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9/28/2008 傅成玉 中海油的特殊竞争力黯然下台的英国石油公司(BP)前CEO约翰·布朗2005年抵京时,中国海洋石油总公司(以下简称中海油)总经理傅成玉与其有过一次见面。会谈中有一个话题令傅成玉印象深刻:公司的规模是否越大越好?
约翰·布朗,这位仅用7年时间把BP从一个中等公司造就为世界第二大石油巨头的英国人,本该在2008年年满60岁时退休。 但在2007年,BP和他个人遭受了一系列的挫折,其中包括德州一家提炼厂的爆炸导致15名工人丧生,位于阿拉斯加Prudhoe湾的油田发生管道泄漏事故,甚至还有媒体捅出他个人挪用资金等丑闻。最终,这位曾经身上绕满光环的CEO、上议院议员、英特尔和高盛等世界著名大公司的非执行董事提前17个月“下课”。 “比如埃克森、BP这种大的石油公司的难处比我们要多,这是外界很多人并不清楚的地方,所以我们2003年就提出中海油要做成世界一流的能源公司,而不是仅仅规模做大。”傅成玉2008年9月接受《英才》记者专访时坦言。 约翰·布朗无奈丢掉了完美结局,这似乎让曾经以BP为标杆的傅成玉对并购重新加以审视和认知。 近25亿美元并购挪威AWO,单纯从交易额上说,比起3年前185亿美元并购未果的优尼科不可同日而语。但毋庸置疑,这是中海油旗下的中海油服(15.47,0.18,1.18%,吧)(601808.ZH)海外成功并购第一单,也是中国公司全额收购欧洲公司交易额最大的项目。对于跨国并购的感受,傅成玉对《英才》记者只用了两个字形容:“随缘”。 简单的回答,却让人隐约感到一种转变,中海油的风格,似乎慢慢从勇猛激进过渡为淡定从容。 那么,沉寂三年,中海油为何再次凌厉出手海外?傅成玉及其他掌控的“中海油系”的战略意图是什么?未来的中海油会驶向何方? 较量 并购AWO始末 Wilhelmsen家族肯定希望能在油价高企之时把AWO出手,而并非长期运营公司,这让袁光宇赌定了每股85克朗的报价。 收购AWO一案,始自2007年。 当年11月,中海油服CEO袁光宇同AWO董事长Siguard E. Thorvildsen第一次见面就充满了戏剧性。 在谈判席上,Siguard E. Thorvildsen大谈此前某某著名公司出了怎样的价钱我都没有卖,然后说:“你先说说你的条件吧,我看你够不够资格。” 袁光宇泰然处之,告诉对方:“前面你有这么多接触,都没有谈成,你现在说的,我就当听故事一样,对我没有任何参考价值。我现在就谈我的事,我出多少价钱,你来考虑。但是我要告诉你,我们是最有诚意的买家,如果错过了我们,不要说两年,你可能再也卖不出去了,因为行情是在变化的。最近这两三年石油装备一直供不应求,但是大量的建造都还没有投放到市场,因此这个供求关系肯定是要逐渐地释放。” 第一回合就唇枪舌战,双方都绵里藏针,都希望能够站在更高的位置来和对方谈价格。而中海油服收购AWO的大幕就此拉开。 公开资料显示,AWO背后的实际控制人是挪威的Arne Wilhelmsen和Gjert Wilhelmsen兄弟及其家族。2008年福布斯富豪榜上,Wilhelmsen兄弟以16亿美元资产名列743位,家族资产包括皇家加勒比海游轮公司。 2003年以来,正是看到油价高涨,AWO冒险在没有获得石油公司服务合同的情况下大举投资钻井平台。Wilhelmsen家族拥有AWO42%的股份,而AWO的董事长Siguard E. Thorvildsen则是Wilhelmsen家族聘请的职业经理人。 就如同美国西部的淘金潮中获利最多的不是淘金者而是出售淘金工具的制造商一样,油价高企,让石油钻井船炙手可热。作为财务投资者,Wilhelmsen家族肯定希望能在油价高企之时把AWO出手,而并非长期运营公司,这让袁光宇看到了机会。 “AWO的股价最高时候是每股78克朗,我们报价每股85克朗,相对来说不到10%的溢价还是很低的。也有一些公司报价每股80克朗最后没有谈成。” 其实,中海油服的报价是经过精心计算的。在报价之前,中海油服用了大概六种测算方式对AWO进行评估。而出价的合适,最终促使了这桩跨国交易的成功。 据中海油服CFO钟华介绍,中海油服最终决定报价是通过折现现金流的方式进行的计算,同时参考重置成本法。 25亿美元到底值不值?“各种评估方法得出的结论都很值”,钟华说。其它方法都很复杂,但有一种方法大家一听就都懂,这就是重置成本法,也就是我们自己造这么多船,要花多少钱。 根据重置成本法,按照今天的物价如果造同样的船队,大概需要40亿美元,还得需要3-5年的时间。如果按照25亿美元的收购价格,加上13亿的债务来计算,实际收购价格是38亿美元,还没有考虑时间成本。 在对价值充分测算之后,中海油服和AWO在谈判桌上僵持了很长一段时间。中海油服报价每股80-85克朗,而AWO方面报价每股90-100克朗,这时,袁光宇提出了尽职调查的要求,他告诉Siguard E. Thorvildsen:“我出一个高价,股东会质疑,认为你没有道理,因此我现在只能最高出到每股85克朗,你让我看了以后觉得这个资产好,我还可以往上调。但是你不让我看,这个买卖就成不了。” 对方同意了袁光宇提出的尽职调查要求。但在尽职调查的过程中,中海油服发现了一些问题,于是袁光宇告诉对方:“我每股85克朗是在假设你没有问题的基础上的报价,但是现在你有问题,这个价格我很难再出了。”这令Siguard E. Thorvildsen很恼火,他告诉袁光宇,你还是请回吧。 眼看双方谈判就要破裂,但是通过公关,对方又回到了谈判桌上,因为如果谈判拖得越久,对方处境越不利。 此后,对方将报价降为每股87克朗,而袁光宇依然坚守每股85克朗的报价底线,双方互不让步。暗地里双方都担心谈不成而浪费了大量的时间和心血,AWO方面尤其如此。钟华告诉《英才》记者:“如果谈判失败,我们损失一些咨询费用,而对方就要损失一个卖出的最好时机,这时候他们更加着急。” 最后,对方提出希望袁光宇到挪威进行最后谈判,但中海油服的工作人员很无奈地告诉Siguard E. Thorvildsen:“袁的条件是每股85克朗他才过来谈。” Siguard E. Thorvildsen的答复是:“你先让袁过来,只要过来一定能够谈成。” 于是,袁光宇带着收购小组的人员第五次来到挪威。但Siguard E. Thorvildsen要求继续和袁光宇谈价格,而不想签合同。 “最后我说:如果这样,我只能回去了。你太不尊重我了,我这么忙,咱们这个生意要能做成算是一个工作,要是不能做成我跑这来干嘛?”其实,袁光宇此时已经看到了胜利的曙光,却依然不动声色。最后,对方不得不同意了中海油服的报价。 AWO的董事长Siguard E. Thorvildsen很不甘心,晚宴的时候,每次向袁光宇敬酒都说:“袁,你还欠我2克朗。” 据资料显示,AWO拥有五座自升式钻井平台和两座生活平台,正在新加坡建造三座自升式钻井平台,预计将于2008—2009年间陆续完成。山东烟台莱佛士船厂在为该公司制造三座半潜式钻井平台,预计2009年全部完工。AWO还拥有两座半潜式钻井平台的选择权。 而AWO拥有的这些钻井设备,正是中海油服未来发展之需。据中海油服CFO钟华介绍,中海油服一些钻井船已经服役很长时间,需要更新换代。同时,AWO还具有中海油服不具备的深海作业能力,其中三艘半潜式钻井平台拥有深水作业能力。 此外,由于油价不断上涨,国际油公司的资本投资大增,现在国际上深水钻井需求很旺盛。中海油服表示,以后将重点发展深水钻井,公司在这块投资比较大,具体将拓展中国深水以及北海、墨西哥湾、澳大利亚,南美、西非等区域,这些区域的资源都比较丰富。 同时,袁光宇告诉《英才》记者,并购AWO为中海油服未来的业绩持续稳定增长奠定了基础,而公司目前负债率很低,并购AWO后,使得中海油服在短时间内取得跨越式发展。 中海油服预测,到2020年,公司销售收入将达到150-180亿美元,海外收入所占比例将超过50%。 并购虽然是非常重要的一步,但在袁光宇看来,整合才更加关键。 “我记得有一个数字,最终能够达到购买公司目的的,似乎是30%不到。在不成功的案例里,整合做的不好而导致失败的又占了一半以上。所以通过并购实现公司发展有三个关键点:第一个是选对目标,第二个是你能用合理的价格谈成,第三个也是最大的难点就是整合。因此,我们在跟对方谈判的过程中已经启动了整合的方案。目前整合方案已经做完了三版,现在准备做第四版。” 在袁光宇看来,整合最核心的问题还是人。因此以平稳过渡为主,原公司的基本管理架构、运行模式、公司制度、人员薪酬基本不变。中海油服只派驻一个公司副总裁、一个财务经理,一个负责建造的技术人员,一个一般的工作人员。 在时间安排上,中海油服设定100天为过渡期,双方共同适应;在100天到两年作为中长期,中海油服深入了解他的运行系统的优劣,制订出整合和改造优化方案。同时,在这个时期要从公司文化和人的感情之间加强磨合与沟通。 “心急吃不了热豆腐,但是也不能太长,我们认为超过两年老不变也不好变了。”在袁光宇的设计里,两年之后,要把AWO融入中海油服钻井板块里面,而不是一个独立的运行公司。要把中海油的成本优势,进取精神,与西方好的管理方式,长期的客户关系优势互补,从而衍生出比现在的中海油服和AWO本身都要好的一个组织系统和业务模式。 中海油“没有一个标杆企业”,而是“在不同领域里谁最好,谁就是我的标杆”。 当《英才》记者问及傅成玉在AWO并购案中担任什么样的角色时,傅成玉回答:“我只是在后面给他们提提建议。” 但是,与并购优尼科的轰轰烈烈不同,在这轻松的回答背后其实是经历了长达一年的谈判“拉锯战”。甚至最后关头,能否最终通过挪威政府的审查,并没有人能打保票。 在2006年并购优尼科之后,《英才》记者曾经采访过傅成玉(2006年9月号《英才》发表《傅成玉:新国企 新价值》),那时傅成玉认为BP是中海油的“标杆”。 如果仔细翻阅曾战绩辉煌的约翰·布朗对BP的布局,就会发现利用资本市场进行并购重组,是他最拿手的杀手锏。 约翰·布朗刚出任公司CEO时,BP只有两个油源,北海和阿拉斯加。与世界级石油公司相比,当时BP缺少资金,技术也很差,只有很小的回旋余地。布朗率先采用了当时世界上最新的金融创新手段,以全部换股的方式并购了阿莫科,原阿莫科公司和BP分别占有新公司40%和60%的股份。接着,BP又在1999年买下美国阿科石油公司,这两项收购使BP在2000年前9个月的利润达到创纪录的109.7亿美元。2001年,BP又购并了德国的维巴公司,并使BP晋升为全球第二大石油公司。 显而易见,世界上现有的石油巨头“五姊妹”——埃克森美孚、壳牌、BP、雪佛龙、道达尔,无一不是通过资本手腕并购重组,进而扩张为世界能源巨头的。 但是,人们又会发现,与BP在7年时间完成3项重大并购不同,中海油及旗下公司的海外扩张之路进行得十分艰难。据中海油服(15.47,0.18,1.18%,吧)CEO袁光宇介绍,中海油服此前有三次并购均告失利,其中有两次都是在完成尽职调查之后,被标的国的政府给“Pass掉”了。 并购一家油服公司尚且如此之难,更何况是并购资源型石油公司。可见,对于美、英的潜在竞争国——中国的石油公司来说,想复制BP模式进行整体扩张并购,难度可想而知。 值得欣慰的是,中海油虽然没有成功并购石油公司,但是在非洲颇有斩获,获得尼日利亚海上勘探开发区块,这也为中海油的未来发展奠定了资源基础。同时开发利用中国近海、南海的油气资源,也成为了中海油未来发展的重点。 西非和南海板块的开发,无疑也对中海油的深水勘探开发能力提出了更高的要求。为了满足深海作业这个巨大的市场需求,AWO的深海作业能力,成为了中海油服此次并购的主要动因之一。 虽然上游扩张并不快,但是中海油的下游产业扩张整合却在国内进行得顺风顺水。在国资委的大力支持下,中海油先后重组中化建、中化供、大峪口化工,中海油的化肥帝国轮廓已然显现。目前中海油已经与中化集团并驾齐驱,成为中国化肥业第一军团。 除化肥之外,今年8月26日,中海炼化惠州基地项目投资框架协议在深圳签约。此次重点部署中海油在大亚湾的二期工程,在一期现有1200万吨的基础上,总投资450亿元人民币。规划建设产能达4000万吨炼油和300万吨乙烯的炼化一体化石化基地。 同时,9月8日山东海化(6.35,0.01,0.16%,吧)公告披露,潍坊市国资委与中海油总公司的全资子公司——中海石油炼化有限责任公司(简称中海油炼化)签署协议,将持有的山东海化集团51%的股权无偿划转给中海油炼化。此举意味着,在与凯雷、中国中化集团的接触无果而终后,山东海化集团最终选择中海油系作为“新婆家”。 潍坊市国资委股权科的一位官员向媒体透露,将控股权无偿送给中海油,更为关键的一点是因为中海油在协议中承诺三年内投资70亿元,再增加海化集团炼油能力500万吨,从而实现海化集团增产达到800万吨,单厂产能仅次于中石化在青岛的大炼油项目。 几乎在收购海化的同时,9月4日,中海油与东营市政府签署了山东中海化工有限公司51%的股权转让协议,中海油在山东不仅同时获得了两家地炼企业,还赢得了东营港的建设和经营权。 在股权转让协议签署的当天,中海油副总经理吴振芳表示,将对山东中海化工实施500万吨改扩建工程和建设一条从东营港码头到中海化工的原油输油管线。 巧合的是,山东中海化工目前的原油加工能力也是300万吨,与海化集团相当。如果中海油的承诺都能兑现,中海油在三年后即可拥有1600万吨的原油加工产能。而这也解决了中海油渤海油田年原油的炼化问题。 这次采访之中,傅成玉告诉《英才》记者已经“没有一个标杆企业”,而是“在不同领域里谁最好,谁就是我的标杆”。 如果你熟悉洛克菲勒家族发迹史,那么你会发现:石油巨头洛克菲勒家族的崛起并非通过并购垄断了上游资源,而是通过控制炼厂的成本优势和规模经济的优势,最终控制了美国90%的炼厂和石油运输系统。标准石油的名字即是让炼化的煤油标准化的意思。 而中海油似乎也在重走当年的洛克菲勒之路,由单纯的石油公司逐步向上下游一体化的能源公司发展。同时,傅成玉告诉《英才》记者,中海油通过先进的技术手段和管理手段,在成本控制方面达到行业优秀水平。不断提高公司的整体竞争优势。 成功的道路不止一条,走别人走过的路不一定就能成功,“最适合的才是最好的”,对于中海油来说,这句话更实用 中海油服(15.47,0.18,1.18%,吧)在资本市场变成一个有特殊竞争能力的公司,就是因为保留了“中国特色”。 公司价值,这是傅成玉反复咀嚼的一个词汇。对于并购AWO,兼任中海油服董事长的傅成玉,与CEO袁光宇及并购团队,沟通最多的就是怎么确定价值? 那么一桩并购的价值如何把握?在傅成玉看来,“就是怎样实现价值的问题。比如你的收购价格是10元,那么到你手上,价值提升到11块,就有价值。收购的目的就是要增值。” 对于中海油服此次并购AWO的价格,有市场分析人士仍认为收购价格偏高,但是袁光宇看来:因为能增值,所以收购价格很合算。 袁光宇告诉《英才》记者:收购后AWO可以与中海油服的其它业务板块发挥协同效应,带来的回报远远超出一般单一石油钻井公司的投资回报。中海油服CFO钟华也指出,2009年之后中海油服的每股盈利(EPS)就将持续增厚,净资产收益率(ROE)也会增长。 中海油服目前有钻井、油田技术、船舶、物探四大业务板块,独特的是在世界油服公司中同时拥有四大板块的只有中海油服一家。 在中海油服上市之后一段时间内,香港分析师们甚至无法找到一家同样类型的公司来进行估值比较,只好把中海油服的每一个业务单独拿出来与同类上市公司比较,这让中海油服股价被低估。因为,根据石油市场的演变规律,油服公司行业细分明显,本应专业化程度很高。但是中海油服却因为旧有体制导致成立之初只是几个业务拼凑整合在一起,单一业务板块无法与同行竞争。 但是劣势也可以转化为优势,中海油服依靠多板块的协同效应,绕开专业化的劣势,提供配套综合化服务,通过低成本优势获得了同为中海油系的中国海洋石油有限公司的大量订单,进而平衡风险逐步壮大。而中国海洋石油有限公司也因此降低了自身的开发成本。 “油服上市时投行告诉我们要分拆,要裁员2000人,最后我们一个人也没有裁掉,现在中海油服在资本市场却变成一个有特殊竞争能力的公司。”谈及当年中海油服上市,傅成玉觉得中海油服能够成为在国际上与同行竞争的公司,就是因为保留了“中国特色”,而非遵从所谓的“国际惯例”。 如果把中海油服的这种“中国特色”,放大到整个中海油系内观察,其实也很明显,这也成为人们所说的“中海油模式”。 中国海洋石油有限公司作为中海油系第一家上市公司,自上市之后,逐渐壮大规模,同时带动了相关产业的发展,中海油服、海油工程(15.78,0.41,2.67%,吧)和中海化学步其后尘,登陆资本市场。 同时,在中海油系上下游板块中,还有很多没有上市的公司,而这些公司在中海油总公司的培育下,逐渐提高实力。总公司将成为这些新技术和项目的“孵化器”,当上市公司有需要或发展趋缓时,随时可以将这些资产注入上市公司。“这样,不仅集团所有的资产都盘活了,而且集团综合竞争实力也大大增强了,国际一流能源公司已初具规模。”傅成玉说。 傅成玉透露,目前正在整合的石油炼化板块未来也会在适当时机注入在香港上市的中国海洋石油有限公司,完成上市公司由独立石油公司向综合性石油公司的转变,而这种转变正是以公司价值的判断为依据的。 在资本市场,石油公司分为三类。第一类是E&P,即勘探开发公司,目前的中国海洋石油有限公司就属于这一类,这种公司的优点是规模比较小,成长性好,游离性好,缺点是周期性强,抗风险能力差,容易被吃掉,优尼科虽然在这类公司里做得很好,但最终仍不免被吃掉的命运;第二类是综合性石油公司,他的特点是同时具有炼油化工能力,优点是抗风险能力强,具有平衡性,比如中石油(12.84,-0.17,-1.31%,吧);第三类是超大型石油公司,这种公司的优点是因为规模巨大,抗风险能力更强,公司具有影响市场的能力。但这种公司目前很少,只有埃克森美孚、BP等6家公司。 而这三类公司在资本市场的估值上,市盈率最高的却是第三类超大型石油公司,其次是综合性石油公司,最低的是E&P。 “管理公司管理的是价值,虽然油价相同,但是因为这三类公司的市盈率不同,因此这三类公司在资本市场表现的价值是不一样的。反过来也等于你这个油价是不一样的。”傅成玉自参与中国海洋石油有限公司上市以来,便开始对资本市场逐步熟悉,直至今日拿捏得恰到好处。对于资本市场运作规律,已经日渐深入到每个中海油系的管理层的思想中。 炼化板块的崛起进一步增强了中海油竞争优势,对于中海油来说这也是实现公司价值最大化的必然选择。 中国石油大学工商管理学院院长王震认为:“中海油是国有企业改革到目前为止的一个成功案例。而且中海油的模式,很多企业模仿不了或者复制不了。中海油通过类似淡马锡的控股模式,不仅使主业成功上市,而且其他的板块也都独立获得发展空间。” 资本 市场期望不会超出预期 “人们老说资本运作,其实资本是要求你能做到,你要是做不到,就要把心理预期调下来。” “大很好,但是我觉得小也很美丽。因为小,成长性好,我在资本市场上的压力比你小,走到哪里投资者都高兴;虽然你们做得那么好,但是资本市场还是不满意。” 在交流公司规模的问题时,傅成玉曾跟埃克森美孚CEO如是说。 今年中国海洋石油有限公司的半年报披露,上半年净利润取得了89.3%的增长。现在,无论什么时候见到基金经理,总能听到投资者告诉他:“我是中海油的快乐投资者。” 对于规模大小的问题,王震也同意傅成玉的说法:“目前没有实力打NBA,我在CBA打得响当当,那也挺好。大有大的优势和劣势,小也有小的优势和劣势。” 在傅成玉看来,资本市场反映的是人们的心理预期,如果你做得很好,那么投资者就希望你做得更好,“你已经很高了,人们说你真高,但是你能不能继续高呢?问题就在这。人们老说资本运作,其实资本是要求你能做到,你要是做不到,就要把心理预期调下来。” 中海油今年实现快速增长,除了油价因素之外,还有一个重要因素就是油田建设陆续完成,原油产量增加。而这些中海油在制订5年发展战略的时候就已经对市场有过预期。因此,傅成玉认为今年上半年的增长其实并不偶然。 傅成玉告诉《英才》记者,市场需要清楚你在做什么,如果不清楚,就会出现对价值判断的失误。比如在并购优尼科之前,市场已经有传闻出现,在正式宣布并购之前,股价连续下跌,但是等到中海油正式宣布之后,股价连续上升。据当时资料显示,在40天当中给中海油的股东市值增加了70亿美元。即使宣布退出之后,价值依然得到了市场的认可。 与优尼科相似,此次中海油服并购AWO,在消息明朗之前,股价一路下滑,而在宣布之后,很多投行都调高了对中海油服的评级。高盛估计,收购可提升中海油田今年每股盈利12%-29%,明年提升8%-32%,2010年提升18%-47%,并且将中海油服的投资评级由“中性”调高至“买入”。高盛认为,中海油产量年复合增长强劲、开采资产吸引,而稳健财务状况令该行相信该公司有能力寻找潜在收购机会。 而中海油入主海化集团成为公司的实际控制人之后,证券分析人士亦高调表示,这将为公司的未来发展带来想象空间。原因在于,中海油之所以选择海化集团,意在炼化项目,专家判断这是其整合地方炼油企业的战略开端。 当然,因为目前整体环境不好,中海油服的股价也无法走出独立行情。 在傅成玉看来,资本市场不好并不可怕,“市场怕的是什么东西?比如大家都知道你6点要吃饭了,但你却在睡觉,认为你能完成的,可是你没有完成。所以,我们预计的时候要差一点儿,完成的时候要好一点儿。所谓市场教育,就是在没有出现问题之前,我先给你灌输很多东西,让你跟着我想,这样你的期望就不会超出预期。” AWO VS 优尼科 这次没有大波澜 《英才》:你觉得这次收购AWO和三年前收购优尼科最大的不同是什么? 傅成玉:优尼科是一个资源性的公司,AWO是一个资产性的公司。并购资源性公司会引起更多人的重视,特别是中国从来没有搞过那么大一次收购,全世界都震惊。震惊以后,会有反思,慢慢地大家才会接受中国公司。那么AWO它不是资源性公司,相对来说大家不是把它看得特别重,只要符合市场规则,能为双方股东创造价值。 《英才》:思维模式上有变化吗? 傅成玉:会有很大不同。这次并购我们有充分的时间对政府、媒体等进行游说。我们做优尼科的时候就没有这个时间,因为它给你的时间窗口很窄,你没有那么多时间去做各方面的工作,特别是去做议会的工作。另外,这两次的环境和背景完全不同,因为那次我们在跟一个美国的本土公司争,他动用了政府、议会,又用爱国主义,又用国家安全,这个东西太强大了。我们处在弱势。 《英才》:这次并购并没有掀起太大的波澜。 傅成玉:一个方面我们内部保密相对做得好。事先只在欧洲有过报道,在国内没有。在挪威,曾经让AWO停了三次牌。 《英才》:这次并购AWO对中国海洋石油有限公司,对中海油总公司,会不会带来更大的价值? 傅成玉:这次并购不仅可以使油服公司的作业能力大大增强,也会为中海油提前进入深水创造条件。 换股VS现金 我们比现金增值快 《英才》:下一步并购会重点寻找资源性公司还是资产性公司?是会在冷门国家还是在美国这种国家选择并购对象? 傅成玉:收购没有这么想问题的。第一是有机会。什么样的机会?是让你的公司价值增值的机会;第二个是让你能做成,比如说那里有一个机会,你做不成也不是一个机会。那么,第二点可能就和所谓的冷门热门有关系。 但是在分析的时候,就要研究了,现在美国和以前的美国有什么区别?它在政策上、制度上有什么变化,特别是议会那些人,他们经过上次事件以后,产生多大变化?是更左了还是更右了?如果说跟原来没有什么变化,还是保护主义,那就放弃。 并购不是我每天要想的事,我天天老想并购干嘛呀?并购就是随缘,只是到了某一个阶段了,你遇到特殊机遇,你才去做的。所以你要把并购看得比较淡。 《英才》:你们的并购为什么很少通过换股的形式? 傅成玉:首先我的股票成长性很高。其次,像AWO的绝大多数股东和我的股东没有重合,它的股东不了解我的股票,在资本市场上,人家不认识你的股票价值时,如果换股肯定要求你打比较大的折价,因为我们的股票成长性非常好,我一折就是真金白银,跟现金没有区别,而且我们比现金增值还快,给他打折我不就亏了吗?但人家还不一定这么看。所以给现金他高兴,我还能增值。 另外换股会造成控股股东的股份大大摊薄,像我们这么小的公司,若不能绝对控股,在资本市场上很容易失去公司的控制权。所以有时候,看似符合逻辑的换股方式,并不符合我们的实际情况。 利益VS风险 再强也有风险 《英才》:目前,中海油上下游技术人才都储备不足,这是否是你们的一个短板? 傅成玉:从长远来说,这不是我们值得担心的问题。