Plans for an ambitious partnership between Russia’s biggest bank and China’s ecommerce group have fallen apart after nearly a year of negotiations, people familiar with the talks have told the Financial Times.
知情人士告诉英国《金融时报》，在历经近一年的谈判后，俄罗斯最大银行俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行(Sberbank)与中国电商巨头阿里巴巴(Alibaba)雄心勃勃的合作计划流产。
Sberbank, which holds half of all Russian retail deposits, and Alibaba, which recorded $547bn of gross merchandise volume last fiscal year, had planned to bring that clout to bear in an ecommerce push in Russia, where more than half the 140m population use the internet daily.
俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行的零售存款约占全俄罗斯的一半，而阿里巴巴上个财年的商品交易总额(GMV)达到5470亿美元。两家公司原本计划强强联手，在俄罗斯开拓电商业务。在俄罗斯1.4亿人口中，一半以上的人每天都会上网。
The proposed tie-up was an attempt to leverage state-run Sberbank’s vast client base with the Chinese ecommerce juggernaut to sell items to customers through the bank’s app.
按照之前的合作计划，双方原本打算利用身为国有银行的俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行的庞大客户基础以及阿里巴巴在电商领域的强大实力，通过俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行的APP向客户销售商品。
But the companies abandoned the discussions after falling out over how it would work, the people said.
但知情人士表示，两家公司在就如何开展业务产生分歧后放弃了谈判。
Sberbank said: “We don’t comment on rumours.” Alibaba declined to comment.
俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行表示：“我们不对传言发表评论。”阿里巴巴拒绝置评。
Herman Gref, Sberbank’s chief executive, is friendly with Alibaba founder Jack Ma and has long been keen for the bank to move into technology-dominated sectors, which he sees as essential to stay relevant in a digital world. Last month, he said the bank would prioritise moves into ecommerce and medicine in addition to finance.
俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行首席执行官赫尔曼?格列夫(Herman Gref)与阿里巴巴创始人马云(Jack Ma)是朋友。很长时间以来，格列夫一直希望该银行进军由科技主导的行业，他认为，这对于在数字世界站稳脚跟至关重要。上月，他表示，除金融业以外，该银行将优先进军电商和医药行业。
“About 50 per cent of businesses [in Russia] work in trade and it’s all intermediary functions. With the growth of ecommerce all physical intermediaries will be a thing of the past” in five or six years, Mr Gref said.
格列夫表示，“（在俄罗斯）大约一半企业从事贸易行业，都是起到中介作用。随着电商发展，”五六年后，“所有实体的中介性质的企业都将落伍”。
In August, however, Sberbank announced a new joint venture with Yandex, the Russian search engine group, that is trying to turn Yandex.Market, a shopping comparison site, into a fully fledged ecommerce company. The bank invested Rbs30bn at a valuation of Rbs60bn ($1bn) and expects to conclude the deal by the end of the year.
然而在今年8月，俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行宣布与俄罗斯搜索引擎集团Yandex成立一家新的合资企业，Yandex正试图把购物比价网站Yandex.Market转变为一家成熟的电子商务公司。该银行对这家估值600亿卢布（合10亿美元）的合资企业投资了300亿卢布，并预计在今年年底完成交易。
A person briefed on the discussions said Mr Gref turned to Yandex after talks with Alibaba fell through over who would control the joint venture, which Sberbank saw as an attempt to gain access to its customer database without offering much in return.
一位知情人士表示，在就合资企业控制权问题与阿里巴巴谈崩后，格列夫转向了Yandex。俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行认为阿里巴巴组建合资企业意在利用其客户数据库却不想提供多少东西作为交换。

But another person familiar with the companies’ thinking said the talks fell through later, after Sberbank invested in the Yandex joint venture and tried to partner it with Alibaba. “Alibaba doesn’t want to work with some comparison website,” the person said.
但另一位熟悉两家公司想法的人士表示，俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行投资于Yandex合资企业，并试图让它与阿里巴巴合作，后来谈判失败。该人士说：“阿里巴巴不想与比价网站合作。”
Russia is one of the biggest markets for AliExpress, Alibaba’s cross-border ecommerce business selling from China into international markets. Cross-border retail grew 37 per cent last year to more than Rbs300bn ($5bn), about a third of the total online market.
俄罗斯是全球速卖通(AliExpress)最大的市场之一，后者是阿里巴巴旗下从中国向国际市场销售的跨境电子商务业务。俄罗斯跨境零售业务去年增长37%，至逾3000亿卢布(合50亿美元)，大约占到整个在线市场的三分之一。
Alibaba is holding early-stage discussions with other potential partners in Russia, but “it has to be a deal that makes sense”, the person said.
该人士表示，阿里巴巴正在与俄罗斯其他潜在合作伙伴进行早期谈判，但“交易必须合理”。