The $170 Billion Collapse of China’s HNA Group
发布时间 2023-02-19 23:00:13 来源
At its peak, China's H&A Group presided over an estimated $170 billion of assets across the world. The conglomerate was a big shareholder in Deutsche Bank in Hilton hotels. They owned airports and other real estate in Germany, China and the United States. And they had the third largest aircraft leasing business in the world, owning over 900 planes. With amazing of all, H&A bought virtually all of this in just a few years. By the time the party ended in May 2017, the company was doing at least one multi-million or even billion transaction each month. And then as fast as it came up, it all came crashing down.
中国汉和集团曾在全球范围内掌管约1700亿美元的资产，达到了顶峰。这个企业集团是德意志银行和希尔顿酒店的大股东，在德国、中国和美国拥有机场和其他房地产，还拥有全球第三大飞机租赁业务，拥有超过900架飞机。令人惊讶的是，汉和集团在短时间内几乎全部收购了这些资产。到2017年5月宴会结束时，该公司每月至少进行一项数百万甚至数十亿的交易。然而，就像它的崛起一样迅速，一切也迅速崩溃。
In this video, we're going to talk about one of the biggest and craziest implosions in corporate history. But first, let me talk about the Asianometry Patreon. Many access members get to watch new videos and see selected references for them before they release to the public. They help support the videos since views are so volatile, I appreciate every pledge. Thanks and on with the show.
在这个视频中，我们将讨论企业历史上最大、最疯狂的一次崩溃之一。但首先，让我谈谈亚洲指标（Asianometry）的Patreon。许多访问成员可以在视频发布给公众之前观看新视频并查看选定的参考资料。他们支持这些视频，因为观看次数非常不稳定，我非常感激每个承诺。谢谢，开始本集节目吧。
Chinese companies are infamous for their murky early histories and opaque ownership structures. The southern Chinese island of Hainan is about as large as Taiwan but has a much smaller population of about 9 million people. While 1988, the island was a special administrative region within the Guangdong province. But in 1988, the central government made Hainan into its own province and designated it as a special economic zone to try and generate more investment. The new Hainan provincial government had a formidable task ahead of it. Much like Taiwan, Hainan was a historical backwater, a hotbed for bandits in the 1920s. How were they going to get people to come?
中国公司以其混乱的早期历史和不透明的所有权结构而声名狼藉。海南岛是中国南部的一座岛屿，与台湾大小相当，但人口只有约900万人。1988年，该岛是广东省的一个特别行政区。但是在1988年，中央政府将海南划为自己的省份，并指定其为特别经济区，以试图吸引更多的投资。新成立的海南省政府面临着巨大的任务。与台湾一样，海南是一个历史上的死水，二十世纪20年代是土匪的滋生地。他们将如何吸引人们前来？
At same year, the central Chinese government began deregulating its airline industry. It restructured its former national airline monopoly into six individual airlines across the country. Another measure of that was to allow private public partnerships between provincial governments and private companies to allow these provinces to establish regional airline carriers of their own. So the Hainan government contributed 10 million RMB of start of capital to start Hainan provincial airlines. But the company did nothing with it after that, never acquiring an airplane or even a civil license.
同年，中国中央政府开始放开航空业的管制。它将曾经的全国航空垄断行业重组为全国六家独立的航空公司。另一个措施就是允许省级政府与私人公司进行私人公众合作，使这些省份能够建立自己的地区航空公司。因此，海南政府出资1000万人民币来启动海南省航空公司。但是公司之后却没有采取任何行动，甚至没有获得一架飞机或民用许可证。
Tan Feng was the son of Communist Party officials and served in the People's Liberation Army Air Force. After that, he worked in China's Civil Aviation Regulator, the CAAC. There he met a variety of people who would go on to also work at H&A Group, including co-founder Wang Jian. Tan then moved to China's National Air Regulations Bureau and won a scholarship to study air transportation logistics at a school in Germany. But when he came back, he found the bureau abolished.
谭峰是中国共产党干部的儿子，并曾在中国人民解放军空军服役。之后，他在中国的民航管理机构民航局工作，与日后也加入华安集团的联合创始人王坚等人相识。随后，谭峰加入了中国的国家航空规划局，并获得了一项前往德国学习航空运输物流的奖学金。但是，当他回国后，发现该机构已被废除。
So he worked at the Agricultural Investment Trust of China and then the World Bank Loan Office in Haikou, Hainan's capital city. It is worth noting that the powerful Wang Tersang anti-corruption czar and Xi Jinping ally served as the Agricultural Investment Trust of China's chief executive while Tan was there. Rumors exist of a deeper connection, of course, but there is nothing solid here. Wang was only there for a year after all.