技术有两类:一是属于特有技术,通过别人找不到的;另一个是从市场上可以拿得到的。所以我们过去发展比较快,市场上有的我们就不要自己去研究。 我们几乎是白手起家,为什么发展那么快呢?市场已有可以拿得到的你是可以用的。另外,一些特有技术,可以通过合作伙伴获得,比我自己花很多钱研究来得要快。目前我们要解决的一类是市场上花钱买不到的技术,另一类是别人不一定需要而我们特别需要的技术。这方面要自主创新,但不用大批人才来搞。 《英才》:寻找合作伙伴也意味着分摊了利益? 傅成玉:海洋石油工业是高投入、高风险、高技术行业。搞合作有人是从分利角度看,我们是从分担风险角度看。利和风险是连在一起的。再强的公司,比如埃克森美孚、壳牌,他们也不是所有事都是自己干的,他们在很多领域都是与别人合作。并不是说他们不强,再强也有风险,这是石油行业的共识。 在石油勘探领域里,绝大部分技术都在承包商、技术服务商手里,没有人可以垄断。在炼化领域,尽管大石油公司都有一些自己的技术,很多技术大同小异,也没有办法垄断。我们进入下游比较晚,但发展迅速。我们还没有很大的研究院,但通过合作同样可以获得所需的技术。 期望VS预期 关键是引导投资者 《英才》:现在全球金融环境恶劣,你怎么满足投资者的预期? 傅成玉:我给你举一个例子,2006年5月的台风,把我们流花油田的整个海底管线破坏了,这样我们当年的产量就完不成,而且预期的明年产量也要低,这种情况下股票一定要跌。这时候你怎么引导投资者预期? 当时我们第一时间就发了一个公告。告诉投资者这个油田破坏了,破坏力很大,导致我们停产。但我们强调两点:第一,台风期间我们派去100架次直升飞机,把所有的人都撤下来,人是安全的。第二,当时还有26万桶油在那,我们把油也卸下来。这么大的台风,没有造成溢油污染,没造成人员伤亡。投资者反而认为这个公司重视人、重视安全、重视环保、管理得好,就不死盯你的产量了。结果股票并没跌,也没有造成什么负面影响。 到了年底的时候,投资者担心的是明年产量。明年能不能修好我们也没有底,因为给我们报价的世界上著名的油服公司都没有干过这事,没有把握,所以不仅价高不说,还不保证修好,逼着我们自己来。 所以我们告诉市场,明年的产量是最差的。但我们强调后年会实现高增长。其实我们当时也知道,有可能提前半年将流花油田修好复产,但没把握不敢说。宁愿公司股票受到较大的压力。结果半年后我们真的修好了,油田复产了,超出了市场的预期,多家分析报告都大幅调高了公司的股价,股票升的比停产前还高。因为投资者相信你公司的能力。 坚守底线到最后一天 关于并购价值 《英才》:并购AWO能够对中海油服(15.47,0.18,1.18%,吧)价值有哪些提升? 袁光宇:第一,它属于我们四大核心板块之一,跟我们的业务相同,同时,这个公司资产质量比较新,有利于加强和改善我这个钻井板块的资产结构和能力。第二,能够给我们带来国际市场和新客户,这比我通过自身去开发更快更有效。第三,能通过我们现有的非钻井板块带来协同效应,实现增值。第四,能够放大我们的品牌效应,扩大影响力,通过这次并购使我们从一个本地化公司向一个国际化的公司演变。第五,能够解决我们老客户的发展急需,同时弥补我们供应能力的不足。无论从本公司的利益还是从母公司利益,还是从整个股东的利益我们觉得都能体现出价值。 《英才》:你们当时为什么会选择AWO? 袁光宇:首先是我们制订了自己的战略,才能找到适合自己的目标公司。AWO是其中之一,我们觉得AWO与我们的发展战略相符,它的资产规模、资产结构、资产质量符合我们的需要。主观上我们有这种需要,客观上要有机会,这样才能一拍即合。 关于公共关系 《英才》:在整个兼并过程中,挪威政府是一个什么态度? 袁光宇:挪威政府没有干预,应该说他们知道这个动作,挪威人总体来说还是比较进取的,创业精神比较强。挪威是一个半岛的国家,所以跟海相关的产业都比较发达。很多人也是通过这些资源,创建公司,然后将不同的公司合并做大,有好的机会以后卖掉,然后又重新去寻找新的机会。这种现象比较普遍,因此卖公司对挪威来说不新鲜,但是跟石油相关的资产,现在全世界都比较敏感。所以,我们做这个并购的整个过程比较谨慎小心,避免让人家感觉到中国公司现在有钱,有一种狼来了的感觉。 《英才》:那么对中国公司来说,应该有哪些方面予以注意呢? 袁光宇:因为现在外面对中国国有企业有偏见,改变这个偏见一方面需要时间,另一方面我们的行为也需要改变,既要遵守市场规则,也要尽量降低国有企业的负面影响。这次并购我们比较低调,尽可能不张扬,而且主动的跟方方面面沟通,比如挪威驻中国大使馆,中国驻挪威大使馆,把他们作为桥梁沟通,跟目标公司,跟相关的各种渠道沟通,以一种平和的、完全是以经济规律和市场化的操作为行为规范,让对方感到我们就是一个上市公司,我发展就是要创造股东价值,要创造公司价值。另外,这段时间内,我们跟媒体没有任何交流。在资本市场上有几次走漏过消息,当时我们也很担心,因为容易有人借这个机会炒作,搬弄是非,总的来说这次双方配合算做的比较好。 关于谈判对手 《英才》:你怎么评价你的谈判对手,AWO的董事长,你觉得他精明吗? 袁光宇:他年龄可能跟我差不多,应该算是精明。但是我觉得也没有精明到占便宜的份上。 《英才》:为什么? 袁光宇:其实谈判能够成功,买卖双方肯定会有一个平衡点。所以我不认为谁占了便宜,而是各有所得,是双赢。但是他有美中不足的地方,因为他开始的报价最后一直再降,而我们一直坚守我们的报价底线,一直到最后一天。但最后,成功的交易是双赢的。 《英才》:你对最近的股价下跌怎么看? 袁光宇:上证从6000点掉到2200点,整个大势降到一倍半,这个没有办法了。但是长期我是看好的。 过去我是一个将,我不是一个帅《郭为:人一定要解放》记者:雷晓宇
“这次换股,是我一生中最大的一次赌博。但这件事情我必须做,不管用什么样的办法——人一定要解放” 只需再来上一根雪茄或者一对手部健身球,他看起来就彻底像个退居二线的江湖大佬了。他穿着一件白色短袖中式对襟衬衫,布料柔软,上面团起朵朵祥云,与世无争的样子,又觉虎虎生风。那副金丝边眼镜在他宽大的脸庞上留下了惟一一道阴影,却并不能让他显得更文雅。单就外表而言,沉默的时候,他不像“少帅”,倒像十里洋场上的“郭老板”,江湖气十足。 这样强势的印象叫人意外。多年以来,无论神州数码的业务如何起跌,郭为的生涯始终犹如一个“失落者”,被定格在这一时刻——7年前的翠宫饭店,众所周知对外宣布联想拆分的时刻——一切就如一位记者的观察:“我那时只看两个人,一个是杨元庆,一个是郭为,看他们俩的表情。杨元庆意气风发,和小马哥似的,把风衣一抖,往身上一披,志得意满,趾高气扬的,很多记者拿相机追着他拍,一直追到电梯口郭为当时就强装欢笑。” 当然,那已经是很多年以前的事情了。现在,郭为的办公室门口只写着主人的名字,没有任何头衔。但是人人都清楚,自2007年夏天神州数码两大股东转售股权后,他已经正式从CEO成为董事长,持股10.29%。 这意味着,神州数码实质意义上进入“郭为时代”。但这个时代的开始是要付出代价的。为了从一、二大股东联想控股和GA手里购买股权,郭为以个人的名义从朋友手里借了几千万美元。这当然是他一生中最大的一次赌博——“一辈子可能也就这一次了。” 不过,当他以这样的身份坐在我们面前,回忆当年的联想拆分,还是觉得委屈。“我费了那么多心血,有那么多留恋,可你把我的追求拿走了。” “不过,已经走出来了。”他又说,“过了那么久,我已经有了自己的天地。”“以前是船长,现在才是船主。” 严格来说,郭为的企业家生涯不过刚刚开始。他说自己“是企业家里少数能看进去枯燥的纯管理理论书籍的人”,他的书柜里也尽是这样的书。只有两本比较出挑,一本《不成咋办?成了办啥?》,一本《四十不惑》。 郭为40岁那年,正好经历神州数码手机业务巨亏的“珍珠港事件”。5年过去了,他说自己“仍然在困惑”。至于未来成与不成,他说自己不去想,“可能因为我们这代人从小受的是极左的英雄主义教育,从进联想的那天起,我就知道自己会把做企业这条道走到黑。” 整个办公室只有一样东西耐人寻味——靠窗的电脑桌上的一副电脑游戏方向盘。这叫人想起他的精神导师柳传志办公室里的一尊铜牛雕塑,上面刻着“蓄势”二字。如果把这两样东西都看做某种象征物的话,也许可以用来解释郭为的人生状态:试图控制局面掌握方向,并且正在蓄势中。 神州数码欲从IT分销商转型为IT服务商,但八年抗战,仍难言成功。郭为当了“真老板”,但他真的“解放”了吗? 以下为郭为自述。 为何要MBO 这么多年,我一直有不安全感。虽然没有不安全到会被撤换,但是老觉得你会被挑战,大家不理解你、董事会不理解你。 神州数码一直在说转型,从分销往IT服务转型。一开始,谈转型那是我们一厢情愿、望梅止渴,包括和我一起二次创业的团队,并不是说所有的人都完全认可这样的一种方案。回过头来看,我也不觉得这个方案是惟一正确的,但是我觉得,既然我们选择了这样一个方案,我们就要坚持去做。 在这样的条件下,你遇到困惑、遇到挫折、遇到风险、遇到一系列问题的时候,团队对你的能力会有看法,投资方股东会有看法,非常难。当然,没有人去直接挑战你,说你不可以这样做,但是会产生一种无形的压力,会使得你很难受。你会觉得你整天都是在一种非常大的陷阱里面,虽没有爆炸,但是随时有可能会爆炸。 最大的引发点就是2003年出现的那次“手机巨亏危机”,那次实际上是爆发了。当你什么事都顺的时候,人家说你也挺威风嘛。只有遇到挫折的时候,那些压力与怀疑的声音会显得很重。只有这时候,我才意识到,过去我是一个将,我不是一个帅。 以前在联想里,我就是一个将。柳总说,你大致就朝着某个方向走吧,那我就朝那个方向做,我只考虑柳总一个人的意见,他觉得对我就对了,我就是战死了,也是对的。因为他指定的方向我去干了,最后成不成他只能说我能力高低,不会说我判断有问题……但是分拆出来后不一样了,我要考虑到方方面面。而作为一个一把手,最重要的是你的决策怎么样,而不是你具体事做得如何。作为一把手,最不舒服、最难受的时候就是别人对你的决定加以挑战的时候。你会觉得,“我都看得很明白了,怎么还要给你解释半天?”所以一个企业里,最大的风险就是不一致性,没有Common Sense(常识、同感),没有Consistency(一致性),他说的事和你说的不是一回事。 转型IT服务,实际上,说好了叫投入,说坏了就是亏损。这时候,董事会、股东、内部管理层是不是能够完全理解?就算没有人去反对这个方案,但是在支持的力度上就会产生一些问题——如果所有的事情都要拿到董事会讨论的话,那我这CEO不是就没有价值了? 也不是董事会的错。如果我自己远离战场,我也会要求我下面的人把未来的事情给我讲清楚,才可以做。但是我作为管理层、执行者,在业务变化过程当中,我确实没有办法完全把它描绘得很清楚。柳总又不亲自掌握整个过程。最终你定的事可能都能够在董事会通过,但是这个时间你耗不起。你会有一种不能当家做主的尴尬。 比如有时候我想,其实,我们的IT服务业用风险投资的方式做可能更好一点,但是你在一个上市公司里面,会受到很多束缚。首先是策略上会非常谨慎,就是不能出事情——这本身和创新就是有冲突的。另外,每年要求你报表透明,要求你利润增长。其实做软件服务在一开始的时候确实需要很大的投入,不像做一些分销的业务,说我只要有流水,我就会产生固定的利润。没有前期的投入怎么可能有后面的回报呢? 去年8月,最后走到换股这一步,我觉得这个是和柳总的理念非常一致的,就是如何让管理者和股东一起承担风险。 人一定要解放 特别幸运的是,很多东西我不用跟柳总明白讲,我只要在一个合适的时间跟他点出来,他就会明白,就会支持你去做。 最后我是用正式报告的方式向董事会正式申请的,其实在这之前,提前有半个月左右,我跟柳总是有一点点沟通的。当时他的反应是:很好,你有这样的想法很好。他一点没有震惊,倒是说了一些提醒。他说,你有那么多钱吗?你上哪儿找那么多的钱买股权?当时我问他,究竟是找私人借钱好,还是找机构借钱好?他就给我分析了一下,然后我说,给我一个月的时间想想。 这一个月里,我准备了三种策略。第一,换股。第二,把神州数码分拆,一个专门做分销,一个专门做服务。第三,把神州数码的分销部分卖给跨国公司。后来,这三种策略都跟柳总说了,他支持第一种。因为拆开是一个很痛苦的事情,不能拆开,如果拆开,品牌就没有了,影响力就没有了。 我也琢磨过,柳总之所以会同意,也是因为联想控股要做投资了,如果他不去做投资,我想他肯定也舍不得。他要做投资,最主要是缺钱,他缺钱,你就给他钱。而且从某种意义上讲,神州数码的回报肯定不如长期做投资的回报高。这个股票,那么多年,一年就是涨一点点,他如果做投资的话,可能有8倍、10倍。 当时他就说了,如果杨元庆愿意提出来的话,他也支持。其实杨元庆可能也想做,但是他盘子太大了。 同时他也觉得,也许这是我们大家最后解决问题的办法。因为你要让股东放心——我把我的钱、我的命都搭上了,我再做转型服务这样的决策你有什么怀疑呀?我不会跟我自己过不去嘛,如果我就是一个打工的,随时会出局,那才可疑。我以个人名义向私人朋友借了几千万美金,这是很大的压力。但是,我要让投资者觉得,我把个人未来所有的财富都放在这个上面了。 在新投资者的选择上,当时因为这件事要做得非常保密,因此我们就不可能找外边的人,所以就找了弘毅来帮我们。其实也是非常快的,不会超过一个月。我也更倾向于找我更熟悉的人,即使是吵架我觉得大家也能吵得明白。这些资本能够带来非常大的新价值。神州数码未来做投资并购会是一个很大的方向。 其实从我个人性格上,我觉得承诺越少越好,把事情做好了再说。但是这次,做上股东之后,我背上了一个更大的承诺。我惟一可以自我安慰的是说,哪怕做错了,反正我也是自负盈亏,不会让别人觉得我是有意的欺骗或者是成心怎么样。 做子公司和独立,各有各的好。在联想下面的时候,它可以保护我。现在出来了,就像一个孩子长大了搬出去住,虽然吃喝没人料理了,可也不用老担心几点回家了。 还在联想的时候,有一年,一个杂志给我发了一个“优秀职业经理人奖”。柳总就不高兴,说我们都是企业家,怎么成职业经理人了。这话很对,不想做船主的船长不是好船长。很早我就知道,我这个人的归宿就是做一个企业,做企业家。 这次换股,是我一生中最大的一次投资,或者说赌博,可能一辈子也就这么一次了。但是没有别的路好走。如果我换跑道的话,第一对不起这些投资人,柳总这么培养我,希望我好,第二也没办法跟我的员工交代,大家同在一个公司,你自己跳船跑了。所以,这件事情我必须办成,不管用什么样的办法——人一定要解放。 这次换股,对我个人当然是个解放。这个解放花了6年,可能太长了,但是人一定要解放。 我上中学的时候,当时有流行歌曲进来了。老师定义了一下,说歌曲分成三类:一类叫红色歌曲,就是过去咱们唱的三大纪律八项注意,一类叫黄色歌曲,就是邓丽君的,剩下的叫蓝色歌曲,就是校园民谣。他说黄色歌曲我们就不要唱了,蓝色歌曲还是可以唱唱的。 其实这完全是他杜撰出来的,既应付学校,又让学生能够接受。你说这是不是一种人性的进步?其实我们再回过头来看,今天我们很多事情就是这样一步一步进步的。中国最后走到社会主义市场经济,实际上就是一次党代会改革一次,一次党代会改革一次。为什么不第一次就提出来搞社会主义市场经济呢?这和个人的解放一样,是个渐进的过程。 忠诚和委屈 我对联想有难分难舍的忠诚。我最早是做市场、做公关的,从品牌的设计一直到注册……我花了很多的心血,也确实做了很多大家都不愿意做的事情。我确实很希望它好,希望它长得更大,就像现在这样,成为世界500强。 于是拆分的时候,有一种委屈。就像养一个小孩一样,养大了,突然被别人给抱走了。我花了那么多心血,那么留恋,可你把我的追求拿走了,心里是很不舒服的。这个我没跟人说过,就是放在心里。后来有一段时间,我就有点矫枉过正的心态,要把神州数码做成一个不一样的联想,想要尽可能地减少这种情结。 但是,舍不掉。有些东西,时间越长,越舍不掉。一直到今天,我还是有非常浓的联想情结。老有人说,郭为你应该摆脱联想的感情包袱,可我觉得,神州数码现在最大的核心竞争力还是老联想时期的文化。也许最后我们真的成为联想发展过程中的活化石,那我觉得我还挺伟大的。我担心的是我做不成这样的活化石。 柳总算是我人生当中的第一个、也算是改变我人生走向的一个偶像。我一毕业就到公司,特别幸运的是在一开始就是给他跑腿,他到哪我到哪。现在我才能体会到,现在80后跟我们的交流,和我那时候跟柳总的交流差不多。实际上他看你就是一个孩子。 我上个礼拜还和柳总见面聊天。他对我来讲是精神上的教父,我会把我很多的不舒服、不成熟的东西跟他讲。当然,现在我们更多的是类似于精神层面上的交流,而不是具体的事情该怎么做。其实这是一种情感上的依赖,觉得不跟他说说老觉得没谱,因为也不知道找周围的什么人交流。现在自己做了企业,反过来看,我觉得他们在他们那个时代太了不起了,他们的思想境界、他们的方法论,那真是了不起。 柳总这一代人实际上是两栖作战。一方面在市场上要和跨国公司、同行竞争。另一方面,在中国改革开放过程中,很多制度是有待改革的,他还要去和这点互动。这个互动当然有多种形式,一种是通过各种各样的舆论去引导,另外跟政府建立一定的关系,来改变制度本身的安排,通过自己的实践证明以前的制度是错误的,从而使很多制度进行改变。我觉得这是他们非常伟大的地方——他们是非常容易受伤的,甚至牺牲的,但是柳总他走出来了。 当然直到现在,柳总始终还是面临着一个接班人的问题。其实控股公司总裁那不是一个太容易干的活。到底选谁,那是柳总的事儿了。选不选我,这个我哪里会知道。我不太可能了,因为我们已经变成现在这样的一个资本结构了,再说从能力上,我也不具备。 黑马联发科"在蔡明介看来,联发科的营业额增长之所以要低于世界前十大芯片设计公司的平均增长率,是由于联发科的大部分业绩来自于寻找新产品,从头逐渐建立产品线,而美国公司更倾向于采取并购方式,整合获得更快成长,所以美国公司开发新产品领域以及新产品推出速度和数量都要好于联发科。"但是,靠并购来的营业额增长时候真的能达到足够的ROIC? 联发科何以能总在市场爆炸增长的前夕切入,进而以黑马的姿态击溃对手? 按照联发科技股份有限公司(以下简称“联发科”)财务长喻铭铎的计划,原本应该在8月30日飞往北京的,但是,董事长蔡明介将他拦了下来。因为蔡明介要在当天的高级管理人员会议上提出一个重要命题。 “如果联发科遇到了冬天,我们怎么办?”蔡明介向在座的经理们发问。蔡还给每个人发了华为总裁任正非两篇流传甚广的文章《华为的冬天》和《北国之春》。 但是,蔡明介的命题多少让他的经理们有点意外。因为联发科正在经历它十年来最迅猛的成长期:2007年的总营收高达800亿台币(约合170亿元人民币),较上一年增长了51%。 其实早在2006年,联发科营收创下新高后,蔡明介立即给全体员工发送了一封邮件,要求“大家依然要有忧患意识”。 在大陆,联发科以“山寨机之父”而被人熟知——联想到“山寨机”市场的混乱,这似乎不太是一个特别美好的名号,但联发科在台湾,可是个不折不扣的明星企业,两次登上台湾股王的位置。自成立以来,联发科在手机芯片领域已经超过了英飞凌等诸多巨头,仅排在高通和德州仪器之后列第三位。而且,在不为大多数人熟知的DVD和数字电视芯片领域,其市场占有率更是全球第一。 蔡明介戴着一副方框眼镜,头发无论怎样收拾看上去似乎都有点乱。正是这位被员工称为“走在大街上,你不会多看一眼”的董事长在IC设计土壤贫瘠的亚洲把联发科带进全球十大IC设计公司之列,他也被誉为“台湾IC设计之父”。 外界将联发科的成功归功于蔡明介的技术眼光和切入市场的时机掌握。在过去的十年,联发科总在市场正要爆炸增长的前夕切入,进而以黑马的姿态,在CD-ROM领域打败飞利浦和松下,在DVD-ROM击溃索尼,进一步,又凭借手机芯片的成功而声名鹊起。 熬出来的“山寨机之父” 2001年,对于年届51岁的蔡明介来说是一个重要的年份,不仅仅是因为他所参与创建的联发科刚刚在台湾成功上市,更重要的是蔡明介必须做出一个不太容易的选择:经过了创业前4年,联发科必须在CD-ROM、CD-RW以及DVD-ROM等几代芯片的稳定发展后找到下一个拳头产品。 IC设计产业是以设计应用产品为主,由于产品主流经常在变,厂商若无法在每一个市场转变中重新建立自己的核心竞争力,很快就将被淘汰,历史表明大多数公司都只能在一两代产品保持优势,然后会迅速衰落。这就是蔡明介所称的“一代拳王”。 选择新产品方向,这可以说是决定联发科生死的问题。按照蔡的经验,一定要符合三个标准:市场足够大;有一定的技术门槛和别人拉开差距;和联发科原来的开发技术有一定的相关性。 但是,问题是符合这三个原则的产品方向也并不惟一的。经过内部激烈的讨论后,联发科决定投入手机芯片研发。“因为当时台湾很多PC厂商都开始转型,手机代工行业逐渐兴起。我们决定跟着客户走,杀入手机芯片领域。”喻铭铎告诉《中国企业家》,但现在回头来看,这样的转型依据其实很危险,因为大多数台湾PC厂商后来在手机行业铩羽而归。 这一年联发科还是一个员工还不足300人,营收仅有153亿台币的小公司。在手机芯片研发线,蔡明介要投入100人(在德州仪器,这个数字是1000人),并且IC设计的研发耗资巨大,每个制程可能都要投入几百万台币,这对于事业刚刚开始的联发科来讲是一场艰难的考验。用喻铭铎的话来说,这是一场“不成功、便成仁”的事情,“当时几乎所有的会议都是围绕手机部门展开”,员工每周工作六七十个小时更是家常便饭。 2003年到2004年是联发科最困苦的一段日子。台湾的手机代工企业纷纷倒下,而联发科还要不断地加大研发费用的投入。“公司的传统是老部门投资新部门,持续几年的投入,手机部分用掉了公司相当一部分利润。”喻铭铎说。与此同时,之前的光存储和DVD产品市场已经逐渐饱和,价格开始下滑。手机芯片虽然在2003年底开发成功,却迟迟无法打开市场。当初预想的客户并没有在手机这条路上走成功,这就意味着必须去开发新客户。联发科似乎又回到了公司刚成立的那种气氛,或许比起创业,在经历一个阶段成功之后再次面临险境的心理煎熬,艰难之感更甚。 现在已经升任公司副董事长的卓志哲当时是手机芯片产品线的负责人。科学园区创新一路卓来来回回走过无数次,他每天经过这条路去亲自上门拜访客户,但他每次都会遭到拒绝。 2004年第四季度联发科毛利率大跌40%,在投资人会议上,蔡明介甚至亲自拿出采用自家芯片的手机进行演示,希望能够给投资人以信心。整个2004年联发科营收仅增长5.23%,而同年全球IC设计产业总体增长率为27%。 守得云开见月明。最终台湾一家叫达智的手机制造小公司因为无力采购IC设计巨头的产品,无奈之下接纳了联发科。“当时整个市场都没有重视芯片的多媒体功能这一块,而联发科因为此前做CD、DVD芯片的开发,有这方面基础。大家逐渐认识到用我们的芯片可以赚钱,这个市场定位算是抓对了。”喻铭铎说。自此联发科一发不可收拾,也在内地声名鹊起,托起了一个庞大的“山寨机”产业。“山寨手机”中的绝大部分都是联发科的芯片套上了畅销手机型号的外壳。 如今手机芯片部门的收入已经占到联发科营收五成以上,联发科也跻身世界前三大IC手机设计厂商。 “S曲线理论” 转攻手机芯片设计不过是联发科创业11年来几次重大选择中的一次。 做IC设计,时时都在面临选择,选择产品、选择技术、选择方向。在联发科,最高策略指导原则是——实时提供最佳的产品和服务。 “实时两个字最重要,我们要学会选择时机。”蔡明介说,“当然还有符合市场需求的产品。” 1983年蔡明介从台湾工研院加入联华电子负责产品开发,“在这里变成了一个生意人”。1995年,联电战略转移,开始全力发展半导体代工业务,蔡明介领导集成电路设计部门成立了多媒体小组,这是联发科技的前身。1997年5月,蔡明介最终带着35人团队创立了联发科技。 成立之初,联发科有VCD和CD-ROM芯片两条路线可以选择,由于VCD产品时机已晚,于是联发科选择了CD-ROM产品线。这在当时是一个很新也有难度的领域,并且很多大厂诸如飞利浦等都已经投入四五年的时间进行研发,对于后来者还是一个可以选择的好时机。 说到时机,不能不提蔡明介的“S曲线理论”,其基本概念是若以时间为横轴,市场规模为纵轴,一个新技术或新市场的生命周期会从左下角到右上角形成一个S曲线。太早进入可能市场还未形成钱已经烧光,太晚进去竞争激烈死得也很难看。不同阶段企业一定要选择不同点切入,这被蔡明介称为企业发展的“生命线”。 “当时的市场正好是走到S曲线接近要大幅增长的中间阶段。”蔡明介说,时机看来并不差,但另一个关键问题是以什么形式的产品切入,“做和别人相同的东西很简单,但是简单到大家都会做,机会就轮不到联发科了,所以我们绝不会做Me too(雷同),一定是差异化。” 