中英互译能源之争-欧洲公用事业掀起合并风潮

1、【中英互译】能源之争-欧洲公用事业掀起合并 风潮Power struggles能源之争(陈继龙编译)Nov 30th 2006From The Economist print editionPolitical and business interests collide as Europe's energy firms consolidate欧洲能源公司合并引发政治与商业利益冲突“WE expected a wave but what ha ppened was a tsuna mi," says Emmanuel Turpin, a utilities a nalyst a

2、t 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 February of two of the biggest-ever takeovers in corporate Europ e: the bid for Endesa

3、, 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.摩根斯坦利投资银行的公用事业分析专家伊曼纽尔 ？特尔平讲：“我们 本来期待的是一阵浪潮，可发生的却是一场海啸。”能源产业内部人士早就 预言今年伊始欧洲公用事业将实施一连串的并购，但今年 2月公诸于众的两宗迄今为止欧洲最大的并购案却是大多数人始料未及的：一个是德国能 源巨头E.ON公司竞购

4、西班牙Endesa电力公司，另一个是法国燃气公司(G DF)与另一家法国公用事业公司 Suez的合并。The latest takeover in the industry, announced this week, is smaller, l ess spectacular and not much of a surprise. Iberdrola, a Spanish electricity company, announced on November 28th its euro17.2 billion ($22.5 billio n) bid for Scottish Power, a

5、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. (1) Yet the acquisition will create one of Europe's six biggest utilities and a world leader in renewable ener gy. And in striking contrast to

6、 the two bigger deals, which are bogged do wn1 in legal and political quagmires, it is likely to proceed smoothly.相比之下，本周宣布的能源产业最近一次并购则比较小，不太引人注 目，而且也不如何出人意料。11月28日，西班牙Iberdrola电力公司宣布将 以172亿欧元(约合225亿美元)收购英国公用事业公司 Scottish Power。 相比E.ON竞购案(现价已达370亿欧元)及苏伊士与 GDF之间780亿欧 元的合并案，这笔交易看上去看起来微不足道，只是此次并购将造就一个

7、跻身欧洲前六位的大型公用事业公司及全球可再生能源先锋。而且，与陷 入法律和政治泥潭而停滞不前的前述两单大买卖形成鲜亮对比的是，这一 次有可能一帆风顺。(2) The catalyst for the frenetic2 merger activity among European utilities is the run-up to full deregulation of the European Union's energy market. For more than a decade the European Commission has been tryin g to enab

8、le energy producers and distributors to compete freely across nat ional borders. The final deadline of the EU's bulky legislative programme to liberalise the market is July 2007. By then member states are suppose d to have implemented all EU energy directives.欧洲公用事业领域之因此掀起这场合并风潮，是因为有关方面正在酝 酿完全放宽

9、欧盟能源市场。十多年来，欧盟委员会一直努力促进能源生产 商和销售商展开跨过国界的自由竞争。欧盟旨在实现市场自由化的一揽子 立法打算完成的最后截止时刻是 2007年7月，届时各成员国应当均已遵照 执行欧盟各项能源指导方针。Ignacio Gal n n, 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 reaso

10、ns for his bid for Scottish Po wer. But Mr Gal n n did not mention the more 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 o n Fenosa, another Spanish power company in which ACS has a 40.5% stake. Mr Gal

11、n n is oppose d to the deal. Iberdrola is the world's leading operator of wind turbines, but Fenosa relies heavily on coal-fired plants, so a merger would sully3 Iberdrola's image.本周Iberdrola公司总裁伊格莱西奥？加兰讲，该公司收购苏格兰电力 公司的缘故之一确实是欧洲放宽市场在即，大型跨国公司因此将处于更加 大势的位置。只是这笔交易专门可能另有所图，但加兰并未提及。西班牙ACS建筑公司最近收购

12、了 Iberdrola10%的股份，期望Iberdrola能与西班牙另 一家电力公司 Uni o n Fenosa合并，而 ACS已持有Uni o n Fenosa 40.5% 的股份。加兰并不赞成这一合并交易。Iberdrola是全球风力发电机的要紧 运营商，但Fenosa则高度依靠火力发电，因此合并会招致Iberdrola形象受 损。Investors and analysts are lukewarm4 about his proposed alternative, however. (3) There is an obvious logic to buying PPM Energy,

13、an Ame rican wind-power developer owned by 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 Power's business. Combining Iberdr ola with Scottish Power will achieve very few cost savings as there is no

14、 other geographic overlap. And Iberdrola is taking on lots of debt to fina nce the pricey takeover.然而，投资者和分析人士对他收购Scottish Power的主张反应都比较冷 淡。鉴于伊维尔德罗拉公司今年早些时候差不多并购了另外两家美国风力 发电公司，接下来收购美国 PPM能源公司（Scottish Power旗下的一家风 力发电开发公司）明显是顺理成章的情况。只是PPM仅占Scottish Power公司总交易量的五分之一。由于 Iberdrola与Scottish Power在运营地域上 并