他曾在中国农业投资信托和海南省会海口的世界银行贷款办公室工作。值得注意的是，强大的反腐败总掌权者王特桑和习近平盟友当时担任中国农业投资信托的首席执行官，而谭在那里工作。当然，有关他们之间的更深的关联存在传言，但是这里没有任何实质性的证据。毕竟，王只在那里工作了一年。
Anyway, while Tan was at the Loan Office, a former colleague of his from the Civil Aviation Regulator then recruits him to manage this airline at the time bogged down with little progress. Ten million RMB or about $1.4 million is nowhere near enough to run an airline or even biplane. Thusly, Tan and his colleague convinced the local government to reboot the business as a joint stock company. This relatively new development in China allowed private individuals to take share in this state-owned enterprise.
在谈先生前往贷款办公室期间，他的前同事从民航监管机构招募他来管理一家进展缓慢的航空公司。1000万人民币或大约140万美元远远不足以运营一家航空公司，甚至是双翼飞机。因此，谈先生和他的同事说服当地政府把这家企业改组成为一家股份有限公司。这在中国是一个相对较新的发展，允许私人个人参与这家国有企业。
In 1993, Hainan Provincial Airlines restructured as a corporation and was allowed to sell shares. The sales raised $250 million RMB or about $35 million from 122 stakeholders. That May, the airline began operations. In these early days, H&A established a dual-chairman structure. Co-founder and partner Wang Jian managed the company's internal affairs and strategic direction. He stayed much more in the shadows. Tong Feng, on the other hand, served as the company's external communications man. Much of the time, he was running around telling stories to banks and potential investors to raise money.
1993年，海南省航空公司进行了重组，成为了一家股份制公司，并被允许出售股份。股份销售募集了人民币2.5亿元（约合3500万美元）的资金，来自122家股东。同年5月，该航空公司开始营业。在早期，海航建立了一个双主席结构。联合创始人兼合伙人王健管理公司的内部事务和战略方向，他更多地待在幕后。另一方面，童峰担任公司的外部沟通维护人员。他经常奔波于银行和潜在投资者之间，发掘募集资金的故事。
$35 million sounds like a lot and I certainly wouldn't mind having that in my pocket. But in the airline world, it is chunk change. So Tan and his team went to the banks, which lent them another $600 million RMB or $84 million. But on what collateral? In these early days, Chinese banks did not know much about how mortgages should work.
“三千五百万听起来是个很大的数字，如果我能把它放在口袋里，我肯定不介意。但在航空业界，这只是小钱。 所以，谭先生和他的团队去了银行，向他们借了另外六亿人民币或八十四万美元。但是，他们用什么作为抵押呢？在这个早期阶段，中国的银行并不知道抵押贷款应该怎么做。”
Tan told the banks that the money would be used to biplane. A Western bank would then ask to have a claim on that plane, like how a residential mortgage is backed by a house. But the Chinese bank didn't do this. Rather, they assigned the plane's property rights to the borrower H&A group. This allowed H&A to turn around and remorgge the purchase plane again to another bank for even more money. Chinese banks eventually caught on, but H&A never failed to get creative in the way they borrowed money. One remorcaging tactic they used was to borrow against the future revenue streams from the plane's air routes. So every plane was mortgage twice, first as a hard asset backing alone, second with his future revenue streams.
Tan告诉银行这些钱将用于购买双翼飞机。一个西方银行随后会要求对该飞机拥有索赔权，就像住房抵押贷款一样。但是中国银行没有这样做。相反，他们将飞机的财产权转让给了借款人H＆A Group。这使得H＆A可以再次将购买的飞机抵押给另一家银行以获得更多资金。中国银行最终也意识到了这一点，但是H＆A在借款方式上总是会发挥创意。他们使用的一种再次抵押策略是依靠飞机航线的未来收入流。因此，每架飞机都被抵押两次，第一次仅作为硬资产支持，第二次则与其未来的收入流一起。
How does that work? Not sure. Anyway, this one plane two-meal approach allowed H&A to double dip their leverage and grow very fast. Plain bank loan terms are very long lived 10-15 years, which gave H&A plenty of time to figure out how to pay back those loans. But you don't need me to tell you that it is a perilous way to scale a business. Many times the only way to pay back that loan was to take out another loan down the line.