为了发挥台湾厂商降低成本的竞争优势,联发科要把CD-ROM芯片从原来的三颗整合成两颗,再缩减到一颗,同时倍速也要提升,如果市场流行16倍速,那联发科就要做32倍速。虽然这对于当时的联发科来说,几乎是个不可能完成的任务,联发科还是坚持下来成功推出产品,而直到今天CD-ROM每月销量还在百万颗左右。 而后来在进入手机芯片领域时,联发科仍然要面临技术方向的选择,当时联发科内部要考虑是做2.5G还是3G,那时候3G属于先进技术但市场还很遥远,而2.5G技术已经基本成熟,“做到高度整合、低成本以及低耗电,这些功能对于客户来说可以创造出不一样的价值,更符合市场需求,选择创造能够产生经济价值的产品才有意义。”蔡明介强调说。 当然,这些理论远不是全能的法宝。联发科在选择上也曾经犯过错。在DVD之后,联发科也曾错误地判断:下一个市场热点应该是DVD-recorder(录像机),曾经投入大量的人力和财力做研发,但这个项目最终被关停。“同样的错误也发生在红光DVD项目上。”喻铭铎说。 经过多次的验证,蔡明介现在对“S曲线理论”的理解和验证更加纯熟。 不仅仅是战机问题 所有人包括对手、客户和员工,都想搞明白蔡明介到底是如何把握切入市场的时机,能不早不晚刚刚好,最起码也许有一套技术标准来进行判断。这个问题的回答让人很失望,喻铭铎表示只是市场调研等一般手段。 如此简单?“这并不简单。看好一个时机切入固然很重要,但能不能在预期的时间把产品做出来投放市场才是关键,这是企业的执行力。”喻铭铎说,这能够使一家公司与众不同。在联发科已经涉足的不论光存储、DVD、手机或者是数字电视这些领域,联发科都是后进入者,不可能主导市场,所以看好的一个时点如果产品没有做出来,不能抢得技术或成本优势,一切就全部前功尽弃。 比如,在最早切入的CD-ROM芯片市场,蔡明介要求倍速提高一倍,同时还要在限定的三个月之内完成,为了完成这个目标,当时团队所有开发人员从一线主管到基层员工都定下了进度表,每天核对进度,提前了会有所奖励,落后了其他人就得过来帮忙。在这种氛围下,每个人都保持高度紧张又同时要自我鞭策。最终联发科产品在预定时间上市,终于在CD-ROM市场得以超越对手。 “坚决执行,有强烈的责任心,很多联发科创业时期形成的品质会通过老人言传身教的传下来。”员工胡玉玲告诉记者,联发科最早在北京的主体是2006年底收购的博动科技,胡玉玲正是博动的老员工之一。被联发科收购之后,博动老员工才深深感觉到执行力的差距和文化的差异。 在胡玉玲原来的概念中,开发人员每周只要提交一个测试版本,但是并购初期,从台湾派过来的联发科员工王祥明带着十几个员工每周可以提交100多个版本。“原来内地的公司都没有那么充裕的工作量,开发人员每周一个版本任务也能完成,但是在联发科就会有很多项目,任务量就变大了,这种情况要保证工作完成就要想办法,王祥明告诉大家可以通过编写一些程序让版本自动跑,自我检测。”胡玉玲说,这样工作效率就有很大提高,而且在这种氛围内,看到台湾员工如此敬业,会不自觉被同化,而由于执行力和工作效率高,联发科每个人平均产生的价值比一般公司高很多。 对于任何高科技企业来说,创新都是非常重要的品质,联发科也不例外。在这里,从来没有人会对你说,“嘿,小伙子,你要这样做”。工程师出身的蔡明介,一样也讨厌条条框框的束缚,因此联发科的传统是只交代任务应该达到的目标。而对待错误,蔡明介也是十分宽容:允许犯错误,但更重要的是能够从错误中学习。 “我们每次做业务研究,都会提出假设,然后把它记录下来,比如假设这个产品未来几年市场可以有多大。”喻铭铎说。在计划推进一段时间之后,会回头去看当初的假设是什么,假设和现在的实际情况是否符合,为什么不一样,都要总结下来作为经验。 “对于IC设计公司来说,总结经验对公司是相当有价值的。比如手机软件的开发非常复杂,如果把这方面的教训总结出来,这对公司才是最宝贵的。”蔡明介曾如是说。 联发科正在学习如何当好一个产业的老大。“当企业有机会往前走时,就尽量往前走。尤其是公司规模大了之后,一定要更早切入才能取得更大的成功。”喻铭铎表示,“太早切入有一定风险,但如果市场起来的时机让领先者与追随者间有很大的差距,那么领先者就可以占有主导性市场份额,获得最高投资回报。” 联发科在开发CD-ROM时,远远落后松下、飞利浦等大品牌,但随着技术和资源的日益积累,在DVD-ROM时期已经开始领先对手介入新技术,而目前在下一代DVD技术中,联发科则更早投入研发蓝光DVD芯片。 与此同时,蔡明介还试图为联发科导入另一种发展观。“台湾厂商必须强调全球观以及全球资源。”在蔡明介看来,联发科的营业额增长之所以要低于世界前十大芯片设计公司的平均增长率,是由于联发科的大部分业绩来自于寻找新产品,从头逐渐建立产品线,而美国公司更倾向于采取并购方式,整合获得更快成长,所以美国公司开发新产品领域以及新产品推出速度和数量都要好于联发科。 “要从事先进研发,可能还是要并购美国、欧洲甚至日韩团队。”喻铭铎说。联发科为了强化数码相机专用LSI业务,于2007年4月收购了生产数码相机用ASSP的美国NuCORE Technology公司;五个月后,2007年9月10日,联发科又以3.5亿美元现金并购了美国亚德诺(ADI)旗下的手机芯片产品线相关的有形及无形资产以及团队。 9/26/2008 The Pain of Deleveraging Will Be Deep and Wide --A bleak long-term view on stocks.AS THE CREDIT CRISIS INTENSIFIED LAST WEEK, radically altering the Wall Street landscape and the government's role in stabilizing the financial system, Barron's sought out Switzerland-based Felix Zulauf for a global macro perspective. A longtime member of Barron's Roundtable, the founder of Zulauf Asset Management is now equity-averse -- he prefers gold and government bonds -- but further out, sees untapped growth potential in emerging-markets.
Barron's: It's been an unprecedented time in the financial markets, with Lehman filing for bankruptcy protection, Merrill Lynch being bought by Bank of America and AIG getting rescued by the U.S. government. What's the fallout going to be? Zulauf: The leveraging-up in this cycle is reversing, and we are now deleveraging. When a huge system -- that is, the global credit system dominated by the investment-bank giants that have been the major creators of credit in the last cycle -- turns down, the fallout is going to be terrible. Deleveraging is a very painful process, and will run longer and deeper than anybody can imagine. I've been fearful of this. So far, what we're seeing is the pain in the financial system. Later on, we'll see the echo effect of the pain in the real economy. I can't understand economists talking about no recession or mild recession. This is the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. It's different than the '30s, but is the worst since then, and the consequences will be very, very painful for virtually everybody in our economies. So it's a global downturn? That's right. It started out in the U.S., but it is a global event, led by the [excessive lending practices that grew up in the] housing boom in the U.S. But we also had housing booms in some of the European countries, and in some of the emerging countries. People are already talking about a glut of unsold homes in China. How will these countries fight this severe downturn? Governments, particularly those in the industrialized economies, will use fiscal stimuli to prop up the system and prevent them from collapsing. Usually, those stimuli are a little too small to really have a lasting impact, which is usually spent after two to three quarters. So we could have a pop in the market in '09 and the economy into 2010, and then it disappears again; then there is the next fiscal program, and so on. That can go on for a long time. By issuing more debt, all of these governments are trying to stimulate deteriorating economies. But what do you see as some of the other consequences of all that additional debt? Government debt is going to rise dramatically over the next five to 10 years. Government debt is at 300% of [gross domestic product] in most industrialized countries, if you calculate correctly. That can increase to 400% and 500%, but at some point the government-bond market will not take this without any consequences. That will lead to rising long-term interest rates. But because the economy is not on solid footing yet, short-term rates will stay low for a long time. So you will have a very steep yield curve for many, many years, and this is bearish for bonds since their prices keep falling. What's your take on the inflation outlook? Most governments and central bankers are still concerned about the inflation rate. I think for cyclical reasons that inflation will probably drop sharply into '09, partly due to lower commodity prices. But what's more important thereafter is that there will be a secular rise of the inflation rate, because governments and central bankers will be forced to reflate these economies in a big, big way, and this will be bad for nominal assets, whose value decreases because of less purchasing power. But it will be good for real assets at some point of time in the future. For example, companies can adjust by raising their prices and growing their incomes. What does all of this deleveraging, in which firms try to get various forms of debt off their balance sheet, mean for those involved? When the deleveraging starts due to declining asset prices, there is no one there to reverse it. I cannot see the private sector stopping this and turning it around. It has to be the government, together with the central banks, and they are starting to do that. What's your assessment of the steps Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have taken to stem these problems? It's a challenging job. Bernanke and his team and Treasury are doing the utmost, but doing the utmost means they're always one step behind. So far, it seems that the Fed is constrained by not being able to expand its balance sheet. It has replaced a lot of Treasury paper with other paper of lower quality, and the level of Treasury paper on the Fed's balance sheet has now reached such a low point that it cannot expand more without really monetizing debt. You can't stop this [downturn] or turn it around without going to monetization, a step the central bank hesitates to take. But eventually the developments will force the Fed to do it.---牛人,真的预测到了美国政府必须才去财政政策来expand its balance sheet by adding more paper of lower quality which is declined by the bank and private sectors. What's your reaction to Friday's announcement that Paulson is crafting a plan for the federal government to buy illiquid assets from various financial firms? Treasury, together with the Fed, is taking a big step forward to keep the system from melting down. It will work, but it has to be at least $1 trillion in size and the Fed has to help by cutting rates. The idea is good; now the Treasury has to make it solid and the Fed has to lend its support. This is probably the beginning of a medium-term bottom. Usually a good bottom, even medium term, doesn't stand on one leg. In the coming three or four weeks, the low will be tested, but from there we have a chance for a good medium-term rally. Could you elaborate? What the Fed has to do is buy paper in the asset market, including Treasuries and corporate bonds, and create new money in the financial system -- because the deflationary process created by the deleveraging is at work. Deflationary power is growing dramatically, and the Fed has to replace the dollars that have disappeared into a black hole. The private credit system cannot do that anymore. The Fed and government are really the lenders of last resort. From your vantage point, what do you see happening to the Eurozone's economy? Short term, it will probably get a little bit worse in Europe, because we have a different policy mix than in the U.S. Your central bank has cut rates. They've been aware of the problem. The fiscal situation is expansive already, whereas in Europe we have tightening fiscal policy, and we have still a restrictive central bank that's looking at holding the value of the euro. So Europe could get hurt a little more than the U.S. in the short term, but I think it will do better over the medium term. Why is that? First of all, Europe can finance itself, meaning it's not dependent on outside money. It runs a slight current-account surplus and, net-net, it is not indebted to the rest of the world. The U.S. is indebted to the rest of the world; that's a major difference. Also, Eurozone households [collectively] run a financial surplus, while U.S. households have deficits. So when you look at the large European economies such as those in Germany or France, the consumer is in much better shape and the banks are probably in a little bit better shape than in the U.S., although some internationally active banks and investment banks are like their U.S. competitors. What about emerging-market economies? Even emerging economies are getting hurt. We have seen how real-estate prices in some emerging economies, from the Baltic States to some Asian countries, are coming down. But these countries have a better situation from a very, very long-term point of view because of demographics. They are much younger nations. They are much lower in their standard of living, they are going up the ladder, and they are competitive. Another