安邦遇到的最新挫折 撤回收購申請

HONG KONG — Anbang, a politically connected Chinese insurer, has hit a bump in its effort to buy an insurance company in Iowa for $1.57 billion, the latest setback to its multibillion-dollar global shopping spree.

香港——擁有政治關係的中國保險公司安邦在準備斥資15.7億美元收購美國艾奧瓦州一家保險公司時遇到麻煩。安邦正在全球各地灑下大把金錢進行併購，而這是它遇到的最新挫折。

Anbang Insurance Group has struck a remarkable spate of deals including an agreement two years ago to buy the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. It has also reached a $6.5 billion deal to buy hotels from the private-equity firm Blackstone Group, and it has agreed to buy financial firms in Europe and South Korea.

安邦保險集團已經達成了一系列引人矚目的交易，包括兩年前收購紐約華爾道夫-阿斯托里亞酒店 (Waldorf Astoria)，斥資65億美元從私募股權公司黑石集團(Blackstone Group)那裏收購酒店，以及收購歐洲和韓國的一些金融公司。

The Chinese insurance company — which until recent years was not well-known even in its home country — is near the forefront of a growing wave of Chinese companies buying firms abroad.

就在幾年之前，這家保險公司甚至在中國本土都不太知名，如今它卻成爲了中國企業海外併購大潮中的一個領跑者。

But the campaign hit a setback with Fidelity & Guaranty Life, the Des Moines-based insurer that Anbang agreed to buy last year. Anbang withdrew its application with the New York State Department of Financial Services to acquire the company, Fidelity said in a filing on Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

不過，安邦去年達成的收購總部設在得梅因的信保人壽保險公司(Fidelity & Guaranty Life)的協議，現在卻出現波折。本週二，信保在提交給美國證券交易委員會(Securities and Exchange Commission)的一份備案文件中表示，安邦撤回了向紐約州金融服務局(New York State Department of Financial Services)提交的收購申請。

Fidelity had hoped that Anbang could come back, saying the withdrawal was not final and that it expected Anbang to refile in the “near future.”

信保希望安邦能回心轉意，表示撤回申請並非最終決定，期待安邦在“近期”重新申請。

Paul Marriott of FTI Consulting in Hong Kong, which represents Anbang, did not have an immediate comment on why Anbang withdrew its application. Fidelity did not say why Anbang withdrew its application, which was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.

對於安邦撤回申請的原因，代表安邦的香港富事高商務諮詢(FTI Consulting)的保羅·馬里奧特(Paul Marriott)沒有立即置評。《華爾街日報》(The Wall Street Journal)之前報道了申請撤回一事，但信保沒有提到其中的原因。

The setback adds to Anbang recent stumbles. In March, it abruptly ended its $14 billion bid to buy Starwood Hotels and Resorts. It said little about why it had retreated, mentioning only “various market considerations.”

安邦近來遭遇的挫折不只這一起。今年3月，它突然放棄以140億美元競購喜達屋酒店及度假村(Starwood Hotels and Resorts)。安邦幾乎沒有提及原因，只是說“出於各種市場考慮”。

Anbang, which owns insurance companies, a bank and a leasing company, says it has almost $300 billion in assets; it is owned by 39 corporate shareholders, according to China’s State Administration of Industry and Commerce. Two of the shareholders are state-owned companies, while the other 37, which own more than 95 percent of Anbang, are an opaque web of interconnected companies. Many share phone numbers, email addresses and management, The New York Times reported in March.

安邦旗下有多家保險公司、一家銀行和一家租賃公司，自稱擁有近3000億美元的資產；從中國國家工商行政管理總局的資料來看，它的企業股東有39個。兩家是國有企業，其他37家擁有安邦95%以上的股份，彼此關聯，形成了一個錯綜複雜的網絡。《紐約時報》今年3月的報道指出，其中很多公司連電話號碼、電子郵箱地址和管理層都一樣。

Anbang’s chairman, Wu Xiaohui, married a granddaughter of China’s former leader, Deng Xiaoping. One Anbang director is the son of Chen Yi, a former long-serving foreign minister and top army general who died in 1972. Another former director is the son of Zhu Rongji, China’s prime minister from 1998 to 2003.

安邦董事長吳小暉是中國前領導人鄧小平的外孫女婿。一位董事是陳毅之子；陳毅擁有元帥軍銜，曾長期擔任外交部長，於1972年去世。另一位前董事的父親則是1998至2003年擔任總理的朱鎔基。

Anbang must obtain regulatory approval for its takeover from states where Fidelity does business. It also has a pending application in Iowa, Fidelity said in its filing on Tuesday. Fidelity shares fell by more than 3.3 percent on Tuesday in New York, their biggest drop since August.

安邦要收購信保的話，就必須從信保開展業務的各州監管部門那裏獲得批准。信保在週二的備案文件中表示，安邦在艾奧瓦州的申請也有待批准。週二當天，信保在紐交所的股票價格下跌逾3.3%，創下去年8月以來的最大跌幅。

Anbang’s purchase of Fidelity, announced in November, was cleared by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a government panel that checks whether planned acquisitions of American companies raise national security concerns, Fidelity said in March.

安邦收購信保的計劃是在去年11月宣佈的。今年3月，信保表示這個計劃已在美國外國投資委員會(Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States)獲得通過。該委員會是政府機構，負責審覈併購美國公司的計劃是否涉及國家安全問題。