centre-right, mi ght well drop his half-hearted support for the merg

21、er. 如此拖延下去的話，股東對這次交易的投票就只能推遲到恰逢法國總 統(tǒng)競選熱火朝天的明年春天舉行了。要在選舉前做成這筆交易專門難，然 而想在選舉后做成就更是難上加難。社會黨總統(tǒng)候選人塞戈雷納 ? 勞爾差 不多立誓一旦獲選就將 GDF 重新收歸國有。最有期望獲勝的中右翼總統(tǒng)候選人尼古拉斯 ? 薩爾科奇對這次合并的態(tài)度原本就比較曖昧，他最終也完全有可能完全舍棄對它的支持。 But insiders still reckon the two mega-mergers will go ahead. “We a re confident the Spani

22、sh and French deals will eventually go through,” s ays Jos Javier Ruiz Fernndez, a utilities analyst at Exane, a French b roker. The political cost of the Spanish governments tactics is high, so it will probably give up its resistance to E.ON. The European Commission ruled in September that all b

23、ut one of the 19 conditions imposed on the E.ON bid were illegal, and it said on November 29th that all of the reg ulators new conditions were illegal too. 只是知情人士仍認為兩大公司的合并會進行下去。法國  Exane 經(jīng)紀公 司公用事業(yè)分析專家路易斯 ? 費爾南德斯講：“我們堅信法西之間的這筆買 賣最終是能夠做成的。 ”西班牙政府將為它所采取的手段付出高昂的政治代價，因此它專門有可能

24、不再阻止 E.ON 公司入主 Endesa。歐盟委員會于 9 月裁定強加給 E.ON 公司的 19 個附加條件幾乎無一例外差不多上不合法的，接著在 11 月 29 日又稱監(jiān)管部門新增的條款也都不合法。 Next year consolidation will continue, though at a less busy pace. Va luations of European utilities are now very high. Governments remain opp osed to acquisitions of utilities by foreigners

25、—except, that is, in Britain. After the takeover of Scottish Power, foreigners will own four of Britains six big utilities. Only Centrica, a gas retailer, and Scottish and Southern, the third-biggest energy utility, will remain in domestic hands. （6）They are tempting targets, but any suitor

26、[7] will need deep pockets—and confi dence that the European market will indeed, despite all the political medd ling, soon become truly open. 合并明年還將連續(xù)，只是步子會稍慢一些。目前收購歐洲公用事業(yè)公 司的門檻還專門高。各國政府仍舊反對外商并購本國公用事業(yè)公司——英 國除外。收購 Scottish Power 后，外商將入主英國 6 家大型公用事業(yè)公司中 的 4 家。把握在英國人自己手中的僅剩下天然氣零售商 C

27、entrica 和第三大公 用能源公司 Scottish&Southern。這兩家公司具有專門強的吸引力， 但任何打 算收購他們的公司都必須有殷實的家底，同時確信不管遭到如何樣的政治 干預(yù)，歐洲能源市場都會專門快真正實現(xiàn)開放。 [QUIZ] 英譯漢（將劃線部分英文翻譯成中文） ： [NOTES](OXFORD) 1. bog v. v (-gg-) (phr v) bog (sth) down (usu passive 通常用于被動語態(tài) ) (a) (cause sth to) sink into mud or wet ground （使某物）陷入泥

28、 沼 : The tank (got) bogged down in the mud. 坦克陷入泥沼之中 . (b) (fig 比喻 ) (cause sth to) become stuck and unable to make progress （使某 物）陷入逆境不能前進 : Our discussions got bogged down in irrelevant de tail. 我們的討論蠻纏在無關(guān)緊要的細節(jié)上 . 2. frenetic adj. frenetic activity is fast and not very org

29、anized 發(fā)狂 的，狂亂的 --She rushes from job to job at a frenetic pace.// 3. sully v. (文或修辭 , 通常作比喻 ) make (sth) dirty; stain; ruin or d estroy (sbs reputation, etc) 弄臟（某物） ; 弄臟或破壞（某人的名聲等） : I wouldnt sully my hands by acceptinga bribe. 我決不同意賄賂 , 纖塵不 染 . * sully sbs name, honour, etc 弄臟某人

30、的名聲、榮譽等 . 4. lukewarm adj. 1 (of liquids) only slightly warm; tepid （指液體）不冷不熱的 , 微溫的 : Heat the milk until it is just lukewarm. 把奶熱一下, 溫溫就行 . 2 ~ (about sb/sth) (fig 比喻 ) not eager or enthusiastic 不烈火的 ; 冷淡的 : get a ,lukewarm re`ception 受冷漠的接待 * Her love ha d grown lukewarm. 她的愛情已淡薄 . 5. upho

31、ld v. 1 support (a decision, etc) against attack 愛護 , 支持（決定等） : uphold a verdict, policy, principle 支持某項裁決、政策、原則 . 2 maintain (a custom, etc) 堅持 , 保持（習(xí)俗等）: uphold ancient traditions 保持古老的傳統(tǒng) . 6. in full swing 正在全力進行中 , 活躍 7. suitor n. (dated 舊) man courting a woman 追求某女子的人 : She had rejected all her many suitors. 她拒絕了所有追求她的人 .