这个句子的意思是什么？不太确定。无论如何，这种单一飞机双餐策略帮助H&A公司加倍利用杠杆并快速增长。常规银行贷款期限非常长，一般为10-15年，这为H＆A公司提供了充足的时间来想办法偿还贷款。但是你不需要我告诉你，这种方式扩大业务是非常危险的。很多时候，偿还贷款的唯一方式就是再次贷款。
In 1995, Chen flew to New York City and pitched hedge fund manager George Soros' Quantum Fund. There he talked about high-nons development prospects as well as the high market potential for airlines in China. Since Soros invested $25 million, it was the first Chinese-American joint venture in the China Aviation Space. Tun later said that the investment and Soros' reputation helped boost the startup airlines' image. When H&A later listed on a Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Quantum Fund-owned vehicle, American Aviation LDC, was reported as his largest shareholder with 21%.
1995年，陈立凡飞往纽约市，向对冲基金经理乔治·索罗斯的量子基金宣传了高科技产业的发展前景，以及中国航空业的巨大市场潜力。由于索罗斯投资了2500万美元，这成为了中国-美国之间首次的合资项目，涉及到中国航空空间。陈立凡后来说，这种投资和索罗斯的声誉帮助提高了新成立的航空公司的形象。当后来H&A在上海证券交易所上市时，美国航空有限责任公司（由量子基金控股）被报道为其最大的股东，持有其21%的股份。
In 2005, Soros doubled his investment to $50 million, using a share swap to acquire a 10% stake in an unlisted unit of H&A Group. Altogether, their ownership was said to be worth something like $110 million. The New York Times reported that the Quantum Fund sold its stake in 2011. One of the reasons why they did so was H&A's lack of corporate transparency and governance. The company is infamously complicated and opaque.
2005年，索罗斯将他的投资加倍至5000万美元，通过股份交换获得了H&A集团一个未上市子公司10%的股份。综合计算，他们的所有权价值据说约为1.1亿美元。据《纽约时报》报道，量子基金在2011年出售了其股份。其中一个原因是H&A缺乏企业透明度和治理。这家公司以其复杂性和不透明性而臭名昭著。
At the IPO, co-founders Tun Fung and Wang Jian personally held a minuscule stake, Tun with 32,000 shares and Wang with 28,000. But the two controlled another shell company with enough shares to be the second largest shareholder. Since then, the group's ownership structure has shifted around but has always remained extremely murky. From 2002 to 2015, H&A Group's controlling shareholder was a high-non-airline trade union. Then it was replaced by a non-profit called the High-non-Tzihang Charity Foundation.
在IPO时，联合创始人屯峰和王健本人持有微不足道的股份，其中屯峰持有32,000股，王健持有28,000股。但是，两人控制着另一个壳公司，拥有足够的股份成为第二大股东。自那时起，该集团的所有权结构一直在变化，但始终非常模糊。从2002年到2015年，H＆A集团的控股股东是一个高非航空行业的工会。然后被一个非营利组织“高非慈航慈善基金会”取代。
H&A founded the charity in 2000 with a share donation worth 20 million RMB. The foundation is said to support anti-poverty efforts, but it does not seem to do much and employs a variety of company friends and family members. In all likelihood, it is a stealth vehicle through which Tun can control the company. Serving on a sham foundation was not the only way the co-founders friends and family profited from H&A. Tun's little brother set up an American firm to buy engines and spare parts for the airlines fleet. And the airline hired Wang Jian's little brother, Wang Wei, to help build high-end ocean front villas and a golf course at Haikou. These deals and others eventually made him a billionaire.
H&A创办于2000年，捐出价值2000万元人民币的股份成立了慈善基金会。据说该基金会支持反贫困工作，但实际上似乎并没有做多少好事，还雇佣了大量公司的亲友。很可能，这是屯控制公司的隐形工具。在虚假基金会上任职，不是合伙人亲友从H&A获利的唯一途径。屯的弟弟创建了一家美国公司，为航空公司的机群购买发动机和备件。航空公司还雇佣了王健的弟弟王伟，在海口建高端海滨别墅和高尔夫球场。这些交易和其他交易最终让他成为了亿万富翁。
In 1997, high-non-provincial airlines renamed itself to a high-non airlines. A year later, it established high-non H&A holdings, the predecessor of what would eventually become H&A Group. By the late 1990s, China's airline situation was a bit messy. There were over 30 carriers in the country at the time, and they were all losing money. Some consolidation was required.
