阿里巴巴29亿美元入股高鑫零售

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)向着电商与实体店融合的“新零售”又迈进一步，斥资29亿美元入股中国规模最大的连锁超市之一。

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.

按照香港规则，这笔价值224亿港元(合29亿美元)的交易——使阿里巴巴直接和间接持有高鑫零售有限公司(Sun Art Retail Group)共计36.16%的股份——触发了强制收购要约，原因是这家中国电商集团与同为高鑫股东的法国欧尚(Auchan Retail)和台湾润泰集团(Ruentex Group)是一致行动人。

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，较低的低报价似乎表明，收购成功的可能性不大。阿里巴巴提出了每股6.50港元的报价，较高鑫上周五8.60港元的收盘价有24%的折让——这一价差导致周一高鑫股价一度大跌13.6%，最后收盘下跌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.

高鑫是中国少数几家在全国范围经营的零售商之一，拥有近500家门店;另一家大型零售商是阿里巴巴的电商对手京东(JD.com)入股的永辉超市(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.

阿里巴巴首席执行官张勇(Daniel Zhang)称，此举将通过数字转型重新定义传统零售。分析师们表示，阿里巴巴这样做与亚马逊(Amazon)追求的模式大为不同，后者今年斥资137亿美元收购了全食超市(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)分析师巴夫托什•瓦杰帕伊(Bhavtosh Vajpayee)在一份发给客户的简报中写道：“中国正在经历一场革命，在这一过程中，线下零售不是作为抵抗者、受害者或输家，而最经常的是成为电商的合作伙伴。”

“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.”

“阿里巴巴和京东正在助推的这种‘零售数字化’的速度可能只有中国能够承受——中国拥有全球最大的电商市场和全球最大的互联网消费者群体，而线下基础设施欠发达。”

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”.

独立研究机构Radio Free Mobile的分析师理查德•温莎(Richard Windsor)指出，虽然收购全食超市给亚马逊带来了“足够多数量的易腐坏食品，使其获得了足够大的规模，能够通过网站销售越来越多的食品杂货”，相比之下，阿里巴巴”所做的完全不一样，它要在中国的线下市场分一大块蛋糕”。

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.

普华永道咨询公司(PwC Consulting)驻香港的咨询总监汤姆•伯特威斯尔(Tom Birtwhistle)表示，中国互联网企业正通过解决供应链、物流和浪费等巨大的后台问题——而非遵循零售商为专注于电商和市场营销而走的以客户为中心的典型路线——抢在老牌零售商前面。

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.

中国1.3万亿美元的食品杂货市场重新洗牌的时机已经成熟。这一市场虽然庞大，但高度分散，即使是领先的参与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.”

“这是一个面临各种艰巨挑战的巨大市场，”伯特威斯尔说，“如果我是一家互联网公司，这些就是我要瞄准的目标，因为这是我能够发力并产生可观价值的地方。”

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，其为高鑫股份支付的价格较6月底的资产净值存在150%的溢价。在中国，即使是盈利的超市也往往估值较低，突显该行业面临的挑战。