thing to consider is that current-account and trade deficits will shrink. So what used to be a big stimulus for emerging economies will be curtailed and it will hurt those economies in the short run much more than the markets assume. What do you see ahead for the U.S. economy and elsewhere? The U.S. economy goes flat for several years, and from time to time there probably will be major fiscal programs, each one bigger than the previous one, to help the economy. Europe will be similar; its potential growth is relatively low, with a stagnating population. The emerging economies have much higher potential growth rates. They are going through a down-cycle, but they will come up again in the next cycle and have higher growth rates. But it is going to be a very tough 2009, a global recession. Whoever gets elected president in November will come through with a fiscal program. Monetary policy is really ineffective in this situation. When you have a balance-sheet recession and everybody is deleveraging, monetary policy cannot do the trick. It doesn't work because there is no one willing to leverage up their own balance sheet. Around these parts there has been a lot of focus on Merrill, Lehman and AIG, not to mention Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the U.S. government bailed out recently. What does the future hold for financial firms globally? Bankers have to learn that banking is an industry like any other industry. The financial sector has grown dramatically over recent decades, and I think it has grown to a level that is too big in proportion to total GDP. Global financial-sector debt has gone up fivefold in the last 25 years relative to GDP. So what you now see is a reversal back to the mean. That means that the financial sector as a profit generator, as an employer and as a provider of services will shrink over many years -- back to a level that is more normal than in recent years. The financial-services industry has been treated extremely well for a long time and people made a lot of money and created careers, etc. But it is going to be much, much tougher in the next 10 years globally. Do you see any industries that look promising at the macro level? First, we go through a down-cycle, and it will affect virtually every industry. After that down-cycle is over, particularly in the emerging economies that have higher growth potential, it will turn up again. It could again be infrastructure-related assets or commodity-related assets that will perform very well. If I'm right in this scenario, what will happen is we will create a stimulus to grow in the future. And those who grow the best in a world of stimuli will be those that have the highest growth potential, namely the emerging economies. And then we will see rising bond yields. They will go in cycles, of course, and they will not shoot up straight. But they will go up. What investments look interesting to you? In this environment, those who do not lose win. For the average guy, I'd say go into the most defensive position. I'm not really interested in any longs in equities. I'm holding a lot of government bonds on the long side. I suggest that American investors stick to shorter-term Treasuries with maturities of up to two years. Any other suggestions for equity holdings? If you have extra money left and want to be more aggressive, you can play the markets short-term. There are going to be a lot of runs up and down in a declining market. This is all sounds very bleak, Felix. I'm not interested in any longs in equities. If you are an optimist by nature and if you want to be long, the one area that you should look at is daily necessities, notably consumer staples. Companies like Procter & Gamble [ticker: PG], General Mills [GIS] and maybe Johnson & Johnson [JNJ]. Those are the defensive names. But I have absolutely no interest in investing on the long side in anything that is cyclical in nature, because this cycle could last longer on the downside and go deeper than most investors assume. Thanks very much. 9/25/2008 valuation bubble vs. earnings bubbleBy Hanny Wan The government should buy out home owners, Faber, managing director of Marc Faber Ltd. and publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, told reporters on the sidelines of an investor conference in Hong Kong. He's also predicting Chinese economic growth to ``disappoint'' and Indian stocks to decline. ``The U.S. has many problems,'' Faber said. ``It's a period of hardly any growth in real terms in the economy for several years.'' The global credit crisis, triggered by a housing slump in the U.S., has saddled financial companies with more than $520 billion in writedowns and losses, collapsing Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in the process. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank told reporters in Washington that House and Senate Democrats have reached a deal on legislation to implement the U.S. Treasury's plan, which will allow it to buy as much as $700 billion in devalued assets to unfreeze credit markets. ``I don't believe this is going to be solved in six months to a year,'' Faber said. Faber also forecast the Standard & Poor's 500 Index will rally to as high as 1,350 points following the approval of the bailout plan because stocks are ``oversold.'' That level is about 14 percent higher than the gauge's close yesterday. Still, ``I'm not playing that rally,'' he said. ``I'd rather think that stocks are not particularly cheap. We don't have a valuation bubble. We have an earnings bubble. In 2009, earnings will disappoint.'' 9/22/2008 WB在9月做的2件事情第一件:9月10日要求旗下一家子公司停止为超过联邦政府担保限制的银行存款提供保险;第二件:9月一直在谈收购包括向Constellation提出了每股26.5美元的试探性收购价。
巴菲特勒令子公司退出存款保险业务(Warren Buffett)的Berkshire Hathaway Inc.已经要求旗下一家子公司停止为超过联邦政府担保限制的银行存款提供保险;对目前想方设法安抚客户紧张情绪的金融服务行业来说,这一消息不啻为一记新的打击。 这家子公司Kansas Bankers Surety Co.已经通知30多个州的大约1,500家银行,其将不再提供“银行存款担保债券”项目。根据Berkshire Hathaway 2007年度报告,KBS为其旗下子公司,仅有18名雇员。KBS是诸多提供此类保险的公司之一。而此类保险则是银行试图吸引富有客户的一大卖点。 两位知情人士表示,Berkshire Hathaway首席执行长巴菲特周一下达了这一指令。KBS资深副总裁查克•陶勒(Chuck Towle)拒绝对公司撤出这一业务的原因置评。他表示,我们已经决定这么做,我们将与各家银行协作制定举措。 陶勒没有证实或否认巴菲特介入此事,称这完全是谣言。巴菲特拒绝对此发表评论。 今年以来,已经有11家银行倒闭。自7月11日以来,更是有7家银行破产,其密集程度为1980年代末和1990年代初的存贷款危机以来所未见。美国联邦存款保险公司(FDIC)为大多数帐户提供最高10万美元的保险,对于部分退休帐户,这一上限提高到25万美元。 巴菲特决定撤出这一保险市场的举动表明,太多业内人士对银行的破产前景感到担忧。 某些情况下,收购破产银行的公司会购买所有的存款,使得政府保险上限形同虚设。 但如果收购银行不愿接手额外存款的话,持有大笔存款的客户就可能会遭受损失。FDIC表示,堪萨斯州Columbian Bank & Trust Co.今年8月22日倒闭时,该银行总计有大约610个帐户的4,600万美元存款可能超过政府保险限制。 知情人士称,KBS为这家银行的部分存款提供了保险,并因该银行破产而遭受了损失。陶勒拒绝透露该银行是否为公司客户。 KBS竞争对手BancInsure Inc.的首席执行长沙展(Rodney Sargent)表示,预计许多公司会争夺KBS的客户,因为该公司在全美拥有广阔的业务网络。 华 尔街或许正消失在一个有巨大吸力的黑洞之中,但星星们现在都在列队等待巴菲特(Warren Buffett)摘取。这位价值投资高手一举买进了本周跌去超过半数市值的天然气和电力公司Constellation Energy Group。Berkshire Hathaway旗下的MidAmerican Energy Holdings向Constellation抛出救生圈,提出了每股26.5美元的试探性收购价。 年初股价超过100美元的Constellation正是巴菲特喜爱的那类倒霉蛋。 Constellation上个月承认,为避免信用评级被下调至垃圾级,它曾错误计算了保证金要求,这一消息在市场拉响了警报。在信贷风暴本周升至飓风级的时候,Constellation还在试图解决针对其内部控制和流动性的市场信心问题。 它手头还有20亿美元的流动资金。但标普(But Standard & Poor's)曾威胁有可能下调其评级,果真如此的话,Constellation将需要为其能源交易业务再拿出33亿美元的保证金。由此来看,现在的确是找个资金雄厚的买家的时候了。 MidAmerican将支付47亿美元获得其普通股权益、获得10亿美元的特别优先股并承担其48亿美元的净负债。据此,它将获得9,000兆瓦的发电能力、170万客户、天然气储备和能源交易帐户。 处置这个帐户需要多大代价还未可知。瑞士信贷分析师丹•埃格斯(Dan Eggers)作出的初步估计是20亿美元。即使如此,巴菲特还是以极好的价钱拿下了Constellation。 截至6月底,Constellation的房地产、发电厂和设备净值104亿美元。重置成本会高得多,而且发电设备中几乎有一半是非常诱人的低排放核电和水电站。 瑞士信贷(Credit Suisse)预计,Constellation最大的两项“硬”资产──发电厂和公用事业资产2009年合计将创造20亿美元的利息、税收、摊销和折旧前利润。即使按6倍市盈率保守估计,市值也应达到120亿美元。 当然,这样一桩划算买卖的一个潜在缺陷是,它可能会引来竞购买家。 投资者普遍希望巴菲特此次重金出手标志着市场触底。5月份时巴菲特筹集的收购资金已达到350亿美元。 不过别有什么指望了。硬资产见长但流动资金不足的Constellation是一个绝佳的机会。另一方面,鉴于银行问题的根源:不透明的、可能潜藏着“危险”内容的资产负债表,眼下一败涂地的银行估值看上去就不那么有吸引力了。 华尔街激起的涟漪未来数周乃至数月可能会让更多的受害者落水,有鉴于此,市场可能会见到更多的并购机会。但并非每个领域都能指望出现巴菲特这样的买家。 `Too Big to Fail' Metric Makes Bank of America, JPMorgan Safer新闻说:“The Federal Reserve Board approved the applications of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to become bank holding companies”。问题是把securities hourse/IB merge into a bank到底是在干些什么名堂?第一,增加银行本身的负债水平,银行的leverage更大,与此同时银行的资产方多了很多risky investments like CDOs and credit default swaps。第二,巨无霸银行可以利用"too big to fail"的地位争取到更低廉的借贷承本.第三,监管部门由以前的SEC变为Fed.
很自然地,人们要问这种ever-consolidating industry model能帮助提升risk management to that we can prevent banks ``from growing to the point that we couldn't accept their failure"?如果还是因为too big to fail,一切由纳税人来买单,这不是被社会主义同化了吗?难怪邓老乡早就高瞻远瞩说讨论姓资还是姓社没有什么意义,原来天下大同呀。
By Bradley Keoun Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The financial calamity that sent Merrill Lynch & Co. and Bear Stearns Cos. into the arms of the two largest U.S. banks made the buyers suddenly safer: They are now more likely to be protected by the U.S. government. Bank of America Corp.'s Sept. 15 deal to buy Merrill will boost its liabilities by 60 percent to $2.5 trillion, more than twice the $971 billion at insurer American International Group Inc., taken over last week by the Federal Reserve. JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s obligations rose by 8 percent to $1.6 trillion when it bought Bear Stearns in May. Citigroup Inc., the fourth-largest U.S. bank by market value, has almost $2 trillion of liabilities, making all three banks ``too big to fail'' under the AIG standard, said John Douglas, general counsel to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. during the 1980s savings and loan crisis. That status may increase risks for taxpayers while proving a boon to shareholders and bondholders of the three banks, said University of Chicago finance professor Luigi Zingales. One benefit may be lower borrowing costs similar to those enjoyed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the years before their Sept. 7 bailout. The mortgage-finance firms were able to pay lower yields on their debt because they had an implicit government guarantee. ``This will definitely make the bonds safer,'' said Zingales, who's also a member of the nonpartisan Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based nonprofit group of 27 executives, investors and academics. ``It is a pretty significant comparative institutional advantage.'' Bank of America in Charlotte, North Carolina, and New York- based JPMorgan and Citigroup may also get an immediate benefit from the Bush administration's plan to buy $700 billion of bad mortgage investments from financial