1997年，高非省航空公司更名为高非航空公司。一年后，该公司成立了高非H&A控股公司，这是今天的H&A集团的前身。到了1990年代末期，中国的航空业情况有些混乱。当时全国有30多家航空公司，但它们都在亏损。因此需要一些整合。
In 2000, China's civil air regulator reorganized its state-owned aviation companies, created an oligopoly of three airlines, Air China, China Eastern, and China Southern. By now, high-non airlines' fleet had grown to 31 airplanes, but that was nowhere near big enough to compete with the giants. So they arranged marriages with three other small airlines, China Xinhua Airlines, Tang An Airlines, and Changxi Airlines.
2000年，中国民航管理机构对其国有航空公司进行了重组，创建了三家航空公司的寡头垄断地位，即中国国际航空、中国东方航空和中国南方航空。当时，高净值航空公司的机队已经增长到31架飞机，但这远不足以与巨头竞争。因此，他们与另外三家小航空公司——中国新华航空、唐安航空和长西航空——联姻。
When a Xinhua Airlines in particular was key in turning high-non into a national flagship, Xinhua operated out of Beijing's two big airports, flying over 80 routes to over 50 cities across China. But Xinhua also struggled to make money, with debt ratios reaching as high as 98%.
在将高洛德转化为国家旗舰的过程中，新华航空特别重要。新华航空在北京的两个大型机场运营，飞行超过80条航线，涵盖中国50多个城市。但新华航空也面临盈利困难，债务比率高达98%。
So in April 2001, they sold themselves to H&A Group for about a billion RMB, though most of that purchase price was not in cash, but real assets like planes. The new four-way entity focused on short and medium-range flights, serving China's regional cities, outside of the major routes dominated by the state-owned airlines. This strategy succeeded, and the airlines in 2001 turned a profit.
于2001年4月，它们以大约10亿元的价格将自己卖给了H&A集团，尽管其中大部分的收购价格不是现金，而是实物资产如飞机。这个新的四方实体专注于短途和中程飞行，为中国的地区城市提供航班，避开了国有航空公司主导的主要路线。这种策略获得成功，2001年航空公司实现了盈利。
But H&A then flew headlong into the first SARS epidemic in 2003. The crisis struck the air and travel business pretty hard. H&A already financially stretched because of its earlier acquisitions, turned a massive loss of 1.5 billion RMB. The company came close to bankruptcy, to survive they turned to the high-non-provincial government, and the government, despite having a relatively small financial stake in the venture, bailed it out anyway.
但是，2003年，H&A迎来了首次SARS疫情。危机给航空旅游业造成了沉重的打击。H&A已经因早期收购而财力紧张，遭受了15亿元人民币的巨大亏损。公司接近破产，为了生存，他们投向了高非省级政府，尽管政府在这个合资公司里只有相对较小的财政参与，但仍然援救了它。
In 2005, the H&A injected 1.5 billion RMB 10% of its entire revenue that year, essentially saving the airline. Thanks to its white beaches and tropical weather, H&A gained a reputation as a vacation destination. After the 2003 SARS dip, the H&A tourism trade grew steadily over the next two decades.
2005年，华南航空公司注入了15亿元人民币，占当年总收入的10％，从本质上挽救了航空公司。由于它的白色沙滩和热带气候，华南航空公司赢得了度假胜地的声誉。在2003年非典的低谷之后，华南航空公司旅游业在接下来的二十年中稳步增长。
H&A positioned itself to benefit from those tourists in multiple ways. Over 40% of arrivals to H&A came on a H&A airline's plane. They landed at an H&A-owned airport, stayed at H&A-owned hotels, and were guided around by an H&A-owned travel agency. This diversification is not only a reflection of the company's vertical integration strategy, but also an indication of the scope of its ambitions.
H&A（一个旅游公司）通过多种方式来受益于游客。超过40％的游客乘坐H&A航空公司的飞机到达。他们在H&A拥有的机场降落，住在H&A拥有的酒店，并由H&A拥有的旅行社指导。这种多元化不仅是公司垂直整合战略的体现，也是其野心范畴的标志。
They were the first Chinese airline to purchase and own their own airport. Co-founder Chun Feng said, our dream is to turn high-non airlines into an international enterprise which can compete with the world giants. In 2008, the global financial crisis seemed to impede those dreams. It wrecked the world economy and caused H&A group to fall again to a 1.73 billion RMB loss.
