【英语中国】中国加快全球矿产收购步伐

In the global hunt for mining assets, China has emerged as the buyer to beat: Just a few years after suffering high-profile failures to close big acquisitions, Chinese buyers of all sizes are sealing more sophisticated deals at a higher rate of success.

Companies based in China or Hong Kong participated in $13 billion of outbound mining acquisitions and investments last year -- 100 times the level in 2005, according to data tracker Dealogic.

China-based companies are on a similar pace in 2010. Last week, Shandong Iron & Steel Group Co. announced a $1.5 billion investment into an African Minerals Ltd. iron-ore project in Sierra Leone, the latest of 76 outbound mining deals announced by China-based buyers so far this year, valued at $8.3 billion, according to Dealogic.

China's hunger for metals and minerals will be a principal driver in boosting its overall outbound investment to more than $100 billion in 2014, predicts Derek Scissors, a Heritage Foundation researcher who has built a database to track those deals.

China's success in snapping up makers of iron ore, nickel, molybdenum and other minerals has come as much of the world smarted from the global financial crisis. In 2009, China accounted for one-third of the value of all crossborder mining mergers and acquisitions, up from 7.4% in 2007 and less than 1% in 2004, Dealogic found.

In Australia, historically a major destination for Chinese mining investments, Chinese acquirers accounted for nearly 40% of all inbound mining deals last year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers annual review of mining M&A. In Canada, a newer market for Chinese buyers, the number was around one-quarter.

The latest deals introduce a new class of suitors.

In years past, Chinese buyers of overseas oil and ore assets tended to be big, state-owned enterprises that favored outright takeovers and got reputations for ham-handed deal making -- suffering a series of public rejections, such as China Minmetals Corp.'s failed attempt to buy Canadian miner Noranda Inc. in 2005.

These days, potential investors range from private manufacturers to Hong Kong investors to China's sovereign-wealth fund, China Investment Corp. China deal trackers say those investors are savvier and more flexible than they were a few years ago, experimenting with joint ventures and minority stakes.

Just a year ago, Hong Kong-based CST Mining Group Ltd. was China Sci-Tech Holdings Ltd., a 15-person Hong Kong public company investing principally in real estate. Earlier this year, it bought two copper miners for $380 million -- one Canadian, one Australian -- hired Western mining veterans to run them, raised $600 million through a private share placement and changed its name to CST.

Chinese investors are finding 'more and more kinds of ways to get business from the world,'' says Amy Cheng, CST's banker and the mining-team leader for BOC International, the investment banking arm of state-owned Bank of China Ltd.

Ms. Cheng estimates Chinese mining investors were successful last year at closing around three-quarters of the deals they attempted; a few years ago, she says, they were rebuffed nearly all of the time. The financial crisis provided an opening.

'Every project [that wants money] looks at Chinese companies,' she said.

The Chinese government hasn't made a public push for these acquisitions, but the explosion of deals in recent years, many by state-owned companies, suggests they are a priority.

China already consumes one-third of the world's copper and 40% of its base metals, and produces half of the world's steel. Though demand for commodities has eased a bit as the pace of China's growth has slowed this year, it is expected to stay strong in the long term.

China has complained that foreign companies have charged too much for iron ore and other commodities, a concern that became acute in 2007 when the world's No. 1 miner, BHP Billiton Ltd., attempted to buy Rio Tinto in a deal that promised to create a united minerals supplier with enormous pricing power.

The bid failed, but shortly afterward China made what remains its biggest overseas acquisition in minerals, Chinalco's $14 billion purchase of 9% of Rio Tinto. Buoyed by that investment, Hong Kong and Chinese firms conducted a record $17.5 billion in outbound mining M&A in 2008, according to Dealogic.

China's buying binge could eventually increase the global supply of many minerals and ores, says Tim Goldsmith, the Australia-based global mining leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers, who says his job now requires him to spend a week every month in China. If China's demand stays strong, and other economies like India's grow rapidly as well, the added supply could help to temper commodity-prices rises, he says.

Weaker global demand could lead to a drop in prices, a scenario Mr. Goldsmith calls less likely. Big global miners should make out well either way, he says, since their mines tend to be more profitable, with higher expected returns, than those many Chinese firms are investing in.

Some Chinese investors are buying companies with mines that are at earlier stages of development or exploration, a riskier but potentially more profitable proposition.

'There was a time when they wouldn't invest in anything that wasn't producing already,'' says Howard Balloch, a former Canadian ambassador to China who founded a Beijing-based investment-banking boutique, the Balloch Group, in 2001. Now, 'the Chinese are willing to be more creative in their investments and willing to move a little up the ladder to higher levels of risk.'

That is bringing more would-be Chinese deal makers to Toronto and Vancouver, where much of the world's capital-raising for mining exploration takes place.

'On the Chinese side, it's almost like someone flipped a switch a few years ago and interest went from zero to significant investment in Canadian firms,' says David Redford, a Vancouver-based lawyer in the mining practice of Goodmans LLC.

The interest is reciprocal: Mr. Redford estimates some 80% of his current mining clients are looking for investment from Chinese sources. Three years ago, he says, one-third or fewer were.

