In 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the Hollywood studio behind such legendary films as The Wizard of Oz and the James Bond and Hobbit franchises, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It was the classic victim of a leveraged buyout, from a group including Providence Equity Partners and TPG Capital, alongside Sony and Comcast.
2010年，米高梅(Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)根据美国《破产法》第11章申请破产保护。这家好莱坞电影公司曾出品了《绿野仙踪》(The Wizard of Oz)、《007》(James Bond)和《霍比特人》(The Hobbit)等家喻户晓的影片。米高梅是杠杆收购的典型受害者，发起收购的财团中包括普罗维登斯投资(Providence Equity Partners)、德州太平洋集团(TPG Capital)、索尼(Sony)和康卡斯特(Comcast)。

The studio is currently rumoured to be the target of another group of investors with deep pockets — this time the Chinese. Mainland companies Dalian Wanda and the Fosun conglomerate are flush with cash. Dalian Wanda just went public in Hong Kong, raising almost $4bn, and Fosun has access to the coffers of its Portuguese insurer among other sources of money.
目前，有传言称米高梅已成为又一个由资金雄厚的投资者组成的财团的目标——这一次是中国财团。中国大陆企业万达集团(Dalian Wanda)和复星集团(Fosun)都手握巨额现金。万达刚刚在香港上市，融资近40亿美元；而复星除了其他财源，还可以动用旗下葡萄牙保险公司的财力。
Both groups are interested in the movies; indeed they seem to be interested in acquiring almost anything, regardless of lack of apparent synergy. They control a dizzying range of businesses, and their purchases are coming at an accelerating speed. Moreover, they are merely two out of numerous Chinese firms on outbound buying sprees.
这两家集团都对电影感兴趣；实际上，它们似乎有兴趣收购几乎一切公司，即使与现有业务缺乏明显协同效应也不在乎。它们都控制着令人眼花缭乱的众多业务，而目前的收购活动正在提速。而且，它们只是大肆展开海外收购的众多中国企业中的两家。
Whatever the object of a possible sale, the Chinese have surfaced as potential buyers. They are becoming what private equity used to be — buyers of first resort.
无论哪家公司可能挂牌出售，潜在买家中都会出现中国企业。过去的第一买家往往都是私人股本公司，如今正变成中国企业。
It is a dramatic turnround. In 2014 mainland groups spent almost $70bn on offshore acquisitions, according to data from Dealogic. By contrast foreigners spent just $25.5bn on acquisitions going into China, down significantly from the $41.6bn peak in 2010.
这一变化可谓惊人。Dealogic数据显示，2014年中国大陆集团的海外收购开支接近700亿美元。相比之下，外资收购中国企业的金额仅255亿美元，大幅低于2010年416亿美元的峰值。
Soon brokers will obligingly put out lists of potential targets for the Chinese, just as they used to put out lists of take-private candidates. That way everyone else could front-run the buyout firms, purchasing shares and selling debt of target companies, which would inevitably be downgraded if the reports proved correct.
经纪商很快就将善解人意地公布中国企业的潜在收购目标名单，就像它们过去常常公布待私有化公司名单一样。那样的话，其他所有人就可能抢在收购企业之前行动，买入目标公司的股票、卖出其债券，如果收购传闻被证实的话，这将不可避免地导致目标公司被降低评级。
Today the private equity sit on the sidelines, as the prices of companies in their sights soar way higher than those their spreadsheets tell them are reasonable. Corporate buyers with expensive shares and stagnant revenues swoop in and clinch the deals instead. It seems safe to assume that 2015 will be a big year for cross-border deals generally, whether growth picks up globally or (as seems more likely) falls short of New Year hopes.
如今，私人股本公司已在一边观望，因为财务分析结果告诉它们，它们关注的目标公司的价格已飙升太高，超出合理范围。取代它们杀入战场达成收购协议的，是股价高、营收增长停滞的企业买主。不管全球范围内增长复苏，还是逊于新年时的希望（这种可能性更大），我们似乎都可以放心地认为，总体上看，2015年将是跨境收购的丰年。
There are lots of reasons to expect the Chinese to become even bigger participants, especially in the US. Movies say a lot about where China is today — increasingly urban, hungry for entertainment and able to pay for it. More and more acquisitions will be driven by the needs of this huge class of ever-more sophisticated consumers, rather than just the needs of the voracious state-owned enterprises, with their focus on natural resource extraction in emerging markets from Africa to Latin America.
我们有很多理由预计，中国企业在并购方面将扮演更重要角色，尤其是在美国市场。电影业十分有力地说明了中国的现状——城市化程度提高、对娱乐产品如饥似渴，也有相应的消费能力。越来越多收购的驱动因素，将是这一比以往更精明的巨大消费群体的需求，而不仅仅是胃口颇大的国企的需求。国企的关注焦点常常在于从非洲到拉美的新兴市场的自然资源开采行业。
Future transactions are more likely to be driven by new players that are either private sector or less state-ish in their goals. That means more investment and acquisitions in Europe and the US, both for bargains and the most upmarket brands. These groups will be helped by the relative strength of the currency, which makes acquisitions abroad cheaper in Chinese terms.
未来交易的推动者，更有可能是来自民营领域或目标不那么带有政府色彩的新进入者。这意味着，它们将在欧洲和美国市场上进行更多投资和收购，目标为价格划算的公司和最高端的品牌。人民币的相对强势将让这些集团受益，因为以人民币计，它们在海外的收购成本会降低。
Of course the path is not entirely free of obstacles. For one thing, especially in the US, politicians and regulators have had a chilling effect on Chinese buyers since Cnooc withdrew from a planned $18.5bn purchase of Unocal in 2005 in the face of huge political opposition.
当然，海外收购之路不是毫无障碍。首先，自2005年中海油(Cnooc)迫于巨大政治压力而撤出原定185亿美元收购优尼科(Unocal)的计划以来，政客和监管者对中国买家产生了“寒蝉效应”，尤其在美国。
The Committee on Foreign Investment, which reviews transactions with potential national security issues, has vetted deals that lawyers say have few security implications, such as a Hong Kong-based bank’s sale of a handful of US branches to a Chinese bank. It has also vetoed the Chinese sovereign wealth fund’s purchase of a 7 per cent indirect stake in a US telecoms towers company.
美国外国投资委员会(Committee on Foreign Investment)负责评估有潜在国家安全问题的收购交易，已审查了律师表示对安全影响甚小的几项交易，比如一家香港的银行将几家美国分行出售给一家中资银行的交易。该委员会还否决了中国主权财富基金收购一家美国电信塔公司7%的非直接股权的交易。
Moreover, the ambitions of Chinese managements often exceed their ability to oversee their new toys. One adviser based in China recalls pointing out that if his financial client had nobody who spoke Russian, acquiring a Russian bank might prove challenging. It is possible that the Chinese will not buy MGM or Lions Gate Entertainment or anything else in which they have expressed an interest. And if they do, and the investment goes wrong — well, it will not be the first time. We have seen this movie before.
另外，中国企业管理层管理新购企业的能力常常跟不上抱负。一位驻中国的顾问回忆自己曾经指出，如果他的金融业客户公司里谁也不会讲俄语，那么收购一家俄罗斯银行可能很有挑战。可能中国企业最终将不会收购米高梅、狮门娱乐(Lions Gate Entertainment)或任何其他它们曾表达兴趣的公司。如果它们确实收购了，并且投资出了问题——好吧，那将不是第一次。我们以前也看到过这种桥段。