他们是第一家购买并拥有自己机场的中国航空公司。其中一位创始人冯春说，我们的梦想是将高凡航空公司打造成一个能够与全球巨头竞争的国际企业。但在2008年，全球金融危机似乎阻碍了这些梦想。它摧毁了世界经济，导致华夏航空集团再次陷入了17.3亿人民币的亏损。
They attempted to raise funds by IPO-ing their airline subsidiary, Grand Air China, on the Hong Kong stock markets. However, the difficult financial market situation in 2009 made this infeasible. The company made it through thanks to two big events. First, the high-non-provincial government injected another 1.5 billion RMB into the company. Second, as the crisis unfolded in November 2008, the Chinese government announced a 4 trillion RMB stimulus package.
他们尝试通过在香港证券市场上托管他们的航空子公司——大中华航空，来筹集资金。然而，2009年困难的金融市场情况使这变得不可行。公司幸运地度过了难关，原因有两方面：第一，高一级政府注入了15亿元人民币的投资资金；第二，在2008年11月金融危机爆发时，中国政府宣布了4万亿元人民币的经济刺激计划。
In it were new infrastructure projects that caused land prices across the country to skyrocket. This included about 9,000 acres of land in H&A-owned hotels, which acquired when it bought high-coast airport, the airport relocated elsewhere, but H&A held onto the land, ideally positioned in the downtown area for many years. This land became immensely valuable.
这些基础设施新项目导致全国各地的土地价格飞涨，其中包括H＆A酒店拥有的大约9,000英亩的土地，当它购买高海岸机场时获得了这些土地，机场已经搬迁至其他地方，但H＆A仍保留了这些位于市区的土地，这些土地变得非常有价值。
On the basis of this development, H&A sold 4 billion RMB of bonds and 2.8 billion RMB of stock, ending the company's crisis. There was one other way H&A group recovered. By moving company assets between subsidiaries at favorable prices, H&A can generate a paper profit.
在这个基础上，H&A出售了40亿人民币的债券和28亿人民币的股票，结束了公司的危机。还有一种H&A集团恢复的方式是通过以有利价格在子公司之间转移公司资产，从而产生纸上的利润。
Most notably in 2004 and 2005, two H&A subsidiaries, including high-non-air lines, invested 600 million RMB to build their HQ Khahong building in Beijing. At the end of 2007, the subsidiaries transferred the building to H&A at cost. A year later, H&A sold a 95% stake in the building back to high-non-air lines, the subsidiary, for about 1.7 billion RMB, recording a profit of about 1.1 billion RMB. But no big deal, right?
值得注意的是，尤其是在2004年和2005年，H&A的两个子公司，其中包括高端非航空公司，投资了6亿元人民币建造他们在北京的总部Khahong大楼。到2007年底，这些子公司以成本价将该建筑物转移给了H&A。一年后，H&A将该建筑物的95%股份以约17亿元人民币的价格卖回给了其子公司高端非航空公司，实现了约11亿元人民币的盈利。但这不是什么大不了的事，对吧？
Just a little light fraud between friends to boost operating results. Anyway, many normal companies would consider this second-close call as a sign to shrink and deleverage. But H&A was no normal company.
只是朋友之间的小型诈骗，为了提高运营成果。无论如何，许多正常公司会考虑这第二次的近乎灾难的事件为缩小并脱离杠杆的信号。但实际上，H&A不是一个正常的公司。
The financial crisis and the recession that followed gave H&A plenty of cheap overseas targets to look at. H&A wanted to take advantage and launched the Super X Plan with the goal of accumulating one trillion RMB of assets in just five years.
金融危机和随之而来的经济衰退为H&A提供了许多廉价的海外投资目标。H&A希望利用这一机会，推出“超级X计划”，旨在在仅五年内积累一万亿元人民币的资产。
From late 2010 to 2017, H&A spent billions of dollars to acquire hotel brands, technology companies, urban real estate, and airports. This frenzy peaked in the three years from 2015 to 2017, where H&A spent 50 billion dollars to make 123 acquisitions.
从2010年底到2017年，H&A花费了数十亿美元收购酒店品牌、科技公司、城市房地产和机场。这股风潮在2015年到2017年的三年间达到巅峰，H&A花费了500亿美元进行了123项收购。
These acquisitions are in wildly different industries. We can try to organize them into a few broad categories and go through them category by category. The accounting, however, is nowhere near complete or comprehensive.