companies. Bad Assets Citigroup has been trying to unload almost $60 billion of asset-backed securities assumed from off-balance-sheet structured investment vehicles that failed in late 2007. Merrill had more than $80 billion of junk-grade corporate loans, residential mortgage securities and commercial real-estate investments as of June, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney said in a Sept. 14 note. Selling these assets to the government may ease shareholder worries about further writedowns. ``The U.S. government is clearly in a much better position to hold these assets for a longer period of time than the public corporations,'' Thomas Renyi, former chairman of Bank of New York Mellon Corp., told reporters in Washington on Sept. 19. Isaac Lustgarten, managing director of Occam Regulatory Solutions LLC, a New York consulting firm, has a different view of the government's plan. ``This is part and parcel of not letting the banks fail,'' Lustgarten said. Credit-Default Swaps Prices for Citigroup's credit-default swaps -- used by hedge funds and Wall Street traders to bet on the likelihood of a debt default -- plunged by a third to 205 basis points on Sept. 19, when President George W. Bush said the administration's plan would ``help take pressure off the balance sheets of banks and other financial institutions.'' Shareholders of New York-based AIG, the biggest U.S. insurer, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were mostly wiped out when the government stepped in. And details about how U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson plans to carry out the rescue aren't known. If banks have to sell assets to the government at a price lower than their book value, they will be forced to take writedowns and may have to raise additional capital, diluting earnings per share. The government's unprecedented push into the financial industry may pressure Washington to speed regulatory reforms and prevent further failures. That may hinder growth, similar to how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest mortgage-finance companies, had to contend with caps on their investments. `Incredible Burden' ``It puts an incredible burden on the Federal Reserve as supposedly the umbrella regulator to make sure it doesn't happen again,'' said Douglas, who's now an Atlanta-based partner for law firm Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP. More too-big-to-fail firms might be in the making. Morgan Stanley, one of two remaining independent major U.S. securities companies, is considering a merger with Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia Corp., the seventh-largest U.S. bank by market value, a person familiar with the matter said last week. Combined, they would have $1.7 trillion of liabilities, equal to the combined obligations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The U.S. trading and investment-banking operations of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 15, are being acquired by Barclays Plc, Britain's third-largest bank. ``We're going to need a new regulatory framework to make sure that the merged firms don't get into the trouble they used to get in separately,'' said Richard Sylla, a financial historian and professor of economics at New York University. Forfeiting Independence New York-based Merrill, Lehman and Bear Stearns, once the third-, fourth- and fifth-largest U.S. securities firms, forfeited their independence because of losses on risky assets linked to the housing market. Some of those assets may migrate to the banks. ``Buying Merrill Lynch makes Bank of America more risky; you can't paint it any other way,'' said Ralph Cole, senior vice president of research at Ferguson Wellman Capital Management in Portland, Oregon, which oversees $2.6 billion, including about 500,000 Bank of America shares. ``It's nice to be a more diverse operation, but there is risk associated with being an investment bank that there isn't in a standard bank.'' JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon is finding that out following his Bear Stearns purchase, even after the government guaranteed $29 billion of the firm's assets. Dimon's Regret Dimon, in private meetings with investors, is ``expressing regret'' over the Bear Stearns deal, said Charles Peabody, an analyst at Portales Partners LLC, a New York-based research firm. ``He's saying if he had it to do over again, he wouldn't do it without greater protections.'' Joseph Evangelisti, a spokesman for New York-based JPMorgan, declined to comment. ``The ever-consolidating industry model doesn't solve our problems at all,'' said Roger Lister, a former Morgan Stanley executive who is now chief credit officer for financial institutions at DBRS Inc. in New York. ``It doesn't matter whether they merge, unless you put two strong companies together.'' Financial supermarkets that offer services from checking accounts to bond underwriting weren't allowed until 1999, when Congress shattered the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act's ban on mixing commercial banking and the securities business. The first, Citigroup, was formed in a merger of Travelers Group Inc., which owned Salomon Brothers, and Citicorp, a 196-year-old New York bank. Risky Investments The 1933 act was intended to stop bank executives from steering customers' deposits into risky investments. Critics of the repeal said banks would push into riskier businesses, increasing the chances of government intervention. ``One of the ironies here is that the regulated entities, the ones that have capital they have to maintain, that are much more scrutinized not just by the marketplace but by regulators, seem to have done very well versus the innovative, creative wizards of Wall Street,'' Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee's securities subcommittee, told reporters last week in Washington. Bank of America fell 26 percent in the past year in New York trading, compared with Merrill's 60 percent decline. JPMorgan shares are up 1.5 percent over the past year, while Bear Stearns shares plunged from a record $171.51 in January 2007 before being bought by JPMorgan for $10 each. Bank Liabilities A bank's liabilities include deposits, long-term debt, commercial paper and borrowed federal funds. Citigroup has the most liabilities of any U.S. bank with $1.96 trillion, including $800 billion of deposits. Deposits, often referred to as ``sticky'' funding because customers don't usually change banks when interest rates fluctuate, make up about half of Bank of America's total liabilities, compared with about 11 percent of Merrill's. Investment banks are more vulnerable to credit-market chaos because they have a greater proportion of trading liabilities, brokerage payables and funds borrowed by pledging securities as collateral. Trading liabilities and securities-financing transactions account for about 40 percent of Merrill's total liabilities, compared with 20 percent for Bank of America. Goldman Sachs, the biggest U.S. securities firm, says it can remain independent. ``We think our business model works because our business works,'' Chief Financial Officer David Viniar, 53, said last week in an interview. Goldman plunged 16 percent in New York trading last week on concern that it might not survive without combining with a bank. `Somewhat Obsolete' ``What the market has said to us is pretty loud and clear,'' said Nils Overdahl, a bond-fund manager at New Century Advisors in Bethesda, Maryland, which oversees $500 million. ``The investment-banking component of the financial system is somewhat obsolete.'' It may be good for the stability of the financial system, and for taxpayers, that the Fed, which oversees banks, will now regulate the biggest securities firms, said John Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School in New York. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which governs investment banks, is ``not as aggressive'' as the Fed, especially when it comes to risky investments bought with borrowed money, or leverage, he said. ``I don't think we can tolerate management saying we'll roll the dice on higher leverage,'' Coffee said. That may mean lower profits for securities firms and lower bonuses for traders. Less Leverage ``There will be less speculation, less leverage,'' said Bill Strazzullo, a former JPMorgan bond trader who is now chief market strategist at Bell Curve Trading, an independent research firm in Freehold, New Jersey. ``That makes it more difficult to have these huge trading games where you make a ton of money and get paid a ton of money.'' Ernest Patrikis, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP in New York and a former New York Fed official, said the government should draw up a list of the 25 U.S. financial institutions most likely to cause systemic risk, and designate the central bank to supervise all of them. It might be a better idea to prevent banks ``from growing to the point that we couldn't accept their failure,'' said Kenneth Scott, who served as general counsel at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in the 1960s. ``Even a well-designed regulatory system isn't going to succeed in eliminating failure,'' said Scott, now a professor emeritus at Stanford Law School. ``The problem is not the combination of banking and securities per se. It's a function of sheer size.'' 9/21/2008 Marty Whitman Shareholder Letter对于这个Martin Whitman老生,小二我一直暗恋,因为他的书我统统看不懂,但是觉得里面的东东又必须要懂,所以小二只能先多多读读他写的shareholder letter。最近8月写的是投资了超配香港、日本、韩国浦项。他还是念念不完他的toyota industry,这次又是实际能以便宜的价格购买这个股票。最让我惊讶的是他对于distressed securities的投资,居然买了GMAC Senior Unsecureds & MBIA surplus notes. 同时还等到足够低的时候去买了MBIA common stock. 英文里面如果要形容人或者事物历经风雨后很老道,会用单词"seasoned"。对于证券或者投资证券的人,都还是seasoned比当红辣子鸡要让我觉得更放心。有钱就去买TAVF吧,因为投资老男人不会错到哪里去了。 9/20/2008 Whitman's glass-half-full take on market疑惑的时候应该怎么办?历史书籍或者像历史书一样老的男人。他会告诉你:It's worse than the U.S. savings and loans crisis in the 1980s, Asian currency crisis of 1997 and the collapse of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management and the Russian default crisis in 1998。But, he said: "This too shall pass."但是也不要奢望能很快复原。
TORONTO -- Marty Whitman, the octogenarian dean of deep-value investing, sees great bargains to be snapped up from the current stock market meltdown.
