阿里巴巴29億美元入股高鑫零售

Alibaba has taken a further step into new retail, its bid to fuse ecommerce and physical stores, splashing out $2.9bn for a stake in one of China’s biggest supermarket chains.

阿里巴巴(Alibaba)向著電商與實體店融合的“新零售”又邁進一步，斥資29億美元入股中國規(guī)模最大的連鎖超市之一。

The HK$22.4bn (US$2.9bn) deal, which initially sees Alibaba acquire an aggregate direct and indirect 36.16 per cent slice of Sun Art Retail Group, triggers a mandatory takeover offer under Hong Kong rules as the Chinese ecommerce group is acting together with fellow Sun Art shareholders Auchan Retail of France and Taiwan’s Ruentex Group.

按照香港規(guī)則，這筆價值224億港元(合29億美元)的交易——使阿里巴巴直接和間接持有高鑫零售有限公司(Sun Art Retail Group)共計36.16%的股份——觸發(fā)了強制收購要約，原因是這家中國電商集團與同為高鑫股東的法國歐尚(Auchan Retail)和臺灣潤泰集團(Ruentex Group)是一致行動人。

However, the lowball price suggests the chances of take-up are slim. Alibaba is offering HK$6.50 a share, a 24 per cent discount to Friday’s close of HK$8.60 — a differential that sent Sun Art shares down as much as 13.6 per cent on Monday before they closed down 4.1 per cent at HK$8.25.

然而，較低的低報價似乎表明，收購成功的可能性不大。阿里巴巴提出了每股6.50港元的報價，較高鑫上周五8.60港元的收盤價有24%的折讓——這一價差導致周一高鑫股價一度大跌13.6%，最后收盤下跌4.1%，至8.25港元。

Sun Art is one of the few Chinese retailers with a nationwide footprint — the other one, Yonghui Superstores, is part-owned by Alibaba’s ecommerce rival JD.com — and boasts nearly 500 stores.

高鑫是中國少數(shù)幾家在全國范圍經(jīng)營的零售商之一，擁有近500家門店;另一家大型零售商是阿里巴巴的電商對手京東(JD.com)入股的永輝超市(Yonghui Superstores)。

Daniel Zhang, Alibaba’s chief executive, hailed the move as one “to redefine traditional retail through digital transformation”. Analysts said it does so on a very different model from that pursued by Amazon, which this year paid $13.7bn for Whole Foods.

阿里巴巴首席執(zhí)行官張勇(Daniel Zhang)稱，此舉將通過數(shù)字轉(zhuǎn)型重新定義傳統(tǒng)零售。分析師們表示，阿里巴巴這樣做與亞馬遜(Amazon)追求的模式大為不同，后者今年斥資137億美元收購了全食超市(Whole Foods)。

“There is a revolution under way in China, where offline retail does not stand as a defender, victim or loser but most often, as a partner to ecommerce,” wrote Bhavtosh Vajpayee, analyst at Bernstein Research, in a note to clients.

伯恩斯坦(Bernstein Research)分析師巴夫托什•瓦杰帕伊(Bhavtosh Vajpayee)在一份發(fā)給客戶的簡報中寫道：“中國正在經(jīng)歷一場革命，在這一過程中，線下零售不是作為抵抗者、受害者或輸家，而最經(jīng)常的是成為電商的合作伙伴。”

“This ‘digitisation of retail’ is being catalysed by Alibaba and JD at a speed probably only China can afford — the world’s largest commerce market and its largest pool of internet savvy consumers also have vastly under-developed offline infrastructure.”

“阿里巴巴和京東正在助推的這種‘零售數(shù)字化’的速度可能只有中國能夠承受——中國擁有全球最大的電商市場和全球最大的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)消費者群體，而線下基礎(chǔ)設施欠發(fā)達。”

Richard Windsor, analyst at independent research Radio Free Mobile, noted that while its Whole Foods acquisition was about giving Amazon “enough volume in perishable items to give it the scale to push more and more groceries through its site”, Alibaba in contrast “is doing something very different in making a play to take a big piece of the Chinese offline market”.

獨立研究機構(gòu)Radio Free Mobile的分析師理查德•溫莎(Richard Windsor)指出，雖然收購全食超市給亞馬遜帶來了“足夠多數(shù)量的易腐壞食品，使其獲得了足夠大的規(guī)模，能夠通過網(wǎng)站銷售越來越多的食品雜貨”，相比之下，阿里巴巴”所做的完全不一樣，它要在中國的線下市場分一大塊蛋糕”。

Tom Birtwhistle, consulting director at PwC Consulting in Hong Kong, said China’s internet players were stealing a march on incumbent retailers by tackling the huge back-end problems, such as supply chain, logistics and wastage, rather than following the typical customer-centric route taken by retailers to concentrate on ecommerce and marketing.

普華永道咨詢公司(PwC Consulting)駐香港的咨詢總監(jiān)湯姆•伯特威斯爾(Tom Birtwhistle)表示，中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)企業(yè)正通過解決供應鏈、物流和浪費等巨大的后臺問題——而非遵循零售商為專注于電商和市場營銷而走的以客戶為中心的典型路線——搶在老牌零售商前面。

China’s $1.3tn grocery market is ripe for a shake-up. It is big but highly fragmented, with even the leading players each holding only a small slice.

中國1.3萬億美元的食品雜貨市場重新洗牌的時機已經(jīng)成熟。這一市場雖然龐大，但高度分散，即使是領(lǐng)先的參與者也只占有一小部分。

“It’s an enormous market with enormous challenges,” said Mr Birtwhistle. “If I’m an internet company these are the crosshairs I’m looking at because that’s where I can play and generate significant value.”

“這是一個面臨各種艱巨挑戰(zhàn)的巨大市場，”伯特威斯爾說，“如果我是一家互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司，這些就是我要瞄準的目標，因為這是我能夠發(fā)力并產(chǎn)生可觀價值的地方。”

Alibaba said the price paid for Sun Art represented a premium of 150 per cent to net asset value as at end-June. Even the supermarkets that are profitable in China tend to have low valuations, reflecting the challenging nature of the business.

阿里巴巴表示，其為高鑫股份支付的價格較6月底的資產(chǎn)凈值存在150%的溢價。在中國，即使是盈利的超市也往往估值較低，突顯該行業(yè)面臨的挑戰(zhàn)。