这些收购来自截然不同的行业。我们可以尝试将它们组织成几个大类，然后按类别逐个进行分析。然而，会计工作远未完成或全面。
The first category is the travel industry, including airlines and travel groups. Some of H&A's earliest acquisitions were airlines. In 2006, H&A acquired Hong Kong Airlines and Hong Kong Express Airlines. Under their ownership, Hong Kong Airlines expanded into cargo shipping.
首个类别是旅游业，包括航空公司和旅游集团。H&A 最早的一些收购项目是航空公司。2006 年，H&A 收购了香港航空和香港快运航空。在他们的所有权下，香港航空扩展了货运业务。
And Hong Kong Express tried to build up a low-cost carrier model like the old Hainan Airlines did. The Hong Kong purchases gave H&A its first international roots, a major step forward.
香港快运尝试构建与老海南航空类似的低成本航空公司模式。香港的收购使得海航集团迈出了重要的国际化的步伐。
Air in 2012 came the purchase of a 48% stake in the Eigel Azer airline, France's second oldest cargo airline. It mostly services North Africa, but also gave the company permission to fly into Europe, including France. Chinese regulations at the time allowed just one Chinese airline per international route, so this was probably them trying to get around that.
2012年，空中客车购买了法国第二古老的货运航空公司Eigel Azer航空48%的股份。该公司主要服务于北非，但也获得了进入欧洲（包括法国）的许可。当时中国的规定每条国际线路只允许一家中国航空公司，因此这可能是他们试图规避这一限制。
In 2015, H&A bought minor stakes in South Africa's calm air and Brazil's Azuo. Now these moves were particularly strange because none of H&A's airlines at the time flew into South Africa or Brazil. Accompanying its airline purchases was a 2015-$2.8 billion purchase of Swissport, a cargo handler, and a 2016-$1.5 billion purchase of gategroup, a Swiss airline catering business.
2015年，H&A购买了南非的“镇静航空”和巴西的“Azuo”少数股份。这些行动特别奇怪，因为当时H&A旗下的任何一家航空公司都没有飞往南非或巴西。除了购买航空公司以外，H&A还在2015年斥资28亿美元收购了货运处理公司Swissport，以及在2016年斥资15亿美元收购了瑞士航空餐饮企业gategroup。
It makes a lot of sense that H&A group would have a great interest in hotels. It is in line with their business model and you can re-mortgage the properties. Starting in 2011, H&A started buying into NH Hotel Group, a Spanish company that was then Europe's third largest hotel group. Over time, the company rates its stake to about 29.5% with four board seats. The two did a joint venture to build hotels in China.
H&A集团对酒店行业的浓厚兴趣完全符合其商业模式，而且还可以进行再抵押。2011年起，H&A开始收购NH酒店集团的股份，该西班牙公司当时是欧洲第三大酒店集团。随着时间的推移，该公司将其持股比例增加到约29.5％，并拥有四个董事会席位。两家公司还共同合资在中国建造酒店。
The signing ceremony was reportedly attended by Premier League Ketchang and Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rahoy. Then in 2016, the company bought Carlson Hotels, which owns the Radisson Hotels brand for an unknown price. Carlson and the aforementioned NH Hotel Group are direct competitors in Europe. This conflict of interest eventually caused NH Hotel to boot H&A's four members off their board.
据报道，英超联赛的Ketchang总理和西班牙总理Mariano Rahoy出席了签约仪式。随后，在2016年，该公司以未披露的价格收购了卡尔森酒店，该公司拥有雷迪森酒店品牌。卡尔森和上述的NH酒店集团在欧洲是直接竞争对手。这种利益冲突最终导致NH酒店将H＆A的四名成员从董事会中除名。
This was just sloppy work on H&A's part. Why would you not run this purchase by your other hotel subsidiary? But wait, there's more. In 2016, H&A bought a 25% stake in Hilton Hotels from Blackstone. Blackstone sold the stake at a price three times higher than what they paid for it back in 2007.
这只是H＆A粗心大意的工作。为什么你不会将这个购买交给你的其他酒店子公司？但等等，还有更多。2016年，H＆A从Blackstone购买了希尔顿酒店25％的股份。Blackstone以比2007年购买时付出的价格高三倍的价格出售股份。
The next category of H&A Empire Building includes its logistics and shipping buildup. In 2008, H&A announced plans to create a global container shipping business with a fleet of 200 ships. To back this, they bought Jin Hai Shipyard, a shipbuilder, and Tian Jing Marine shipping, a marine shipping company.