"It's a great time," enthused the 83-year-old founder of New York-based Third Avenue Management LLC before speaking yesterday at a conference organized by AIC Ltd. "We can't try to pick the bottom, but it seems to me that there are great values out there now, just like in 1974," the firm's co-chief investment officer said in an interview. The stock market crash of 1973-74, which affected all the major stock markets around the world, lasted 694 days before bottoming out. "Everything went down every day, and if you bought, you hit a lot of 10-baggers," recalled Mr. Whitman. "I hope that we do it with a lot of what we are doing now."
Mr. Whitman, who buys stocks he considers to be "safe and cheap," still oversees the firm's flagship mutual fund, Third Avenue Value, in the United States. The former Wall Street analyst with a background in distressed investments didn't start his fund company until 1990 at 65, an age when most people retire. As of Aug. 31, his global fund has posted an average annual return of 14.4 per cent since inception. His colleague, Ian Lapey, who is in his early 40s and is the designated successor to Mr. Whitman, runs the similarly managed AIC Global Focused Fund sold in Canada. With the U.S. government bailing out American International Group Inc., and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filing for bankruptcy protection this week, Mr. Whitman described the unfolding events as "the most severe financial crisis" that he has seen. It's worse than the U.S. savings and loans crisis in the 1980s, Asian currency crisis of 1997 and the collapse of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management and the Russian default crisis in 1998, he said. But, he said: "This too shall pass." Mr. Whitman buys companies that are very well financed; whose stocks are priced at a substantial discount to net asset value (NAV), and where the businesses can grow their NAV by at least 10 per cent compounded a year over the next five to 10 years. "If the value is compelling enough and the businesses have staying power, we just buy and don't worry about the market," Mr. Whitman said. "Our turnover is about 10 to 15 per cent a year at most, and the majority of our exits are companies that get taken over rather than a sale." Some financials he has been buying lately include Power Corp. of Canada, caught in the downdraft, and U.S. securities like bond insurer Ambac Financial Group Inc., Bank of New York Mellon, and MBIA Insurance Corp.'s 14-per-cent surplus notes. "We are extremely big on Brookfield Asset Management," he added. "It's very well financed, brilliantly managed by Bruce Flatt and his team. We are also big on the oil sands. We like Suncor, EnCana and Nabors Industries, whose subsidiary Nabors Canada is the largest land drilling company in the world." He has also been picking up more shares of Toyota Industries Corp., a long-time favourite. And he has been accumulating more stock in Hong Kong-based Henderson Land Development Corp. Ltd., Hang Lung Group Ltd. and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. "All of these [Hong Kong] companies have a huge presence in mainland China," he said. "If we are going to be wrong about these investments, it's going to be for political - not economic - reasons." While legendary value investor John Templeton - who died in July at age 95 - retired from the mutual fund business by age 80, Mr. Whitman intends to keep working. "If I can't be a tennis pro - and I can't - I might as well just keep doing this as long as I am able to," quipped Mr. Whitman, an avid tennis player. "Just show me the door when I really get too old. So far, there is no sign." from:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080918.RAIC18/TPStory/Business John Bogle Says U.S. Government Seems `Punch Drunk'Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- John Bogle, who created the $106 billion Vanguard 500 Index Fund in 1976, said the U.S. government is ``punch drunk'' with proposals to rescue the financial system. ``We're playing a game of casino capitalism, interfering with the way the market is working,'' Bogle, 79, said in a telephone interview today from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. ``The government seems punch drunk. It doesn't seem systematic.'' Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke proposed removing troubled assets from banks' balance sheets last night, while the Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily banned short sales of financial firms. The plans followed the government takeover this week of American International Group Inc., the biggest U.S. insurer, and its bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest mortgage financiers, two weeks ago. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rallied as much as 4.5 percent after yesterday's 4.3 percent rebound from the lowest level since 2005. The gains helped send the MSCI World Index of shares in 23 developed nations to the steepest two-day surge since June 1970. ``I'm obviously in the minority,'' Bogle said. The U.S. stock market has gained or lost more than $500 billion on four of the past five days, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. `Most Speculative I've Seen' ``Believe me, the value of American business doesn't change that much in a day,'' said Bogle, named one of the industry's four ``Giants of the 20th Century'' by Fortune magazine in 1999. Bogle, who retired from Vanguard Group Inc. in 1999, said he hasn't changed his personal asset-allocation target -- 35 percent in stocks and 65 percent in bonds -- since 2000. Because of price fluctuations, he currently has about 30 percent in stocks and 70 percent in bonds. The S&P 500 jumped 6.7 percent from the low to its high yesterday, the biggest intraday swing since July 2002, according to Bloomberg data. ``We're in the most speculative market I've seen,'' said Bogle, who was born five months before the stock-market crash of 1929. ``We seem to be in the depths of despair one moment, and the heights of optimism the next.'' 9/19/2008 Buffett Warned Us in 2003, Few Listenedby Todd N Kenyon.
看看WB买下的wells fargo不但没有受到次贷太大的冲击,反而利用此次机会买其他银行,它的董事会主席Richard Kovacevich说:I've been through six cycles and this is the only cycle where the problems started with financial services companies," he said. "Usually what happens is our customers get into problems, then we get into problems, but we caused this."He noted that that Wells Fargo lost 4 percent of market share per year between 2005 and 2007, and $160 billion in fees in 2006 alone because of its refusal to sell the type of risky mortgages that are now undermining the U.S. economy。 真的,不是一家人,不进一家门。 Warren Buffet foresaw the current financial disaster more than five years ago. I pulled out his 2002 Chairman’s Letter, wherein he addresses derivatives and their potential to scuttle the entire financial system. Here are some key passages:
9/17/2008 Fed bails-out AIG with 2-year bridge loan of $85b美联储终于出手了,AIG得以幸免。要想拿到政府的bailout,看来不仅要big,还要ubiquitous in terms of AIG is very connected to the financial system and it is very connected to the real economy. 由此可见大型保险公司和大型劵商在政府心目中的截然不同的地位。
Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government agreed to lend as much as $85 billion to American International Group Inc. in exchange for a 79.9 percent stake to save the country's biggest insurer from collapse. The Federal Reserve ``determined that, in current circumstances, a disorderly failure of AIG could add to already significant levels of financial market fragility and lead to substantially higher borrowing costs, reduced household wealth and materially weaker economic performance,'' the Fed said. The agreement, supported by the Treasury Department, will keep New York-based AIG in business, averting a failure that could have threatened more financial companies and added to chaos in world markets. Losses industrywide could have totaled $180 billion if AIG collapsed, according to RBC Capital Markets. AIG needed the loan after its credit ratings were cut and shares plunged 79 percent since Sept. 11. The two-year loan will ``assist AIG in meeting its obligations as they come due,'' the Fed said in its statement. The federal lifeline will allow AIG to sell assets in an orderly fashion rather than at distressed prices, said a person familiar with the agreement. ``The loan is expected to be repaid from the proceeds of the sale of the firm's assets,'' the Fed said. The U.S. government has the right to veto the payment of dividends to common and preferred shareholders. AIG will replace management as part of the deal, said the person, who declined to be named because not all parts of the agreement were publicly disclosed. Interest will accrue on the outstanding balance at the three-month London interbank offered rate plus 8.5 percentage points. AIG is the next one?Wall Street’s Next Big Problem by MICHAEL LEWITT from nytimes.com. 前几天,吉鲁巴特还说为什么没有hedge fund倒下,这篇文章就说只要:A.I.G. would suddenly become a large redeemer from hedge funds, forcing fund managers to sell positions and probably driving down prices in the world’s financial markets. More failures, particularly of hedge funds, could follow.估计美联储提供过桥贷款的可能性还是有的。
Boca Raton, Fla. WHEN I drove to the Beverly Hills offices of Drexel Burnham Lambert on Feb. 13, 1990, the last thing I expected to hear was that the investment bank where I worked was going under. Yet early that morning, we were told that the company was filing for bankruptcy. I was, to put it mildly, blown away. At the time, Drexel had $3.5 billion in assets and was the biggest underwriter of junk bonds. It all seemed like a very big deal at the time. But what’s happening this week makes me pine for the good old days. When Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on Monday, it became the latest but surely not the last victim of the subprime mortgage collapse. Lehman owned more than $600 billion in assets. Financial institutions around the world have already reported more than half a trillion dollars of mortgage-related losses and that figure will most likely double or triple before the crisis exhausts itself. But there is a bigger potential failure lurking: the American International Group, the insurance giant. It poses a much larger threat to the financial system than Lehman Brothers ever did because it plays an integral role in several key markets: credit derivatives, mortgages, corporate loans and hedge funds. Late Monday, A.I.G. was downgraded by the major credit rating agencies (which inexplicably still retain an enormous amount of power in the marketplace despite having gutted their credibility with unreliable ratings for mortgage-backed securities during the housing boom). This credit downgrade could require A.I.G. to post billions of dollars of additional collateral for its mortgage derivative contracts. Fat chance. That’s collateral A.I.G. does not have. There is therefore a substantial possibility that A.I.G. will be unable to meet its obligations and be forced into liquidation. A side effect: Its collapse would be as close to an extinction-level event as the financial markets have seen since the Great Depression. A.I.G. does business with virtually every financial institution in the world. Most important, it is a central player in the unregulated, Brobdingnagian credit default swap market that is reported to be at least $60 trillion in size. Nobody knows this market’s real size, or who owes what to whom, because there is no central clearinghouse or regulator for it. Credit default swaps are a type of credit insurance contract in which one party pays another party to protect it from the risk of default on a particular debt instrument. If that debt instrument (a bond, a bank loan, a mortgage) defaults, the insurer compensates the insured for his loss. The insurer (which could be a bank, an investment bank or a hedge fund) is required to post