阿里巴巴赴美上市也有不利的一面

Alibaba's choice to ditch a Hong Kong listing for a U.S. listing of up to US$15 billion will allow the ecommerce behemoth to keep control over the company's board, a privilege denied Alibaba by Hong Kong regulators. While getting into the U.S. may be easy, and a successful New York IPO is all but assured for China's biggest ecommerce player, Alibaba unlikely is to find being listed in the U.S. easy sailing.

阿里巴巴集團(Alibaba)選擇放棄在香港上市，轉而赴美國進行規模至多150億美元的首次公開募股(IPO)。美國將允許這家電子商務巨頭保留其對董事會的控制權，而香港監管部門之前拒絕了阿里巴巴關於享有這一特權的要求。作爲中國最大的電子商務巨頭，阿里巴巴也許可以輕鬆進入美國市場，在紐約進行IPO也幾乎可以保證取得成功，但阿里巴巴可能會發現扮演好美國上市公司這一角色並非易事。

First, the risks of investor lawsuits loom. By listing in the U.S., Alibaba exposes itself to class-action lawsuits from investors since Hong Kong lacks a class-action mechanism. A suit filed in 2004 by U.S. shareholders against giant China Life Insurance Co. over its alleged failure to disclose sensitive information--including a government audit--alerted many Chinese companies to U.S. litigation risk, although those claims ultimately were dismissed by courts in 2008. China Life, the country's largest insurer, listed in both the U.S. and Hong Kong in 2003.

首先，阿里巴巴將面臨投資者訴訟風險。在美國上市後，阿里巴巴將把自己暴露在投資者集體訴訟的風險中，而香港的法律中沒有集體訴訟制度。中國人壽保險股份有限公司(China Life Insurance Co.)就曾於2004年在美國遭遇股東提起的訴訟，股東起訴中國人壽未披露敏感信息（其中包括一次政府審計）。這促使很多中資企業對美國訴訟風險保持警惕。不過2008年美國法院駁回了針對中國人壽的訴訟。中國人壽是中國最大的保險公司，2003年在美國和香港兩地上市。

Second, Alibaba's listing implies the need to turn over books containing valuable data on the Chinese economy to U.S. regulators. That might make Chinese officials uneasy.

其次，在美國上市就意味着阿里巴巴需要向美國監管部門披露公司帳目，其中包含了關於中國經濟狀況的寶貴數據。這也許會讓中國官員感到不安。

'There's a lot of what China might consider to be state secrets inside of Alibaba,' said Paul Gillis, a professor of accounting at Peking University. 'Giving U.S. regulators access to that information is something that I think China doesn't really relish.'

北京大學會計教授吉利斯(Paul Gillis)說，阿里巴巴內部的許多信息可能被中國視爲國家機密，授予美國監管部門訪問這些信息的權利並不是中國真正想看到的。

Third, Alibaba faces uncertainty from an ongoing battle between the Securities and Exchange Commission and PRC affiliates of the Big Four accounting firms. The SEC has demanded access to working papers from the Big Four affiliates, which they say they cannot provide without violating Chinese law. In January, an SEC administrative judge suspended the PRC affiliates from auditing U.S-traded clients for six months, a decision the firms have appealed. Alibaba is insulated from the immediate suit; it says its principal auditor is PricewaterhouseCoopers Hong Kong, which is unaffected by the ruling. But sources previously have told Moneybeat that issues surrounding Chinese secrecy laws might also apply in some cases to Hong Kong auditors, leaving them vulnerable to SEC sanction in the future.

第三，阿里巴巴將面臨美國證券交易委員會(Securities and Exchange Commission, 簡稱SEC)與四大會計事務所中國子公司鬥爭帶來的不確定性。SEC已要求查看四大會計事務所中國成員所的審計資料，而這些會計事務所則表示這樣做將觸犯中國法律，所以無法滿足SEC的這一要求。今年1月份，SEC的一位行政法官裁定，四大會計事務所中國成員所暫停審計美國上市公司六個月。上述會計事務所已就這一裁決提起上訴。阿里巴巴目前暫時不受這樁訴訟干擾；阿里巴巴稱，公司的審計工作主要由普華永道香港事務所(PriceWaterhouseCoopers Hong Kong)負責，後者不受SEC裁決的影響。但知情人士此前曾向Moneybeat欄目透露，相關問題涉及到中國保密法，某些情況下可能也適用於香港的會計事務所，所以未來這些公司可能也會受到SEC制裁。

And lastly, while a favorite venue of Chinese tech firms, the U.S. remains an unfamiliar market. Hong Kong has a larger investor base that understands--and is willing to invest in--Chinese companies. Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai has written on Alibaba's corporate blog that since most of Alibaba's business is in China, 'it was natural for Hong Kong to be our first choice.' In an emailed statement, the Hong Kong Exchange echoed that sentiment, noting that HKEx has been 'the leading offshore capital formation centre for companies from Mainland China' for the past 20 years.

