繞過投行 BAT大力發展內部交易團隊

Move over boutique houses.

繞過精品投行。

Home-grown investment banks are taking root within China’s tech groups, which are fostering in-house M&A groups to carry out their multi-billion dollar shopping sprees.

土生土長的投行部門開始在中國的科技集團內生根，這些集團正在培育內部併購(M&A)團隊，爲數十億美元的收購提供服務。

Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent— China’s internet trinity collectively known as BAT — are among the country’s biggest dealmakers, spending a combined $64bn on acquisitions in the past 18 months, according to Dealogic data.

Dealogic數據顯示，被合稱爲BAT的中國互聯網三巨頭——百度(Baidu)、阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和騰訊(Tencent)如今已進入該國最大交易機構行列，過去18個月共斥資640億美元進行收購。

The trio are home to alumni from Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks and now boast in-house banking units of 40 to 70 people apiece, according to industry players.

這三家企業中擁有許多曾在高盛(Goldman Sachs)等華爾街投行任職的員工，目前每一家都成立了40人至70人的內部投行部門。

The function reflects expanding portfolios of strategic and venture capital investments alongside a belief that investment banks increasingly lack the wherewithal to keep pace in the fast-changing world of tech.

這一職能部門的設立，反映出戰略與風險投資的投資組合不斷擴大，以及一種觀念：投行越來越缺乏必要資本、無法跟上快速變化的科技世界。

Investment banks nowadays have lost the capability to advise clients in M&A transactions, said one in-house player.

如今的投行已喪失了在併購交易中向客戶提供諮詢服務的能力，一名公司內部投行部門人士說。

In the internet world things are changing so fast that investment banks are finding it hard to keep up with the industrial logic of why certain M&A should or should not happen.

在互聯網領域，事物的變化太快了，投行開始發現很難跟上某些併購交易應當或者不應當發生的行業邏輯。

While bankers in oil and gas or finance know these industries as well as the industry guy running the business, tech bankers know maybe 1 per cent of what we know about our business, the person added.

此人補充稱，儘管油氣或金融領域的投行人員瞭解這些行業以及這些行業中的企業掌管者，但科技領域的投行員工對我們企業的瞭解程度或許僅僅相當於我們自己的1%。

It’s all DIY, said Scott Likens, partner at PWC.

這一行全是DIY，普華永道(PWC)合夥人李敬思(Scott Likens)說。

It’s partly about control, partly being flush with funds and partly not trusting foreign bankers or not wanting to give away money.

部分原因是爲了掌控，部分原因是資金太多，還有部分原因在不信任外部人或不想花錢。

However, bankers are quick to distinguish the BAT bankers from the big Chinese state-owned enterprises and other institutions that cut out bankers to skimp on fees.

然而，銀行家很快可以把BAT內部投行員工跟那些爲了省錢而不聘用銀行的中國大型國企和其他機構區分開來。

I don’t want to do these small deals, said one banker.

我不想做這些小案子，一名銀行家說。

Some 65 of Tencent’s deals over the past 18 months were for less than $500m, according to Dealogic, compared with 75 bigger acquisitions; in Baidu’s case the split was 20 small deals versus just two above $500m.

Dealogic數據顯示，騰訊在過去18個月裏實施的大約65個收購案規模都不到5億美元，75項交易的規模則更大；至於百度，實施了20個小型收購案，規模高於5億美元的案子僅有2個。

Another banker points to the trio’s bulging pipelines of deals, from partnerships through to acquisitions.

另一名銀行家提到了上述三巨頭日益增多的交易結構——從合作到收購。

If they were to complete everything they are working on today there will be a couple of hundred items in there, said one banker.

如果他們今天正實施的項目，一切流程都由自己操辦的話，那麼項目將有一兩百個，一名銀行家說。

For the substantial majority of these they would never hire an outsider.

在這些項目中的絕大部分，他們將不會聘用外來者去實施。

Added another: The deals come to them.

另一名銀行家接着說：交易到了他們手裏。

They are out looking but have enough prominence that they can sit around and look at 100 a day and choose one.

他們朝外看，但擁有足夠高的聲望，結果就到處坐坐，每天看100個項目，然後從中選出1個。

The expanding functions in-house contrast with the shrinking world outside: big global banks have cut up to 15 per cent of their Asian investment bankers since 2012 as the gap between Asian M&A fees and those paid by western clients ballooned to its highest level in more than a decade.

內部投行職能部門的擴張，與外部投行的收縮形成了反差：隨着亞洲併購交易收費與西方客戶付費金額之間的差距上升至10多年來最高水平，全球大型銀行已削減了高達15%的亞洲投行員工數量。

The in-house deal teams are composed largely of former bankers, private equity executives and consultants.

內部交易團隊主要由前投行員工、私人股本公司高管和諮詢顧問組成。

Prominent banking alumni include Tencent’s Martin Lau and James Mitchell, respectively president and chief strategy officer and both formerly of Goldman Sachs.

知名的投行業同僚包括騰訊的劉熾平(Martin Lau)和詹姆斯.米切爾(James Mitchell)，此二人都曾在高盛任職，目前分別擔任騰訊的總裁和首席戰略官。

Alibaba president Michael Evans and Douglas Feagin, who runs the international operations of Ant Financial, Alibaba’s online payments affiliate, also hailed from the US bank.

阿里巴巴總裁邁克.埃文斯(Mike Evans)和集團在線支付業務子公司螞蟻金服(Ant Financial)的國際業務負責人道格拉斯.費根(Douglas Feagin)，也來自高盛。

Alibaba was an early player, hiring Wei Zhang — now president of Alibaba Pictures — as its first head of strategic investments in 2008.

阿里巴巴是這方面的先行者，在2008年聘用張蔚——如今的阿里影業(Alibaba Pictures)總裁——擔任集團的首位戰略投資部負責人。

The team at Baidu is understood to be the smallest of the three.

據瞭解，百度的內部交易團隊是三巨頭中最小的。