collateral to support its payment obligation, but in the insane credit environment that preceded the credit crisis, this collateral deposit was generally too small. As a result, the credit default market is best described as an insurance market where many of the individual trades are undercapitalized. But even worse, many of the insurers are grossly undercapitalized. In one case in the New York courts, the Swiss banking giant UBS is suing a hedge fund that said it would insure nearly $1.5 billion in bonds but was unable to do so. No wonder — the hedge fund had only $200 million in assets. If A.I.G. collapsed, its hundreds of billions of dollars of mortgage-related assets would be added to those being sold by other financial institutions. This would just depress values further. The counterparties around the world to A.I.G.’s credit default swaps may be unable to collect on their trades. As a large hedge-fund investor, A.I.G. would suddenly become a large redeemer from hedge funds, forcing fund managers to sell positions and probably driving down prices in the world’s financial markets. More failures, particularly of hedge funds, could follow. Regulators knew that if Lehman went down, the world wouldn’t end. But Wall Street isn’t remotely prepared for the inestimable damage the financial system would suffer if A.I.G. collapsed. While Gov. David A. Paterson of New York on Monday allowed A.I.G. to borrow $20 billion from its subsidiaries, that move will only postpone the day of reckoning. The Federal Reserve was also trying to arrange at least $70 billion in loans from investment banks, but it’s hard to see how Wall Street could come up with that much money. More promisingly, A.I.G. asked the Federal Reserve for a bridge loan. True, there is no precedent for the central bank to extend assistance to an insurance company. But these are unprecedented times, and the Federal Reserve should provide A.I.G. with some form of financial support while the company liquidates its mortgage-related assets in an orderly manner. The Fed cannot afford to stand on principle. The myth of free markets ended with the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Actually, it ended with their creation. 9/16/2008 South Korea Turns Tables on Wall Street After Bailout三十年河东,三十年河西,1997年亚洲金融危机的时候谁会想到今天韩国的银行会来收购这些华尔街的精英呢?Tables have been turned, really???真是无所不在的可能性。 South Korea Turns Tables on Wall Street After Bailout 'Tectonic' Market Shift as Lehman Fails, Merrill SoldBy Christine Harper。
看这个标题用的形容词"tectonic",一个我没有见过的单词就知道情况有多糟糕,tectonic是说“地殼構造上的”。这篇bloomberg的报道为什么 Barclays 放弃了收购Leh,而BoA最后买下了Merrill。最让我两个小眼镜变大的是这句话:Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at New York University, said the independent securities firm model is ``fundamentally flawed'' and that every securities firm will need to combine with a bank to gain a deposit base and greater access to loans from the Federal Reserve. Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- In the biggest reshaping of the financial industry since the Great Depression, two of Wall Street's most storied firms, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., headed toward extinction. New York-based Lehman, founded 158 years ago, said early today that it filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to find a buyer. Merrill Lynch, 94 years old and also based in New York, agreed to sell itself to Bank of America Corp. for $50 billion in an emergency deal hashed out yesterday. ``The tectonic plates beneath the world financial system are shifting, and there is going to be a new financial world order that will be born of this,'' said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital Group Inc., the Jersey City, New Jersey-based brokerage that handles about $1 trillion worth of stock transactions a quarter. ``It's an ugly and painful process.'' The engines that powered record growth in the financial industry over the past decade -- cheap credit and surging property values -- have been thrust into reverse. Companies that once thrived on making real estate loans and holding assets bought with borrowed money are now under siege, giving the upper hand to those less reliant on leverage and holding the fewest assets tied to property. Bear, Fannie, Freddie The industry convulsions that started last year have already eliminated Bear Stearns Cos., forced into a cut-price sale to JPMorgan Chase & Co. with government support in March. A week ago, the U.S. Treasury placed mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship, guaranteeing their widely held debt securities while all but erasing their equity value. American International Group Inc., once the world's largest insurer, is struggling to raise cash to avoid a credit-rating downgrade that could cripple its business. AIG shares fell as much as 52 percent in New York Stock Exchange composite trading today and were down $5.49, or 45 percent, to $6.65 at 10:50 a.m. The five New York-based securities firms that dominated Wall Street have been reduced to two: Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley. While both firms are scheduled to report a drop in third-quarter earnings this year, their business has remained profitable throughout 2008 -- unlike Lehman and Merrill. As concerns swirled about their futures, Goldman's stock dropped as much as 7.9 percent and Morgan Stanley's fell as much as 13 percent in New York Stock Exchange composite trading today. `Ride This Out' ``I think highly of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, so I expect them to ride this out,'' Evercore Partners Inc. Chief Executive Officer Roger Altman, a former deputy Treasury secretary who spent his early career at Lehman, said in an interview on CNBC. ``But as to whether we've seen the last of this crisis, I think the answer to that is clearly no. And exactly where it goes from here and how it unfolds, I'm unsure.'' Lehman, which employed 25,935 people at the end of August in 61 offices around the world, had a balance sheet totaling $786 billion as recently as February. Merrill Lynch, with 60,000 employees, is known for its ``thundering herd'' of financial advisers that brought Wall Street financial products to Main Street investors. `Vaporized' ``I've been on Wall Street for many years, and I've never seen a weekend like this one,'' said Michael Holland, 64, chairman and founder of New York-based Holland & Co. ``We are unwinding what has been years of silliness in the financial markets, and the silliness is being vaporized as we speak, unfortunately with the stock price of a number of companies involved in it.'' To help cushion the fallout, 10 banks created a $70 billion fund to lend to firms that are having trouble financing their assets in the markets. The Federal Reserve also said it will be willing to lend money in return for a wider array of collateral including stocks. Still, the repercussions may be widespread. Meredith Whitney, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., wrote in a note to investors that sales of Lehman's assets will push down the value of securities, forcing other firms to write down their own holdings. `Fundamentally Flawed' Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at New York University, said the independent securities firm model is ``fundamentally flawed'' and that every securities firm will need to combine with a bank to gain a deposit base and greater access to loans from the Federal Reserve. Just five months ago, Lehman Brothers Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld, 62, was telling shareholders that ``the worst is behind us'' in the credit contraction. As concerns escalated about the value of Lehman's assets tied to residential and commercial real estate, Fuld replaced Chief Financial Officer Erin Callan and President Joseph Gregory in June. Deteriorating markets put more pressure on the value of Lehman's assets and the firm, unable to negotiate an investment from the Korea Development Bank, instead tried to reassure investors last week by revealing third-quarter results early and unveiling a plan to sell part of its fund management unit and create a separate unit for its real estate holdings. Fuld's efforts were undermined on Sept. 10, when Moody's Investors Service put Lehman's credit rating on review for downgrade, noting that the firm needed a ``strategic transaction with a stronger financial partner'' to help support its rating. Stock Tumbles Lehman's stock fell 50 percent on Thursday, Sept. 11 and Friday, Sept. 12 and the collapse spread to Merrill, which has reported four consecutive quarters of losses and is expected to lose money again this quarter. New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner called a meeting of Wall Street's top firms starting at the Fed's downtown headquarters that began at 6 p.m. on Friday, with a goal of helping ease a sale of Lehman, according to people familiar with the situation. The two banks most interested in Lehman, London-based Barclays Plc and Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America, balked at a deal unless the government would protect it from any losses on some of the hardest-to-value assets. The government, already shaken by criticism of its actions to support Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, refused to budge and tried to persuade the CEOs of the biggest Wall Street firms to pitch in instead. Weekend Discussions The talks lasted through the weekend, with groups of executives breaking off into smaller groups to discuss options and teams of traders examining positions at every major firm. Yesterday, Barclays, the U.K.'s third-biggest bank, dropped out, deciding it couldn't agree on a deal so quickly without some type of protection from losses. As hopes dimmed for salvaging Lehman, attention turned to the future of Merrill, Lehman's bigger rival. That business, with its 16,690 financial advisers and almost half of fund manager BlackRock Inc., was more attractive to Bank of America than Lehman could be. Merrill CEO John Thain, persuaded by the weekend's events that a deal was necessary to avoid a loss of confidence and a fate similar to Lehman's, entered into negotiations with Bank of America's Ken Lewis. The liquidation of Lehman, last year's top underwriter of bonds backed by mortgages, is an amplified version of investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in 1990. Drexel made its name financing corporate takeovers in the 1980s using junk bonds pushed by Michael Milken. Keeping the Talent Maintaining the confidence of the markets is only one of the challenges for an investment bank -- the other is retaining employees, recalled Fred Joseph, Drexel's CEO from 1985 to 1990. ``It's an awfully good business, but the assets go down in the elevator every night,'' said Joseph, 71. ``Despite the tough times, the Street's so small, everybody wants the really good guys.'' A key difference with Drexel is Lehman's central role in the over-the-counter derivatives markets, which have ballooned to $454 trillion since Drexel was in business. A default by Lehman on its obligations in that market could cause chain reactions throughout the markets that have never before seen a major financial counterparty fail to honor its obligations. ``The implications of one of the `too big to fail' institutions being allowed to fail is incredibly difficult to grasp, but suffice to say that a huge number of firms and securities are going to get affected,'' said Michael Auyeung, who manages about $500 million as chief executive officer at Pacific Mutual Fund Bhd. in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. ``The reach of the carnage will be global and system-wide.'' Lehman's collapse wipes out a company that had a market value of $45.5 billion in February 2007. Merrill's sale to Bank of America for $29 a share, while about a 70 percent premium to Merrill's value on Friday, compares with the company's $86 billion market capitalization in January 2007. ``It's breathtaking that we've gone from five standalone firms to two very quickly,'' said Roy Smith, a finance professor at New York University's Stern School of Business and a former partner at Goldman Sachs. ``It's certainly going to cause Wall Street to rethink the strategy.'' 9/13/2008 到底啥意思嘛?要说一点对留学生不太有利的方面,教授给你的是美国的terms and concept,回到国内用的是中国学习国外的理念的东东,但是又有差别,如果你回过头有去找老外的源头,基本上就是越来越糊涂。于是小二我这个星期都成了250. 头上多弄出来好多白头发,也没有搞懂会计准则里面合并报表的权益法和成本法。准则里面说:“权益法,是指投资以初始投资成本计量后,在投资持有期间根据投资企业享有被投资单位所有者权益份额的变动对投资的账面价值进行调整的方法。投资企业对被投资单位具有共同控制或重大影响的长期股权投资,应当采用权益法核算。投资企业对子公司的长期股权投资,应当采用成本法核算,编制合并财务报表时按照权益法进行调整。” 小二我的理解是:有控制权的---子公司,有共同控制的---合营企业,有重大影响的---联营企业。所以看上去好像应该对应GAAP里面的:子公司---consolidation, 合营企业---equity method, 联营企业 --- equity method or cost method. 但是准则里说:“投资企业对子公司的长期股权投资,应当采用成本法核算,编制合并财务报表时按照权益法进行调整”。可能是说在购买子公司的时候,会计科目应该按照成本法计入,这个也好理解,关键是说后续的时间里面进入母公司合并报表时候使用“权益法进行调整”是个什么意思?既然是子公司,具有控制权,不是应该consolidation method,怎么又用上了equity method?
