【英语国际】日圆走强推动日本企业进行海外并购

The yen is touching 15-year highs, which is good news for a host of Japanese companies heading abroad on spending sprees.

The value of foreign deals struck by Japanese buyers this year has nearly doubled to $21.77 billion from $11.77 billion, according to research firm Dealogic. The number of deals also has risen, to 291 from 244.

The strong yen is pinching Japanese exporters and threatening to derail the nation's economic comeback. But the stronger currency is good incentive for acquisitive Japanese companies, giving them greater buying power and smoothing the way for more international deals as companies look to escape the slow growth and aging population they face at home.

'We love the strong yen. Sorry to other Japanese companies, but we really, really like the strong yen,' said Hiroshi Mikitani, chief executive of online retailer Rakuten Inc., which reach a deal to acquire U.S. online retailer Buy.com for $250 million in May and French Internet marketplace PriceMinister SA for more than $200 million in June.

The tally of acquisitions still trails figures for 2008, when by this time that year corporate Japan had announced $40.8 billion in deals. Still, Japanese companies are flush with cash and can acquire local businesses to fuel growth more quickly than building their own businesses abroad, executives say. Acquisitions of companies with strong domestic demand, such as retail and food sectors, are particularly attractive.

Among other deals struck in recent weeks, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. reached a deal to buy Dimension Data Holdings PLC of South Africa for $3.1 billion, making it Japan's biggest deal yet in Africa. Kirin Holdings Co. in July agreed to acquire a stake in Singaporean brewer Fraser & Neave Ltd. for nearly $1 billion and JFE Holdings Inc. agreed to acquire a minority stake in India's JSW Steel Ltd. for more than $1 billion. In March, Japan's Astellas Pharma Inc. purchased OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Melville, NY, for about $4 billion in the biggest deal of this year to date.

The latest binge isn't on the scale of Japan's prior U.S. spending sprees, which sometimes met with strong resistance. In the late 1980s, Bridgestone Corp., a tire maker, acquired Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. and Mitsubishi Estate took control of New York's Rockefeller Center. Sony Corp. bought Columbia Pictures Industries Inc. for about $4.2 billion. And in 1990, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., now Panasonic Corp., spent $6.1 billion for MCA. After a long recession in the country, Japanese companies again went shopping abroad before the financial crisis. In 2000, Toshiba Corp. bought Westinghouse Electric. And in 2006 Japan Tobacco Inc. acquired Gallaher Group PLC for 2.2 trillion yen.

Japan's recent deal activity, which hasn't stirred similar controversies, has been especially strong in the developing world in such countries as India, with the value of deals struck there rising 56% in the first half of the year to $5.47 billion from a year earlier.

'After a slowdown during the uncertainty of the global financial crisis, renewed confidence in the economic recovery is prompting Japanese firms to resume deployment of their accumulated cash piles on strategically compelling outbound acquisitions,' says Steven Thomas, co-head of mergers and acquisitions for UBS Securities Japan.

日圆触及15年高位，对于那些希望花大钱进行海外扩张的日本企业来说确实是个好消息。

根据研究公司Dealogic的数据，今年日本买家进行海外收购的交易额已从117.7亿美元增加近一倍，至217.7亿美元，交易数量也从244宗增至291宗。

日圆走强令日本出口企业头疼不已，并有可能导致日本经济复苏脱轨。但日圆走强对于那些希望进行并购的日本企业来说则是良好的诱因，因为在这些企业希望避开日本经济增长缓慢和人口日益老龄化的负面影响之际，日圆走强给予它们更大的购买力并为更多国际并购案扫清了道路。

在线零售商乐天(Rakuten Inc.)的首席执行长三木谷浩史(Hiroshi Mikitani)说，我们喜欢强势日圆，虽然对其他日本企业有些报歉，但我们确实、确实喜欢强势日圆。今年5月乐天达成交易，以2.5亿美元收购美国在线零售企业Buy.com，它6月份又以超过2亿美元收购了法国网上市场PriceMinister SA。

但企业高管说，这些收购数据仍远低于2008年的水平，当年这个时候日本企业宣布的并购交易额已高达408亿美元。不过公司高管们说，日本企业有充裕的现金，它们可以在海外收购当地企业，以实现比在海外自建企业更快的业务增长。收购零售和食品等行业有强劲国内需求的海外企业，对日本公司尤其具有吸引力。

日本企业最近几周达成的其他海外并购交易包括：日本电报电话公司(Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp.)以31亿美元收购了南非的Dimension Data Holdings PLC，创下日本企业在非洲的最大规模并购交易；今年7月麒麟控股株式会社(Kirin Holdings Co.)决定以近10亿美元收购新加坡啤酒企业星狮集团(Fraser & Neave Ltd.)的部分股权；日本钢铁工程控股公司(JFE Holdings Inc.)决定以超过10亿美元收购印度JSW Steel Ltd.的少数股权；今年3月日本山之内制药(Astellas Pharma Inc.)以约40亿美元收购了美国纽约州的OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc.，这是日本今年迄今为止最大一宗海外收购案。

但最近这轮并购热潮在规模上还比不上之前日本对美国企业的收购，那一波收购有时曾遇到强大阻力。上世纪80年代末，轮胎制造企业普利斯通株式会社(Bridgestone Corp.)收购了凡世通轮胎公司(Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.)，三菱地所(Mitsubishi Estate)收购了纽约的洛克斐勒中心(Rockefeller Center)；索尼(ony Corp.)以约42亿美元收购了哥伦比亚电影工业公司(Columbia Pictures Industries Inc.)。1990年，松下电器(Panasonic Corp.)以61亿美元收购了MCA。在日本经济长时间衰退后，日本企业在本次金融危机爆发前再度踏上海外收购的征途。2000年东芝(Toshiba Corp.)收购了西屋电气(Westinghouse Electric)，2006年日本烟草公司(Japan Tobacco Inc.)以2.2万亿日圆收购了Gallaher Group PLC。

日本近期的并购活动在印度等发展中国家尤其活跃，且没有在海外引起类似于以往的争议。日本今年上半年在发展中国家达成的并购交易额较上年同期增长56%，至54.7亿美元。

瑞银证券日本公司的并购业务负责人托马斯(Steven Thomas)说，全球金融危机的不确定性导致并购活动放缓后，人们对经济复苏重拾信心促使日本企业恢复布局，将积累的大量资金用于具有重要战略意义的海外收购。