最後，雖然美國頗受中國科技公司的青睞，但那個市場仍不爲中國公司所熟悉。而香港不僅擁有龐大的投資者羣體，而且這些投資者瞭解且願意投資中國公司。阿里巴巴董事局執行副主席蔡崇信(Joe Tsai)在公司博客上發文稱，由於阿里巴巴大多數業務都位於中國內地，所以香港自然是其IPO首選地。香港交易所(Hong Kong Exchange)在一份電郵聲明中附和了這一觀點，稱過去20年該交易所一直是吸引中國內地公司上市的主要離岸集資中心。

In fact, Alibaba rival, Tencent Holdings Ltd, is up roughly 10% since the beginning of 2014 in Hong Kong and has surged nearly 700% since it raised around US$200 million in its 2004 IPO. It now has a market capitalization of roughly US$140 billion. Meanwhile, Baidu, Inc., China's leading search engine and another internet rival of Alibaba's, is down 9% year to date. It hasn't done badly however, a reflection of the huge investor base in the U.S. covering fast-growing Chinese tech companies: Since its roughly US$4 billion IPO, Baidu is now worth US$56.63 billion.

阿里巴巴的競爭對手、在香港掛牌上市的騰訊控股有限公司(Tencent Holdings Ltd，簡稱：騰訊控股)的股價今年初至今已上漲了約10%，較2004年的發行價飆升了近700%。騰訊控股當年通過IPO籌集了約2億美元，如今該公司市值爲1,400億美元左右。中國主要搜索引擎、阿里巴巴的另一個對手百度(Baidu Inc.)年初至今下跌了9%。但實際上，百度的表現還不錯，這說明美國爲數甚衆的投資者開始關注快速增長的中國科技公司。百度掛牌上市時籌集了約40億美元，現在該公司市值達到566.3億美元。

Ironically, Alibaba may be exempt from the burden most companies associate with a U.S. listing--onerous requirements on disclosures and transparency. Foreign issuers are exempt from some of the stricter reporting requirements under the U.S.'s landmark Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Hong Kong, meanwhile, has more burdensome barriers for entry for companies using variable interest entity structures, or VIEs, which allow Chinese companies in industries where foreign ownership is restricted-web companies, for example-to list on overseas exchanges, according to Antony Dapiran, a partner at Davis Polk. Under VIE structures, the offshore listed company owns a Chinese shell company which contracts with the underlying Chinese firm to receive all its profits. Because the arrangement relies on contracts, if a company fails, foreign investors don't have much access to the underlying company's assets in China. Compared to Hong Kong, U.S. VIE regulation is light.

具有諷刺意味的是，阿里巴巴可能會免去大多數公司赴美上市遇到的麻煩──關於信息披露和透明度的繁瑣規定。根據美國具有里程碑意義的薩班斯-奧克斯利法案(Sarbanes-Oxley Act)的規定，在美上市的海外公司可免於履行一些較嚴格的報告義務。達維律師事務所(Davis Polk)合夥人戴安通(Antony Dapiran)表示，那些使用可變利益實體(VIE)結構的公司赴香港上市時則面臨重重壁壘，VIE結構讓外資持股受限行業中的中國公司（如互聯網企業）有機會在海外交易所掛牌上市。根據VIE結構，海外上市的公司擁有一箇中國殼公司，該殼公司與這家中國主體公司簽訂接收其全部利潤的協議。因爲這種安排依賴的是協議，所以如果公司倒閉，外國投資者並無多大機會能獲得主體公司在中國國內的資產。與香港相比，美國對VIE結構的監管較鬆。

'In a way the U.S. is less burdensome than Hong Kong for a company like Alibaba,' said Mr. Dapiran. The VIE structure already worked to Alibaba's advantage in 2012, when Alibaba founder Jack Ma transferred the contractual assets of Alipay, Alibaba's online payment system, to a private company he controlled-over the protests of Alibaba investor Yahoo.

戴安通說，從某種程度上講，在美國上市對阿里巴巴這樣的公司而言沒有在香港上市那麼麻煩。VIE結構2012年就曾成爲阿里巴巴的優勢，當時阿里巴巴創始人馬雲(Jack Ma)在公司投資者雅虎(Yahoo)抗議的情況下，將阿里巴巴旗下在線支付系統支付寶(Alipay)的資產轉移到他個人控制的一家公司。