軟銀將首次出售阿里巴巴股份

SAN FRANCISCO — SoftBank, the Japanese telecommunications company, said on Tuesday that it planned to sell about $8 billion worth of its stake in the Alibaba Group of China to help pay down its debt load.

舊金山——週二，日本電信公司軟銀(SoftBank)表示，計劃出售價值約80億美元的阿里巴巴股份，以減輕其債務負擔。

It will be the first time that SoftBank has sold any of its shares in the Chinese e-commerce giant since first investing in that company 16 years ago, becoming one of the first believers in Alibaba’s potential.

軟銀16年前入股阿里巴巴，成爲相信其發展潛力的第一批投資者。這將是它首次出售自己持有的這家中國電子商務巨頭的股份。

SoftBank plans to sell its stake in stages. Approximately $5 billion will be packaged into a financial security that will convert into shares in Alibaba after three years.

軟銀計劃分階段出售這些股份。其中有價值約50億美元的股份將被打包成金融證券出售，三年以後可以轉換成阿里巴巴股份。

Alibaba itself will buy back about $2 billion worth of shares from SoftBank. The Chinese company’s partnership, a group that essentially controls the e-commerce giant through its ability to nominate a majority of directors, plans to buy an additional $400 million worth of shares.

阿里巴巴本身將從軟銀回購價值約20億美元的股份。它的一個夥伴計劃另外購買價值4億美元的股份。該夥伴企業可以任命阿里巴巴的大部分董事，是這家電子商務巨頭的實質掌控者。

And SoftBank will sell another $500 million shares to an unnamed government’s investment fund.

軟銀將出售另外5億美元的股份給一家未披露名稱的政府投資基金。

In a statement, SoftBank — the majority owner of Sprint in the United States — said that the stock sales were meant to reduce its corporate debt burden. The company reported holding about 8.5 trillion yen, or just under $77 billion, worth of long-term debt as of March 31, according to Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ, a research service.

軟銀是美國Sprint公司的控股股東。在一份聲明中，軟銀表示，出售阿里巴巴的這些股份意在減輕自身的債務負擔。據研究公司標普資本智商(Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ)統計，截至今年的3月31日，軟銀的長期債務價值約爲8.5萬億日元（逾5000億元人民幣）。

Even after the sale, however, SoftBank said that it would remain one of Alibaba’s biggest shareholders, with a stake of about 28 percent. Masayoshi Son, the Japanese company’s chairman and chief executive, will remain on Alibaba’s board. Alibaba’s co-founder and executive chairman, Jack Ma, will still be a director of SoftBank, as well.

不過，軟銀表示，即便是出售這些股份之後，該公司仍是阿里巴巴最大的股東之一，佔股約28%。這家日本企業的董事長兼首席執行官孫正義(Masayoshi Son)依然擁有阿里巴巴的董事席位。阿里的聯合創始人、董事局主席馬雲也將繼續擔任軟銀的董事。

“This investment has been phenomenally successful and, over the past 16 years, we have built a close relationship, working together on many exciting projects,” Mr. Son said in a statement. “In that time, we have not sold any Alibaba shares. There are huge opportunities ahead for Alibaba and SBG looks forward to the continued partnership.”

“這項投資獲得了非同尋常的成功。在過去的16年裏，我們建立起密切的關係，一起做了許多令人興奮的項目，”孫正義在聲明中表示。“在這期間，我們不曾出售阿里巴巴的任何股份。阿里巴巴還有着巨大的發展機遇，軟銀期待與之繼續保持合作關係。”