H&A帝国建设的下一个类别是物流和运输建设。2008年，H＆A宣布计划创建一个拥有200艘船队的全球集装箱运输业务。为此，他们收购了造船企业金海船厂和海运公司天津海运。
But the most eyebrow-raising acquisition in this sector was Tian Jing's $6 billion purchase of Ingram Micro. Ingram is a global IT equipment distributor with over $46 billion in revenue in 2015. However, the company made just $266 million in net income that year, which translates to a profit margin of less than 1%.
但在这个领域中最让人惊讶的收购是天津的60亿美元收购英迈（Ingram Micro）。英迈是一家全球IT设备分销商，2015年的收入超过460亿美元。然而，该公司当年仅获得了2.66亿美元的净利润，换算成利润率不到1％。
In the very beginning, it was a strange purchase, and its press release, H&A explained that they wanted to deepen Ingram Micro's involvement in the China and Asia Pacific market. 20% of Ingram's 2015 revenue was from Asia. Just 5.4% came from China, though China did account for 23.1% of the company's total profit.
一开始，这似乎是一笔奇怪的购买。在H&A的新闻发布中，他们解释说想要加强Ingram Micro在中国和亚太市场的参与度。2015年，Ingram Micro 20% 的收入来自亚洲，其中仅有5.4%来自中国，但是中国却占该公司总利润的23.1%。
But why would a marine shipper buy into what I presume is one of their customers' businesses? Interestingly, this purchase fell under regulatory scrutiny by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CIFIS. CIFIS approved the deal, one of the few such China-US technology deals to get done in the past decade.
但是为什么海运公司会投资于我假设是他们客户的企业呢？有趣的是，这项购买受到了美国外国投资委员会（CIFIS）的监管审查。CIFIS批准了该交易，这是过去十年中少数得以达成的中美技术交易之一。
Inspired by GE Finance, H&A wanted to build up a financial sector arm, which they named H&A Finance. H&A Finance wanted to do heavy asset, leasing, and insurance. In 2009, the company acquired the Australian aircraft leasing company Allco. Allco lost $1.4 billion USD and collapsed into insolvency during the financial crisis.
受通用电气金融的启发，H&A希望建立一个金融部门，他们将其命名为H&A Finance。H&A Finance希望进行大量的资产租赁和保险业务。2009年，公司收购了澳大利亚飞机租赁公司Allco。由于金融危机，Allco损失了14亿美元，并破产倒闭。
H&A bought the company out of liquidation and moved it to Hong Kong. There, they merged it into a publicly traded affiliate, Bohai Capital Holding. Bohai would be the corporate vehicle for all their heavy asset leasing efforts. In 2011, Bohai spent $1 billion not including debt to buy GE Cico, the 5th largest container leasing fleet. GE Cico buys dry freight, refrigerated, and tank containers and leases them out.
H&A从破产公司收购了该公司，并将其搬到了香港。在那里，他们将其合并到一家上市附属公司-渤海控股下。渤海将成为他们所有重资产租赁业务的公司车辆。2011年，渤海耗费10亿美元（未包括债务），购买了GE Cico，这是第五大容器租赁船队。GE Cico购买干货、冷藏和储罐等容器，并出租给客户。
Then in 2015, Bohai bought an 80% stake in Cronos Group Limited, which they merged into Cico to add more scale to their container leasing business. A year later, Bohai paid $7.6 billion to buy the Irish leasing company Avalon. This made H&A the 4th biggest airplane leaser. Finally, in 2017, they purchased the IT Group's aircraft leasing business for $10 billion. Morgan Stanley financed $8.5 billion of that $10 billion purchase price.
在2015年，渤海海洋集团买下了Cronos Group Limited的80%股权，并将其合并入Cico，以增加其集装箱租赁业务规模。一年后，渤海以7.6亿美元的价格收购了爱尔兰租赁公司Avalon，从而使H&A成为第四大飞机租赁商。最后，在2017年，他们以100亿美元收购了IT Group的飞机租赁业务。根摩根士丹利为这笔100亿美元的购买价格提供了85亿美元的融资。
Altogether, the combined company had 910 aircraft in its fleet and was the third largest such company in the industry.
总的来说，合并后的公司在其机队中拥有910架飞机，是该行业第三大公司。
And then there are the purchases that do not fit into any of the above categories.
接下来说的是不属于以上任何一类的购买。意思指的是一些没有归类的购买。
A 2016 $1.1 billion purchase of the land under the former Kai Tuk Airport in Hong Kong.
2016年，以11亿美元的价格购买了香港旧启德机场土地的所有权。
A March 2017 purchase of a majority stake in the money leasing Frankfurt, Han Airport, and Germany's first and only international airport acquisition.
