【英语国际】光明食品要吃英国饼干

Few people in the UK food industry were surprised this week to hear that the private-equity owners of United Biscuits were considering a sale. The Campbell Soup Company, Premier Foods, and even Grupo Bimbo of Mexico had been mooted in the past as possible suitors.

Fewer still doubted a sector-wide trend highlighted by Irene Rosenfeld at Kraft’s quarterly earnings this month – that China is an important growth market for snack food groups.

But analysts in the UK and US failed to anticipate interest from a Chinese company.

“We weren’t expecting Bright Food to have a go at it,” said Clive Black at Shore Capital, referring to the Shanghai-based, partly state-backed company now in exclusive talks to buy United Biscuits.

The logic of the deal is clear: now that Chinese consumers have come round to chocolate, they may be sold on other pre-packaged snack foods, including biscuits and crisps. And as the maker of McVitie’s biscuits, Jaffa Cakes and Twiglets, United Biscuits is well placed to provide Bright Food with potential benchmark brands for the new market.

Nor will growth come from domestic consumers alone. The 62-year-old UK-based company would improve Bright Food’s access to western markets by improving its reputation – or at least cloaking it in United Biscuit’s own.

After a number of food- related scandals in China, particularly the furore surrounding the chemical melamine being put into baby formula, suspicion of Chinese manufacturing can run high in the west. “The integrity of the food supply is a huge deal in the US,” says Marcia Mogelonsky, a global food analyst with research group Mintel Mogelonsky.

“Taking on a food company with such an established reputation means [Bright Food] can put on a nice new coat in western markets.”

She expects that Bright Food would work to move the likes of McVitie’s hobnobs from the imported-food aisles to more mainstream venues.

Western customers have little to fear in the near term about what a Bright Food/United Biscuits deal might mean for the “integrity” of the biscuits: while Bright Food may well expand biscuit production to Asia eventually, it has no plans to migrate the existing production platform.

That is good news for British workers and politicians. But both groups should brace themselves for more deals to come.

Nick Farr, a corporate tax partner at Grant Thornton who specialises in international M&A, points out that the British food and drink sector is one where, on a corporate as well as consumer level, western supply meets Chinese demand: “On the one hand, China is ramping up its outward investment, and focusing more on the UK,” he says.

“Meanwhile, the UK food and drink sector is ripe for consolidation: they have cut costs in recent years and in the west it’s a pretty mature market.”

A recent survey by Grant Thornton found that 69 per cent of the sector’s senior executives expected M&A activity to increase in the next 12 months. Some of the investment will surely come from overseas. It may even come from Bright Food.

“This is not going to be the end of Bright Food’s ambitions,” said a person close to the talks. “It’s nearer the beginning.”

本周，当听到身为联合饼干(United Biscuits)东家的私人股本基金正考虑卖掉这家公司时，英国食品行业没几个感到惊讶。以前就曾传言过金宝汤(Campbell Soup Company)、第一食品(Premier Foods)，甚至是墨西哥的宾堡集团(Grupo Bimbo)，都可能有意于这家公司。

本月艾琳?罗森菲尔德(Irene Rosenfeld)在卡夫(Kraft)季度业绩会议上强调了一个全行业趋势，即中国乃是方便食品集团实现增长的重要市场之一。对此感到怀疑的人就更少了。

然而，英国和美国的分析师都没有料到，会有中国公司意图收购西方食品公司。

“我们没有料到光明食品会想试一把，”Shore Capital的分析师克莱夫?布莱克(Clive Black)表示。目前，这家有政府背景的公司正就收购联合饼干进行排他性谈判。

此笔交易背后的逻辑显而易见：既然中国消费者已经喜欢上了巧克力，他们大概也会乐意购买饼干、薯片等其它预包装的方便食品。而作为生产麦维他(McVitie)饼干、佳发饼(Jaffa Cakes)和Twiglets等的厂家，联合饼干可以为光明食品提供进入这一新市场的基准品牌。

带来增长的将不仅是国内市场。联合饼干是一家有着62年历史的英国公司，将这样一家公司收入麾下，将可提升自身声誉（或者说至少可以打着联合饼干的旗号），有利于光明食品开拓西方市场。

中国爆发过多起与食品相关的丑闻，婴儿奶粉掺杂三聚氰胺事件更是闹得沸沸扬扬，西方对中国产品的怀疑由此甚嚣尘上。“在美国食品行业，诚实是极其重要的。”研究机构Mintel Mogelonsky的国际食品分析师玛西娅?莫杰劳斯基(Marcia Mogelonsky)表示。

“通过收购这样一家声誉卓著的食品公司，（光明食品）就等于披上一件漂亮的新外套，来到西方市场。”

她估计光明食品会着手把麦维他消化饼干等商品从进口食品货架，挪到更为主流的贩卖区。

西方消费者短期内不用担心此笔交易对饼干的“诚实”品质会有什么影响。光明食品最终很可能把饼干生产业务扩张到亚洲，但眼下该公司并没有迁移现有生产平台的计划。

这对英国工人和政界人士来说是个好消息。但这两个群体都应做好心理准备，未来将会发生更多收购。

专事提供国际并购交易服务的均富(Grant Thornton)的企业税合伙人尼克?法尔(Nick Farr)指出，不管是从企业层面还是从消费者层面来说，英国食品和饮料行业都是一个西方供应与中国需求相契合的地方。“一方面，中国正在加紧对外投资步伐，并把目光更多地投向英国。”

“与此同时，英国食品和饮料行业已到了适合整合的时机：他们近年来不断削减成本，而且在西方它属于一个相当成熟的市场。”

均富近期所做的一项调查发现，69%的英国食品和饮料业高管预计，未来12个月并购活动将会增多。其中肯定会有来自海外的投资，当然也有可能来自光明食品。

“这并非光明食品雄图大志的尾声，而是刚刚拉开序幕。”一位了解谈判内情的人士表示。

译者/杨远