在全球对矿业资产的搜寻中，中国已成为强有力的买家：几年前中国还在大型收购中遭到重创，但目前中国的大小买家成功地完成了更多更为复杂的交易。

根据数据追踪机构Dealogic的数据，总部位于中国内地及香港的公司去年共计参与了130亿美元的海外矿产收购和投资，是2005年的100倍。

2010年总部位于中国内地的公司以相似的速度进行并购。上周山东钢铁集团宣布，向非洲矿业公司（African Minerals Ltd.）位于塞拉利昂的铁矿石项目投资15亿美元，这是今年迄今中国买家宣布的76宗海外矿产交易中的最新一宗，根据Dealogic数据，这76宗海外矿产交易共计价值83亿美元。

传统基金会（Heritage Foundation）研究员塞瑟斯（Derek Scissors）预测，中国对金属和矿产的狂热需求将是2014年中国海外整体投资将超过1000亿美元的主要推动力。塞瑟斯建立了一个数据库来追踪这些交易。

中国成功收购铁矿石、镍、钼和其他矿产品的生产企业是在世界多数国家正在受全球金融危机重创之际。根据Dealogic数据，2009年中国在所有跨国矿业并购案价值中占三分之一，高于2007年的7.4%，而2004年为不到1%。

澳大利亚传统上是中国矿业投资的重地。根据咨询公司普华永道（PricewaterhouseCoopers）矿业并购案的年度回顾，中国收购方占去年澳大利亚所有国内矿业交易的近40%。在加拿大，这一数据约为25%，该国是中国买家的最新市场。

最新交易引入了一批新的买家。

过去数年，海外石油和矿石资产的中国买家通常是大型国企，它们喜欢直接收购，因而获得了生意头脑太笨的口碑，遭到一系列公开反对，比如中国五矿集团公司2005年企图收购加拿大矿产企业Noranda Inc.，但最终铩羽而归。

而目前潜在投资者范围很广，从民间生产企业到香港投资者再到中国主权财富基金──中投公司，不一而足。中国交易追踪机构表示，这些投资者见多识广，比几年前更灵活，他们是通过合资企业和持有少量股权的方式进行投资。

仅仅一年前，总部位于香港的中科矿业集团有限公司还是中国科技集团有限公司，只有15人，在香港公开上市，主要投资于地产行业。今年稍早，它以3.8亿美元买入两家铜矿，一家位于加拿大，一家位于澳大利亚，聘用西方经验丰富的矿业人士来运营，通过非公开募股筹资6亿美元，并将名称改为中科矿业。

中银国际矿业组主管兼负责中科矿业的银行家程雁(Amy Cheng)说，中国投资者正从全世界找到越来越多的生意渠道。中银国际是中国银行的投资银行分支。

程雁估计，去年中国矿业投资者约有四分之三的交易如愿完成。她说，数年前，他们的交易尝试几乎一律碰壁。而金融危机的发生，为他们打开了口子。

她说，每一个需要钱的项目都找中资公司。

中国政府没有公开推动这些并购活动，但交易数量在近几年呈爆发式增长，而很多收购主体又是国有企业，说明此类并购活动受到了政府的重视。

中国已经消耗着世界三分之一的铜和40%的贱金属，并生产着世界一半的钢铁。虽然今年中国经济增长步伐放慢，让大宗商品的需求有所减弱，但从长远来看，这种需求预计会继续保持强劲。

中国曾抱怨说，国外企业对铁矿石和其他大宗商品制定了过高的价格。2007年世界第一大矿业公司必和必拓(BHP Billiton Ltd.)准备收购力拓(Rio Tinto)时，这种担心变得尤为严重。收购如果成功，则很有可能形成一个统一的矿产供应商，拥有巨大的定价权。

这起收购失败了，但过后不久，中国铝业公司(Chinalco)斥资140亿美元，收购了力拓9%的股权。迄今为止，这仍然是中国最大的海外矿业收购行动。数据提供商Dealogic数据显示，受中铝这笔投资的鼓舞，香港和中国内地公司在2008年进行了175亿美元的海外矿业并购活动，规模创下纪录。

普华永道(PricewaterhouseCoopers)驻澳大利亚全球矿业部门负责人戈德史密斯(Tim Goldsmith)说，他目前的工作要求他每个月在中国呆上一个星期。他说，中国的大规模收购最终有可能提高很多矿产的全球供给，如果中国的需求保持旺盛，印度等其他经济体也快速增长，那么供给的增加或许有助于缓和大宗商品价格的涨势。

如果全球需求减弱，则价格有可能下跌，但戈德史密斯认为发生这种情况的可能性更小。他说，不管发生哪种情形，大型全球化矿商的日子应该都会过得很好，因为比起很多中国公司正在投资的那些矿山，大矿商矿山的盈利能力往往更强，预期回报率往往更高。

一些中国投资者所收购的公司，其矿山还处在开发或勘探的较早阶段。这种收购风险更高，但也可能更加赚钱。

曾任加拿大驻华大使、2001年在北京创办小型专业投资银行贝祥投资集团(Balloch Group)的贝祥(Howard Balloch)说，曾经有一段时间，他们就是不投资任何还没生产的公司，而现在，中国人愿意在投资当中更有创造性，并且愿意承担更高的风险水平。

由于这个原因，中国越来越多的潜在投资者都在前往多伦多和温哥华。世界矿业勘探的很大一部分融资活动都在这两个地方发生。

Goodmans LLC驻温哥华专攻矿业的律师雷德福德(David Redford)说，在中国这边，就好像是有人在几年前扳动了开关，对加拿大公司的兴趣从零一下子变为大手笔投资。

这种兴趣也是相互的。雷德福德估计，他目前的矿业客户当中，大约80%都是在寻找来自中国的投资。他说，三年前的这个比例只有三分之一，甚至更少。