【英语财经】Lex专栏：国美的内部交易 Lex_Gome: inside dealing

It does not look good when a company’s founder and major shareholder is behind bars for bribery and insider trading. It looks even less good when the company says it will buy assets from him in a deal that will give him and his friends majority control. And it looks still less good when the company pays an inflated price for those assets.

Tell all that to Gome, a Chinese purveyor of white goods. Yesterday it said it would purchase retailer Artway from incarcerated former chairman Huang Guangyu. The stock fell 15 per cent (albeit in a falling market).

The assets are not bad. Like Hong Kong-listed Gome, Artway sells appliances under the Gome banner. Artway owns 578 shops. The deal will increase Gome’s footprint by half. Gome’s revenue growth has slowed to single-digits in recent years. It could do with a boost. The logistics network is also attractive. Bricks-and-mortar retailers are under pressure from online rivals; beefed-up distribution might help Gome to compete.

The price, however, looks excessive. Gome, whose market capitalisation is $2.8bn, will pay $1.5bn in cash, new shares and warrants, or 32 times Artway’s 2014 (unaudited) earnings, which fell one-fifth year on year. The multiple drops to about 20 after adding back the management fee that Artway pays to Gome to operate its stores. Still, that is a hefty premium to the 15 times on which Gome traded even before yesterday’s drop (although that multiple is likely to rise once the Artway fees fall out of earnings). Given the similar business models, a premium is unwarranted — even if there is potential for cutting costs.

After the new shares are issued, Mr Huang and friends will own 51 per cent of Gome, up from 32 per cent. On exercise of the warrants, that could rise to 55 per cent. The deal is subject to approval of independent shareholders. They should push for a lower price, and a structure skewed more heavily to cash rather than shares.

当一家公司的创始人兼主要股东因行贿和内幕交易而身陷囹圄时，这看起来很不好。当该公司宣布将从他手中购买资产，而他及其朋友将由此获得公司的多数控股权时，看起来就更不好了。而当该公司为这些资产支付过高的价格时，就尤其糟糕了。

不妨把这些都告诉国美电器(Gome)。昨日，这家中国白色家电零售商公告，将从仍在服刑的前主席黄光裕手中收购零售商艺伟发展有限公司(Artway)。国美股价昨日下跌了13%（尽管整个股市都在下跌）。

这些资产并不差。与在香港上市的国美电器一样，艺伟在国美商标下销售家电，在全国拥有578家门店。这笔交易将为国美增加一半的门店数量。近年来，国美的营收增长已降至个位数。收购艺伟可以增加营收，后者的物流网络也具有吸引力。实体零售商正面临来自线上竞争对手的压力；加强经销网络或许可以帮助国美提升竞争力。

然而，收购价格看起来偏高。市值28亿美元的国美电器，将支付15亿美元的价格，包括现金、新股和认股权证，这相当于艺伟2014年营收（未经审计）的32倍（艺伟全年营收同比下降了五分之一）。算上艺伟支付给国美的经营其门店的管理费后，该倍数下降至20左右。不过，这仍然比国美的市盈率高出许多——在昨日股价大跌之前，国美市盈率也才15倍（一旦艺伟所支付的管理费用被从国美的盈利中刨去，这一倍数可能上升)。考虑到商业模式相似，支付溢价是不必要的——即使存在降低成本的可能。

新股发行后，黄光裕及其朋友所持的国美股份将从32%增至51%。假如行使认股权证，这一比例有望升至55%。这笔交易需要经过独立股东批准。他们应该争取更低的价格以及以现金为主（而非股票）的交易结构。

Lex专栏是由FT评论家联合撰写的短评，对全球经济与商业进行精辟分析。

译者/何黎