来源：《卫报》
原文刊登日期：2021年7月7日
It seems particularly ironic that one of the biggest takeover battles in years – a trio of American private equity firms tussling over who gets to buy supermarket chain Morrisons – should coincide with Wimbledon. For decades, economists defending the British model of capitalism would liken it to the summer fortnight during which the UK hosted the world’s best tennis talent – almost none of which was homegrown. So what if the City was largely owned by Americans, the trains run by Germans and major airports in Spanish hands? The UK didn’t do national champions in business any more than it expected Tim Henman to beat Goran Ivanišević.
具有讽刺意味的是，近年来规模最大的收购战之一——美国三家私人股本公司围绕谁将获得连锁超市莫里森的收购权而展开的争夺战——竟然发生在温布尔登网球公开赛期间。几十年来，为英国资本主义模式辩护的经济学家们将其比作夏季温网的那两周，在此期间，英国接待了世界上最好的网球天才——但几乎没有一个是英国本土的。那么，如果伦敦金融城主要由美国人拥有，火车由德国人运营，主要机场由西班牙人掌控，又会怎样呢？英国并没有在商业领域取得国家冠军，就像它不期望蒂姆•亨曼击败Ivanišević一样。
That is clearly changing. Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary and typically an avid free-marketeer, has this week demanded a meeting with Morrisons’ top brass over the £9.5bn bid that it has commended to shareholders. The buyout firm leading that offer, Fortress, has taken the unusual step of issuing a long letter full of commitments to the supermarket’s employees, suppliers and pensioners. No doubt Fortress comes armed with the best of intentions; it evidently also employs diligent lawyers.
这种情况显然正在改变。英国商务大臣夸西•科瓦滕是一位狂热的自由市场主义者。本周，他要求与莫里森的高层会面，讨论该公司向股东推荐的95亿英镑收购报价。牵头出价收购要约的公司堡垒(Fortress)采取了不同寻常的措施，向莫里森超市的员工、供应商和退休人员发出了一封充满承诺的长信。毫无疑问，堡垒公司是带着好意来的；但它显然也雇佣了勤奋的律师。
There are issues here that go far beyond whether the company’s bosses have accents from Bradford or Boston. Morrisons is a firm marked by unusual continuity. William Morrison began selling eggs and butter in 1899; his son Ken took over the business in 1952 and only retired in 2008. Moreover, it runs a very different business model from competitors. It directly owns and runs its meat processing operations as well as its own farms and fishing fleets. A study of British food production described Morrisons as showing “it is possible within the UK to behave as a socially responsible vertically integrated processor, source more British produce, and do so while competing on price in the mass market with the ‘big three’ major supermarkets”.
这里的问题远远超出了公司老板的口音是来自布拉德福德还是波士顿。莫里森是一家具有非凡连续性的公司。威廉·莫里森在1899年开始卖鸡蛋和黄油；他的儿子肯在1952年接管了这家公司，直到2008年才退休。此外，它的商业模式与竞争对手截然不同。它直接拥有并经营其肉类加工业务以及自己的农场和渔船队。一项对英国食品生产的研究将莫里森描述为“在英国，作为一个对社会负责的垂直整合加工商，采购更多英国产品，同时在大众市场上与‘三大’超市进行价格竞争，是能做到的。”
The private equity sector is a stranger to such specialisation and to operating over a 50-year horizon. Its traditional focus is financial engineering: on getting costs down, whether that be cutting staff or taxes, extracting profits and then cashing out. The signal case in the UK is how Boots, a chemist founded in the 1840s, was bought by a consortium of investors in 2007 for £11bn – almost £9bn of which was borrowed and then put on the company’s own balance sheet. Within a few months of the sale, the headquarters was shifted from Nottingham to low-tax Zug in Switzerland.
私人股本行业对这种专业化和50年的运营周期并不熟悉。其传统重点是金融工程：降低成本，无论是裁员还是减税，获取利润，然后套现。英国的一个标志性案例是，成立于19世纪40年代的药店博茨(Boots)在2007年被一个由投资者组成的财团以110亿英镑收购，其中近90亿英镑是借来的，然后计入了博茨自身的资产负债表。在出售后的几个月内，博茨总部就从诺丁汉转移到了瑞士税率较低的楚格。
It should not require a takeover for politicians and regulators to consider who owns our companies and how they are run. Every major business in the UK relies upon Britain’s infrastructure for transport, health and education for staff, and legal protection. Two questions not asked enough in Westminster are what the public gets in return, and whether that is enough. The British don’t need to win Wimbledon, but they can at least ensure the benefits of hosting it are shared out fairly.
对于企业收购，不应该要求政治家和监管者考虑谁拥有英国的公司以及公司如何运作。英国的每一家主要企业都依赖于英国的交通、员工健康和教育基础设施以及法律保护。在威斯敏斯特，有两个问题问得不够多：公众得到了什么回报，以及这是否足够。英国人不需要赢得温布尔登，但他们至少可以确保举办比赛的好处得到公平分配。