15、不存在重叠，因此双方联手并不能缩减多少成本，而且 Iberdrola为了筹 措巨额收购费也将重债缠身。（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 Europe's two ot her big energy mergers. It is a full year since a failed bid for Scottish P ower prompted Wulf Bernot

16、at, the boss of E.ON, to plot his big coup: a takeover of Endesa, which would make E.ON one of the world's largest e lectricity and gas firms, with over 50m customers in more than 30 countr ies.只是即便有人反对这次收购，那也是出于商业角度考虑，而与政治抑 或法律无关。然而，两宗能源巨头的合并案就不行讲（是否受到政治或法 律因素干涉）了。自从竞购 Scottish Power失败整整一年来，E.O

17、N公司总 裁伍尔夫？伯诺泰特一直都图谋卷土重来一一收购恩德萨，从而使E.ON公司成为在30多个国家拥有5千余万客户的全球最大电力与燃气公司之一。伯诺泰特的宏伟蓝图正面临马德里方面强有力的阻止。西班牙政府期 望Endesa连续掌控在西班牙人手中，因此该国监管机构对德国人的收购强 加了不下19个限制条件（后来又追加了一些条款）。这场收购还卷入了西 班牙燃气公司Gas Natural与其欲收购的Endesa之间的法律争辩之中。其间，GDF与Suez的合并也遇到了大苦恼。11月21日，巴黎一位法官判令 禁止GDF连续实施合并。该法官认为，担忧合并会招致裁员的工人代表需 要更多的时刻来考虑这笔交易的各项

18、条款。GDF赶忙提出了上诉，但上诉法庭坚持了一审法庭的判决。（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 wing6. Doing the deal just before the election will be tricky, but trying to do it afterwards will be even harder. S e gol

19、e ne 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 merger.如此拖延下去的话，股东对这次交易的投票就只能推迟到恰逢法国总 统竞选热火朝天的明年春天举行了。要在选举前做成这笔交易专门难，然 而想在选举后做

20、成就更是难上加难。社会党总统候选人塞戈雷纳？劳尔差不多立誓一旦获选就将GDF重新收归国有。最有期望获胜的中右翼总统候 选人尼古拉斯？萨尔科奇对这次合并的态度原本就比较暧昧，他最终也完 全有可能完全舍弃对它的支持。But insiders still reckon the two mega-mergers will go ahead. "We a re confident the Spanish and French deals will eventually go through/, s ays Jose Javier Ruiz Fernd ndez, a utilities ana

21、lyst at Exane, a French b roker. The political cost of the Spanish government's tactics is high, so it will probably give up its resistance to E.ON. The European Commission ruled in September that all but one of the 19 conditions imposed on the E.ON bid were illegal, and it said on November 29th

22、 that all of the reg ulator's new conditions were illegal too.只是知情人士仍认为两大公司的合并会进行下去。法国 Exane经纪公 司公用事业分析专家路易斯？费尔南德斯讲：“我们坚信法西之间的这笔买卖最终是能够做成的。"西班牙政府将为它所采取的手段付出高昂的政治代 价，因此它专门有可能不再阻止 E.ON公司入主Endesa欧盟委员会于9 月裁定强加给E.ON公司的19个附加条件几乎无一例外差不多上不合法的， 接着在11月29日又称监管部门新增的条款也都不合法。Next year consolidation will

23、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 foreignersexcept, that is, in Britain. After the takeover of Scottish Power, foreigners will own four of Britain's six big utilities. Only Centri

24、ca, a gas retailer, and Scottish and Southern, the third-biggest energy utility, will remain in domestic hands. (6) They are tempting targets, but any suitor7 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

25、还将连续，只是步子会稍慢一些。目前收购欧洲公用事业公 司的门槛还专门高。各国政府仍旧反对外商并购本国公用事业公司一一英 国除外。收购Scottish Power后，外商将入主英国6家大型公用事业公司中 的4家。把握在英国人自己手中的仅剩下天然气零售商Centrica和第三大公用能源公司Scottish&Southern。这两家公司具有专门强的吸引力，但任何打算收购他们的公司都必须有殷实的家底，同时确信不管遭到如何样的政治 干预，欧洲能源市场都会专门快真正实现开放。QUIZ英译汉(将划线部分英文翻译成中文)：NOTES(OXFORD)1. bog v. v (-gg-) (phr v)

26、bog (sth) down (usu passive 通常用于被 动语态)(a) (cause sth to) sink into mud or wet ground (使某物)陷入泥 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）陷入逆境不能前进 :Our discussions got bogged down in irrelevant de tail.我们的讨论蛮缠在无关紧要的细节上.2. frenetic adj. frenetic activity is fast and not ve