花开两多,另表一支。要分析的这个公司的资产负债表的“长期股权投资”就是使用权益法衡量合营企业和联营企业,这和GAAP是一致的,但是我看有一些合营企业的ownership达到了90%,那么为什么这样的公司不算控股子公司进行合并报表呢?90%还没有实际控制权吗?90%还使用权益法有什么会计依据吗?
最搞不懂的就是出现在“长期股权投资”项目下的按照成本法计算的控股子公司。假设Y0时,A是老母,用90元钱购买了一家地铁铺面号称B公司的90%的股权作为老母的控股子公司(假设100元就是子公司的公允价值),剩下的10%为小红所有。所以老母的资产负债表应该是 借记:长期股权投资--B公司90%的股权投资:RMB100 贷记:现金:RMB90 贷记:少数股东权益—小红10%的B公司所有权:RMB10 此时老母的其他会计科目不做调整。过了一年以后—Y1时,这个世界上只有老母被证监会要求做一张资产负债表,这个时候地铁铺面B公司和老母其实各自有了一张资产负债表,把相互往来的账目全部一笔勾销,因为母就是子,子就是母,老母借给儿子的债务也不出现了,总之不用重复记两笔帐。老母除了还保留:“长期股权投资--B公司90%的股权投资:RMB100”不变以外,要把地铁铺面B公司的不是从老母这里获得的资产/负债都吸收到老母的资产负债表里面。 就是说 少数股东权益—小红:RMB10+10%B公司NI 老母:B公司里面的非关联资产/负债统统合并,retained earnings里面也是二者合并+90%的B公司dividend payout,common保持不变。 不知道“投资企业对子公司的长期股权投资,应当采用成本法核算,编制合并财务报表时按照权益法进行调整”是不是这个意思?反正睡觉先,否则头发掉光光。中秋节只看月亮,不看年报。下面是以前做学生时候的笔记。
9/8/2008 男色记忆他是个真正干咨询的人才,小二我不是.
小二我常常以貌取人,一看是啥大牌机构通常就是脚底睬油溜走为先,以免话不投机三句多. 可是这位夏小哥难得的不难为我,对于我的眼高手低干出来的东东也是不太计较.
今天偶然在网上看到他以前写的书,<打造德隆竞争力>,没有卖的,太熟了也不好意思向他拿来看,能想象小哥在书里面用的感性的解读.印象当中只记得他有一次偶尔谈起和德隆的人共事,以及对德隆的深深惋惜.毕竟,那还是2003年,毕竟小哥所接触的那个德隆新兴阳光的一面.
08年8月,唐万新走出了监狱,毫无疑问,他会以某种方式回来. 产业链阴谋--郎咸平对这位来自台湾的狼,小二我是佩服他作为台湾人天生的本土化能力以及他浅显的语言风格所造成的洗脑式逻辑。毫无疑问,他具有很强的综合能力。偶尔看看也无妨,只要不偏听,否则容易造成个体大脑的短路。就郎先生说起的OEM模式产生的固定资产投入和定价权流失,从身边的经验来看,很到位,不过这不是什么新鲜的论调。他的同胞施振荣在Acer的时候就提过了。只是,郎先生真的喜欢教书育人,而且喜用卡通书,上纲上线把异我类者统统脸谱化和妖魔化,看来,打倒反动派不仅仅是共产主义的口号。小二我只是不喜欢把任何中国人碰到的困难就说成阴谋,又不是陈幸妤动不动就是政治迫害,有皇帝,就有权谋,有竞争,就有阴谋,毛主席早就教育我们:一切帝国主义不过是纸老虎。反正,风雨总在阳光后,阴谋总在合作中。“产业链高效整合”的出路其实还是要依靠像施振荣这样的实干家慢慢摸索。
产业链阴谋--郎咸平9/6/2008 好多年没有写"读后感"了信仰上帝的大抵都通读过圣经,去埃及我看到的更是活生生的人民战争—每个信男善女都手捧可兰经或者是压缩版,听说对岸的蓝色同胞也被要求熟读《三民主义>.
来说说我对Prof.Ben的圣经的理解。 本教授认为试图确定“earning power”or “intrinsic value”并不是证券分析的核心,也就是说不是我们经常看到的股票分析报告里面说的这个股票目前价值35—38元,属于超卖,就是股票分析。现在我看起来,教授是说分析过程里面必须揭示出:第一,证券的价值必须高到为购买证券购买做出合理化解释(这是最低的要求);第二,就是证券的价值大大高于或者低于市场的价格。也许,看官会说:“废话,这不是大白话吗?”非也,第一种情况主要是指本身具有business stability的“standard senior issues”必须经过严格的量化测试,才能作为投资进行购买,同时本教授的量化测试(net deduction method & adequate junior equity)是建立在viewpoint of calamity原则上的;第二种情况是包括了3种子情况。A.) 那些一方面已经达到了投资级别的Senior Issues,却还含有进一步本金升值的要素。B.) Speculative senior issues 和普通股的价值大大高于市场价格的机会。这里显示了本教授的一个原则:之所以不把蓝筹股和第一种情况中的standard senior issue并列在一起,就是因为本教授认为就保守的投资人需要安全的投资品种而言,就算经过了严格的量化测试的蓝筹股也不如同样经过测试的标准高级债券,因为债券的安全性是有合约强制保护的,但是高价购买的蓝筹股却无法对本金和收益提供足够的安全保障。C.) 对冲操作。
看官,从上面的小结中你肯定看出一些被WB所钟爱的安全边际的来源:双重保护,如下表所示:
看官又会说:“不要这么多的花花肠子,不就是常说的qualitative & quantitative”吗?本教授是教父,不是浪得虚名。本教授认为有2个原则: 第一, 质的分析因素中只有Stability是要害,尽管它可以表现在size, business nature,management reputation and governance. 第二, 就是量化分析得出的满意结果只能是投资决定中必要但非充分条件,尤其在两个证券的对比分析中更是如此。必须要辅以质的分析,了解business nature的本质区别 本教授更是批驳了一个最常见的迷思,他认为trend analysis应该算作质的分析,而非表面上的量化分析,因为它纯粹是建立在对于未来的期望之上的。他建议使用past average rather than trend projections作为rough index of future performance。
看官一定会说:“本的理论看来真的是过时了,不懂得用发展的眼光看待未来的收益,这可是现在大家公认的证券分析的不二法则---把未来收益折现”。小二我没有看过本教授写的《证券分析》的第2-4版,所以不清楚本教授是否在后来的几个版本中与时俱进,加入了如何做future projection. 就本书而言,本教授对于此问题的逻辑是:他承认股票的价值是由future earning power来决定的,但是分析future earning power却是需要建立在已有的历史事实和历史数据上面,而并不需要使用大量参数去预期未来收益,因为这个过程中的心理、市场等非量化因素影响处于统治地位。本教授其实也给了一个magic formula, Value = Reasonable P/E * Past Average NI。简单吧?就是说你要用买大白菜的钱去买猪肉,但是本教授说:哪有这么简单的事!你必须使用以下的步骤去确定这是一桩好买卖: 第一, 过去几年的net income是真实可信的,必须充分考虑了三个主要的影响因素(Non-recurrent profits and losses/Operations of sub/Reserves) 第二, 考察这个past average, 有多大程度上能较为充分地反映未来临近几年的收益能力。 l Difference b/w normal average vs. Modal average l Quality analysis: In addition to past record shows stability, the nature of the undertaking must be such as to indicate an inherent permanence of earning power. l Attitude toward upward/downward trend of past record l Specific reasons for questioning or rejecting the past record as rough index of future performance 第三, 投资价值评定系统: l Stability of earnings l Reasonable P/E for past average rather than current income l Conservative financial set-up and strong position in WC l Resources indicated by B/S
看官此时肯定已经相当不屑了,说:灰姑娘你该醒醒了,哪有这么理想的投资?本教授所以先指出了本书提出的证券分析理论不是一个点石成金的万能药,它的使用范围是: 第一,债券分析;
就算在上述范围内你进行了正确的分析得出了正确的事实,本教授却强调:再准确的分析都不能成为投资的行动准则,因为毛主席教导我们不有犯教条主义的错误,本教授进一步补充说: 第一,事实是一回事情,但是在这个事实基础上采取行动是另一回事情。为什么呢?可能是因为你没有掌握全部的事实,也可能你掌握的过去的事实已经变化了,时过境迁了。 第二,市场并不总是自动修正价值低估股票的价格----再次强调了对于单只股票充足的安全边际和diversification 第三,非理性的“市场先生” A.) Event Investment like M&A arbitrage B.) 选择那些含有大众易于识别/反响的价值因素的低估股票 C.) 整体市场的底部买进低估股票:但是本教授认为这点对于投资人的心理因素要求太高
看官肯定这时不爽了:“云山雾绕了半天,还是没有一个确切的结论/方法论吗!”小二我要提醒您了:您还真以为这本书就是圣经?在本教授这里是没有永远正确、光荣、伟大的事情的,除了你独立而有逻辑的思考分析过程。完了,就双手合十,祷告上帝:我的分析结论是正确的.如果还不放心,就到佛祖那里:阿弥陀佛,保佑发财.如果你已经得道收获了物质文明,就去钻研《资本论》吧. 9/5/2008 曾凌志的<证券分析>读书摘要迄今离Graham先生写作《证券分析》的时间,已经过去了74年了,他对“证券分析”的研究影响了很多人,一定程度上也影响了全球的证券市场。在这近3/4个世纪里,他的思想也被后人不断学习,到今天流行观点,却已经离他的核心思想相差甚远了。
根据我的阅读经验,先梳理一下Graham先生投资思想的形成、变化和终结。在20世纪30年代的时候,经历过20年代的疯狂,和1929年之后的崩盘之后,看尽市场繁荣与萧条的Graham,将“安全性”放到了从未有过的高度。
正是因为当时美国特殊的市场状态,以及20年代“新时代”对未来狂热的乐观,他把这个“安全性”定义为对证券“静态价值”的分析(“静态价值”是我提出的一个名词,因为目前找不到合适的现有词语来描述)。鉴于疯狂时期的教训,他认为基于对未来预测的投资是不安全的,所以他在《证券分析》中着重于对现有价值的分析。
这种特殊的市场经历,使他的投资理念是30-50年代的萧条期间,获得了极高的投资回报。但当美国进入二战之后的繁荣时期,尤其是60年代时,他基于“静态价值”的投资理念,再也无法找到“廉价证券”了。而他在晚年投资时,常常遭遇的投资困境是:买入后的证券不断下跌,卖出后的证券继续上涨。
市场已经发生改变,Graham先生基于“静态价值”的投资方式,在市场回归正常的时候,是很难取得理想的投资回报的。有趣的是,在80年代末、90年代初,由于80年代的疯狂并购,造成的众多企业的财务困境和破产威胁,他的投资理念被一群“兀鹫投资者”(Vulture Investors)使用,其中的许多人获得了成功。
现在我们回顾证券历史,回首各类证券分析方法,个人认为一定要用法国哲学家福柯“知识考古学”的方式,将其核心思想放入当时的“历史语境”中,并且思考在“历史语境”变化的情况下,其核心思想是否已经脱离了最初形成该思想的“历史语境”?不仅是投资艺术,我们对所有各派学科的经典思想学习时,都不能脱离其历史语境,而以今日之环境,对其作空洞的是非臧否结论。(顺便声明一下,这篇仅是我的阅读笔记,不能等同于我对本书的理解,更不能等同于原书思想。)
1、寻找“廉价证券”
“价廉物美(bargain)”的证券——当一种证券的安全性和市场价格都遭受折损后,持有人将寻机将其调整成另外一种安全性较高,但价格不比原证券高的证券。……以大幅度的折价购买安全证券的可能性。尽管这种“价廉物美”的机会肯定不多见,但是通过仔细而没有偏见地对大量债券和优先股的检验,可能会发现它们的踪迹。大部分具有这种特征的证券常常默默无闻而且交易不甚活跃,因此典型的投资者往往不敢贸然直接购买,因为无论发现这些证券的公司的财务统计指标多么突出,投资者们仍然担心低价格可能暗示着某种不为人所知的隐患。(P241)
实际上,还存在着第三种债券和优先股……这些证券的特点是,虽然它们被购买者认为是一些安全的投资品,但是售价却非常低,因此具有资本增值的可能。
2、关于“内在价值”分析及观念
……内在价值是一个难以把握的概念。一般来说,它是指一种有事实——比如资产、收益、股息、明确的前景——作为根据的价值,它有别于受到人为操纵和心理因素干扰的市场价格。不过,如果认为内在价值可以像市场价格那样确定就大错特错了。以前曾有人认为内在价值(比如说普通股的内在价值)类似于“账面价值”,即等同于合理计算的公司净资产值。这种论点非常明确,但却毫无实际意义,因为平均收益也好,平均市场价格也好,都不是由账面价值决定的。 内在价值与赢利能力——于是又出现了另外一种观点,即内在价值是由赢利能力决定的。然而“赢利能力”一词必然意味着对未来结果的预期。但从历史的收益数字是无法估算出未来收益的,即使是预示未来收益是呈上升还是下降都不可能。必须有足够的证据表明收益平均数或上升下降趋势能够可靠地保持到未来。经验证明这种做法并无可取之处。也就是说,表示为某一明确数字的“赢利能力”这个概念,以及由此衍生出来的内在价值概念——它和前者一样是明确的和可计算的——不能作为证券分析的通用前提。 ……关键的一点是证券分析的目的并不是要确定某一证券的内在价值到底是多少,而是只需搞清楚其内在价值是否足够——例如,足以为其债券提供保障,或足以证明应该购买这种股票——或者是否比市场价格高或低。出于这种目的,一个大概的,近似的内在价值数字就足够了。 ……内在价值概念的灵活性——这个例子说明证券分析所使用的内在价值这个概念具有多大的灵活性。对于不同的情况,内在价值表现出不同程度的明确性。而明确性的程度则由一个“近似值的范围”来反映。当市场形势不明朗时,这个范围也就响应地扩大。 ……证券分析过程中的主要障碍:(1)数据不足或不准确;(2)未来的不确定性;(3)市场的非理性行为。 ……价格向价值回归缓慢的危险——从理论上看,第二个前提也是同样正确的。但在实际中却往往得不到验证。由于忽视或误解而导致的低估某一证券价值的情况经常会持续一段极长的时间,而过度狂热或人为刺激产生的高估某一证券价值的情况也会经久不退。正是这种拖延给分析家带来了危险,因为在价格向他所发现的价值回归之前,新的决定因素有可能出现而取代旧因素。换句话说,当价格最终体现出价值时,这个价值已经发生变化了。当时用以做出判断的事实和理由都已不再适用。(P6-11)
3、价格是决定性的因素
……到底应该在不佳企业的优越债券和优势企业的不良债券之间做何选择呢?普遍看法似乎毫不犹豫地选择后者。从直觉而不是从逻辑上看,这样做是合理的。长期的实践经验显示,大多数人把钱以很高的价位投资在看好的行业上,虽然也有人为了获得高收益而投资于不被看好的企业,但前者发生亏损的可能性的确比后者小。 然而从证券分析的角度来看,这种经验主义的论调并不能揭示事物的本质,只不过是为一条早已存在的商业规律提供了实例,那就是任何没有受过专门培训的消费者都愿意购买信誉卓著的商品,即使是需要为此付出高昂的代价也在所不惜。但是,这条规律当然不应该适用于掌握专门知识的购买者,因为他们不是仅仅评商品的知名度而评判其质量,而是要进行分析考察。有时候,假如他们觉得获得的商品足以满足要求且价格具有吸引力,他们甚至会在质量方面做出一定程度的牺牲。这种区别不仅体现在购买裤子或手表之类的行为上,而且同样体现于购买证券的行为中。于是我们得出两个相反的定律,一个适用于未经培训的投资者,另一个则仅对分析家有用户。 ①.适用于无经验的证券购买者的原则:无论条件怎样,都不要把钱投资在不良的企业上; “如果有充分的理由,分析家应该毫不犹豫地抛出人人皆看好的证券,选择人人都不看好的证券。”(P22。注:因为经历过20年代的疯狂,以及接下来的大萧条时期,Graham对证券价格非常敏感,这一点造成了他当时的辉煌,但也影响了他晚年的投资)。
4、三种证券的区分
一、固定价值类证券:以优质债券或优先股为代表;
三类证券的主要特点——第一类中的证券,不管有什么样的名称,其价值的变化是一个较次要的考虑因素,购买者的初衷是本金的安全和稳定的收益。在第二类证券中,本金价值的变化就显得颇为重要,其中第1组,投资者既想获得普通投资的安全性,又想通过转换权或类似的权利来获得额外利润。而第2组,可以明显地感觉到亏损风险的存在,当然与之相抵消的是相应的存在更多获利的可能。在这组中的证券与第三类证券,即普通股又有两点不同之处:1.它们还享有一些优先权利,也就多了一层保护;2.它们的获利可能,无论多么明确,都是有一定限度的,这一点与普通股有很大的差别。后者从理论上看,或乐观地讲,具有无限的获利可能。(P49-50)
5、关于固定价值类证券
选择投资固定价值类证券的四项原则——下面我们提出四项比较具体的原则,它们可以适用于挑选单个证券:
I、安全性不是以留置权衡量,而是以支付能力衡量。
II、应以萧条期作为考察债券的基础。
III、舍安全而取收益得不偿失
IV、必须采用明确的安全标准。
6、关于优先股理论
典型的优先股不是一种有吸引力的投资契约形式,这一点很少会有人表示反对。一方面,优先股持有者获得的来自资本利得和股息收入的回报都是有限的;另一方面,持有者没有明文规定的、以法定强制力保证的对本金或收入支付的要求权。可以这样说,优先股结合了债权人地位(债券)的局限性和合伙人地位(普通股)的风险性。(P151)
……可以回忆一下前文中对不同安全边际的债券进行比较的分析,我们的结论是这样一个原则:风险和收入回报之间本质上是不可相互抵消的。如果这个原则对债券适用,它必然也可同样用于分析优先股的问题。这意味着,如果已经意识到存在着实质性的危及投资本金的风险,但是这种风险有望以诱人的股息回报加以补偿,那么此时以投资性价格(例如接近平价)购买优先股是不明智的做法。根据这项原则,只有那些在购买者看来不存在任何可预测的股息滞付危险的优先股,才是投资性购买的合适对象。 作为高品质优先股票的资格——这种优先股的具体标准有哪些呢?最重要的一点是,它必须达到对一种安全债券所规定的全部最低标准。其次,它的指标必须比这些最低标准多出一个额外的安全边际,这是为了抵消股息支付自主性的特征所带来的风险,例如,安全边际必须如此之大,以至于董事们将发放股息作为一件理所当然的事情来做。第三,对投资企业所属行业的内在稳定性的要求要高于债券投资,因为对一家经营业绩在高利润和偶尔亏损之间摇摆的公司来说,尽管其平均收益可能大大高于我们对年度收益的要求,但在后一种情况(亏损)下存在着优先股股息滞付的可能。(P156)
7、关于附权证券(Privileged Issues)
除了享有对固定数额的本金和收入的优先要求权以外,一种债券或优先股有时还被赋予分享普通股收入流的权力。这些特权一共有3种,包括:
……我们可以总结出一个对于指导附权高级证券的选择大有裨益的投资原则。这个原则就是:一种售价接近面值或比面值更高的附权高级证券,必须要么满足纯粹固定价值投资的标准,要么满足纯粹普通股投机的标准,投资者必须严格按照这两个标准之一来决定是否购买。 以上两种选择提供了选购附权证券的不同方法。可以将这种证券当作一种具有偶然的源于资本利得的获利机会的高品质投资来购买;或者将它们主要作为普通股投机的一种有吸引力的形式来购买。概言之,不能抱着双重目的来购买。投资者也不能因为债券合同所提供的表面的安全性,而倾心于差强人意的特权。(P258)
8、关于普通股投资的原则
迄今为止,我们对普通股投资理论的大篇幅讨论还只能得出一些否定性的结论。由于具有代表性的工商业部门与日俱增的不稳定性,将稳定的平均赢利能力作为主导因素的传统分析方法已经显得不合时宜。至于将收益变化趋势作为判断股票价值的惟一标准的新时代观念,无论就其本身而言存在着怎样的合理性,在屏弃所有的计算过程或限制条件的情况下,盲目地将其运用于普通股选股实践的做法,必将由于发生骇人听闻的灾难而宣告失败。那么,在普通股投资方面是否还存在某些行之有效的原则呢? 仔细分析一下前文中的批评性意见,我们会发现,这些受到批评的普通股投资观念,也并非如我们的第一印象所感觉的那般一无是处。不难想见,具体公司的不稳定性所带来的危险,可以通过精心安排的分散化投资加以中和。另外,尽管将收益趋势指标作为选择投资对象的惟一标准极具危险性,但它仍不失为一项反映投资品质的有效指标。如果这种分析方法是可取的,我们就可以构造一组可以接受的普通股投资原则,它们包括: 1.投资应被视为一种组合性操作(group operation),风险分散措施是获得令人满意的平均结果的保证。 ①、基本条件。他们包括:(1)整个国家的福利和赢利能力将持续增进;(2)这种增进本身反映在重要的公司企业在资源和利润方面的增长;(3)这种增长主要是追加资本的投资和未分配收益的再投资的正常过程所带来的。第三个假设强调了在累积盈余和未来赢利能力方面存在着明显的因果关系。(P343)
9、关于低价普通股投资
大部分低价股购买者赔钱的个中原因——因此,公众对“便宜股”的明显爱好看来具有内在的合理性。但是一个不容置疑的事实是,大部分购买了低价股的股民都赔了钱。这是什么道理呢?这种现象背后的原因是,公众所购买的是卖给他们的证券,这种销售的目的在于让卖出者而不是购买者受益。由于这个原因,公众用低价格进行的大部分购买都属于误点鸳鸯,即,它们不具有这类证券的真正优点——或者因为公司的财务状况不佳,或则因为普通股表面上的低价格,只是并且实际上是相对企业规模而言股票超量发行的一种反映。(P515)
对于一支真正的低价普通股来说,股票的市场总值相对于公司的资产、销售额和过去或预期利润而言应该较低。(P516)
对股票市场的观察可以发现,面临清算的公司的股票,常常比那些只是因为当期收益不佳而价格低糜的股票更为活跃。这种现象出现的原因是,内部人急于在清算将股票利益一扫而光之前把所持有的股票出手,这就造成了这些股票在低价位上的大量供给。内部人有时还会采取引诱不谨慎的公众购买的不端之举。但对于那些完全符合我们的条件的具有投机价值的低价股来说,通常不存在空方压力,也没有促进购买的人为努力。因此这些证券的交易并不活跃,也很少受到公众的关注。这些分析或许可以解释为什么公众总是购买一些错误的低价证券,而对这个领域中的真正机会却视而不见。(P517)
我们还是必须重复那些老生常谈:过去记录越是突出,稳定性和增长性的前景越是乐观,每股收益的估价也就应该越大,同时切记我们的原则,即,高于16倍的乘数(即,“收益基础”低于6%)将把证券带离投资性价格区间。(P521)
10、关于价格与价值的背离
在说明证券分析的技术方法时,我们曾涉及许多价值被高估或低估的证券。显然,证券市场的估价过程经常是不合常理甚至是谬误的。正如我们在第1章所提出的那样,这一过程并不是自动的或是机械形成的,而是心理作用的结果,是在参与买卖的人们头脑中进行的。因此,市场的错误也就是一大群人或无数人的错误。这些错误都可以追溯到这样一个或多个基本的原因:夸大、过度简化和忽略。(P639)
(价值低估的投资证券)只要努力去挖掘,随时都可能发现价值低估的投资性证券。在许多情况下,债券或优先股的低价是因为市况糟糕而引起的,而糟糕的市况又正是因为证券发行规模太小的缘故。不过,正因为规模小,这些证券就更具有内在的安全性。(P647)
11、证券分析与市场分析的比较
确切地说,预测证券价格不是证券分析的一部分。然而,人们通常认为这两项活动是密切相连的。个人或组织都经常同时开展这两项活动。人们预测价格变化过程的动机不尽相同,所应用的技术方法更是五花八门。(P662)
两种市场分析——有两种不同的市场分析方法:一种是纯粹从股票市场的历史表现中挖掘材料进行预测;另一种则是考虑各种经济因素,如总体和特定的商业环境、货币利率、政治前景等。(P663)
和证券分析相比市场分析的劣势——最后我们回到原先的结论:市场分析是一门艺术,成功地开展下去需要有特殊的才能。证券分析同样也是一门艺术,除非分析师有能力和学识,才能获得令人满意的结果。然而,我们认为,证券分析与市场分析相比有几项优势,这使得前者对那些经过训练的聪明人士来说是更能获得成功的领域。在证券分析中,首要的重点放在防范不幸事件。这种防范就是坚持“安全边际”或者保证证券价值远超于所付价格。其潜在的思想是,即使该证券并不像它表现看来那么有吸引力,投资的结果仍将是令人满意的。在市场分析中没有“安全边际”,你要么对,要么错。如果你错了,你可就赔钱了。
我们怀疑,分析家们能否相当成功地预测不远将来的个股的市场表现,不论他的预测是以市场的技术点位为基础,还是以总体商业前景抑或是以个股的具体前景为基础。我们认为,将分析家的努力限定在下述领域,将会得到更令人满意的结果:
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