中国海外并购为何舍得花大钱？

　　撮合并购交易的人知道，要想交易获得成功，你必须使自己的资产比负债更有吸引力。中国企业正在学会这一点。

　　不妨看看中石化集团斥资72亿美元收购Addax的交易，后者在非洲有规模可观的业务。分析师们说，中国国有石油公司中石化开出的收购价比业内正常水平高很多。中石化的出价相当于以每桶34美元的价格收购Addax的探明储量，以每桶14美元的价格收购该公司的可能储量。而在原油平均价格与目前相当的2007年，非洲石油资产交易的平均收购价是：探明储量每桶14.40美元，可能储量每桶9.90美元。以探明储量计，如果基于2007年的平均油价，那么中石化这笔收购交易的价格应为31亿美元。这意味着，中石化此次72亿美元的出价存在135%的溢价。

　　业内人士说，中国之所以愿意出高价收购，是因为它急于攫取全球自然资源，它还需要克服最近几年一直在妨碍中国国有公司海外收购努力的政治困难。最能体现这种困难的案例是中国国有石油企业中国海洋石油总公司（Cnooc） 2005年竞购美国加州联合石油公司（Unocal）遭遇失败，以及三周前英-澳矿业公司力拓（Rio Tinto）拒绝了中国铝业公司（Chinalco） 195亿美元的投资。在这两桩交易中，政治因素都起了阻碍作用。

　　在先前遭遇一系列挫折后，中国公司今年加快了并购步伐，虽然中铝投资力拓以失败告终，但不惜重金一直是中国企业海外收购策略的重要组成部分。（中铝在交易失败后一直说，它曾表示愿意提高对力拓资产的出价。

　　韩国国家石油公司（KNoc）也参与了对Addax的竞购。该公司说，它并没有多少胜算，因为其中国对手开出的价格非常诱人。中石化报出的每股收购价为52.8加元，比Addax在6月5日的股价高出47%.6月6日，收购Addax的初步谈判正在进行这一消息对外公布。

　　中石化这桩收购交易还显示，中国愿意冒险，因为收购Addax后中石化将在石油丰富但却具有政治敏感性的伊拉克库尔德斯坦地区获得立足点，并能在西非海域拥有业务。西非海域虽然是石油行业最热门的勘探区之一，但在这个包括尼日利亚在内的地区，当地武装分子一直在骚扰石油钻探企业。

　　今年到目前为止，中国公司在油气领域已经达成了10宗并购交易。中国企业去年的油气并购交易是14宗。中石化的这桩交易如能完成，将成为中国在自然资源方面规模最大的海外并购交易。这宗交易还将使中国在油气资源领域的并购额增加到120亿美元，比去年同期增加

　　只要中国的国有企业试图到海外收购业务，特别是在自然资源等敏感领域，政治因素就是个很难回避的问题。但鉴于世界经济的增长速度出现放缓，许多企业都急需资金，因此拥有大量资金的中国可以让显示力量对比的天平向自己一方倾斜。

　　Examining China Inc's Merger Deals

　　Deal makers know that to succeed you have to make your assets speak louder than your liabilities. China Inc. is learning that lesson.

　　Just look at Sinopec's bid to acquire Swiss oil company Addax， which has a big presence in Africa. The price that China Petrochemical Corp.， the Chinese state-owned oil company known as Sinopec， is offering is much higher than usual for the sector， analysts say. Sinopec's offer is equivalent to $34 a barrel of proved reserves and $14 a barrel of proved and probable reserves. The African transaction average in 2007， when the average crude price is similar to current prices， was $14.40 a barrel for proved reserves and $9.90 for proved and probable reserves， respectively. On a proved basis， the 2007 average suggests $3.1 billion total value for the deal. Therefore， $7.2 billion implies a 135% premium.

　　People in the industry say China is willing to overpay because it is eager to snatch up global natural resources and it needs to overcome the kinds of political difficulties that hampered Chinese state-owned companies' overseas takeover attempts in recent years. This was seen most famously in the failed attempt by state-owned oil company Cnooc to acquire Unocal in 2005 and， three weeks ago， when Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto turned down Chinalco's historic $19.5 billion deal. In both cases， political static helped doom the deals.

　　After laying low， China Inc. has picked up its M&A pace this year， the Rio failure notwithstanding， and a willingness to pay dearly has been a big part of its strategy. （Chinalco has since said it had been willing to increase its offer to Rio.）

　　KNoc also bid for Addax. The South Korean company says it didn't have a lot of chance because its Chinese competitor put up a very attractive offer. Sinopec offered C$52.8 a share， a 47% premium of Addax's June 5 stock price， the day before the announcement of the preliminary takeover talks.

　　The deal also shows China's willingness to take risks， as Sinopec would gain a presence in oil-rich but politically sensitive Iraqi Kurdistan as well as offshore West Africa， one of the hottest sectors of the oil world but one that includes Nigeria， where local militants continually harass drillers.

　　Already this year， Chinese companies have notched 10 deals in the oil & gas space. The total number of oil & gas deals in all of last year was 14. This Sinopec deal， if completed， would be the largest overseas takeover in China's M&A history in natural resources The deal also would boost the value of Chinese oil & gas mergers and acquisition to $12 billion， up 80% from the same period last year.

　　As long as government-owned Chinese companies are trying to buy business overseas， especially in sensitive sectors like natural resources， political issues will be hard to avoid. But with the world in an economic slowdown， companies are hungry for cash and China has a lot of it to tilt the balance in its favor.