2017年3月，购买了德国法兰克福汉莎机场的大部分股份，这也是德国第一个和唯一的国际机场收购。该句表达的是某公司购买了德国法兰克福汉莎机场的大部分股份，标志着该机场成为该公司的资产之一。
There was also a 9.9% $4 billion equity stake in Deutsche Bank, one of the world's most important financial institutions.
德意志银行是世界上最重要的金融机构之一，该公司还持有其股份价值为40亿美元，占股总数的9.9%。
This was built up in early 2017 through an Austrian firm and a fantastically complicated web of offshore companies.
这是在2017年初通过一个奥地利公司，以及一个极其复杂的离岸公司网络建立起来的。这个句子的表达意思是指，这个事物在2017年初通过一个奥地利公司和若干离岸公司建立起来。
The chain is 7 companies deep.
这个链条有7个公司连续参与。
Through this web, H&A claimed itself to be Deutsche Bank's largest shareholder and managed to place a representative on the board.
通过这个网站，H&A声称自己是德意志银行最大的股东，并成功地将代表人员置于董事会中。
这句话的意思是，H&A通过网站宣称自己是德意志银行的最大股东，并成功地将其代表人员安排到了该银行的董事会中。
There was also the $2.21 billion purchase of 245 Park Avenue in New York City, which closed in May 2017.
2017年5月，也有一宗价格高达21.1亿美元的房产交易，涉及位于纽约市的245 Park Avenue。
One of the biggest transactions in New York City real estate history, $1.75 of the $2.2 billion was borrowed.
这是纽约房地产历史上最大的交易之一，其中22亿美元中的1.75亿美元是借贷来的。这笔交易规模巨大。
Just a month earlier, H&A closed on the aforementioned $10 billion sit group purchase and announced that they had bought a 16.8% and do-free group.
就在一个月前，H＆A完成了前述的100亿美元的房地产大购买，并宣布他们已经购买了一个16.8％的无担保集团。
The largest duty-free shop chain in the world.
世界上最大的免税店连锁。意味着该连锁店在全球范围内占据着免税市场中最大的份额。
Gosh.
哎呀。
So where did all the money for these purchases, off made and an elevated price come from?
那么这些购买所需的所有钱，来自哪里？这些购买是按高价进行的。
The vast majority of the money was borrowed, but against what?
绝大部分的钱是借来的，但是抵押的是什么呢？
该句意思是在问借这笔钱的时候，担保给出的是什么财产或担保物品。
The first major debt source is land and land development.
首要的债务来源是土地和土地开发。这意味着在购买或开发土地时，人们通常会借贷，以便支付土地购买和开发过程中的各种费用。
H&A shifted from relying on mortgaging out plane assets to mortgaging out land development projects and other hard assets.
H&A 不再依靠抵押飞机资产，而是开始抵押土地开发项目和其他硬资产。
Across China, provincial and city governments were starting infrastructure projects, as per the guidance from the central government.
在中国各个省份城市，按照中央政府的指导，开始启动基础设施项目。
For instance, in 2012, the high non-provincial government announced that it would build a big business district.
例如，2012年，高级非省级政府宣布将建设一个大型商业区。这意味着政府计划在该地区建造大量商业设施，以促进经济发展并提供更多就业机会。
But many of these governments are quite indebted.
然而，这些政府中很多都有相当大的债务。
该句表达的意思是指，这些政府面临着财政问题，因为它们累积了大量的债务。
How do they get the money?
他们是如何得到这笔钱的？
H&A partnered with these governments to do these investment projects, leasing them the assets so to help them duck their debt limits.
H&A与这些政府合作进行投资项目，并租赁资产，以帮助他们规避债务限制。
H&A then spun these various land development projects off into publicly traded subsidiaries.
然后，H&A将这些不同的土地开发项目分拆成可以公开交易的子公司。
这句话的意思是H&A公司将其涉足的许多土地开发项目分成许多不同的子公司，并让这些子公司可以通过公开交易来进行买卖。
The subsidiaries net asset values and thus stock prices skyrocket.
子公司的净资产价值和股票价格飞涨。意味着该公司旗下子公司的价值和股票价格急剧上升。
H&A's management can then pledge these shares to borrow even more money.
H&A的管理层可以将这些股份担保借更多的钱。
This leads me into the second major funding source, a super complex capital structure.
这让我进入到第二个主要的资金来源，一个超级复杂的资本结构。这意味着企业有一种复杂的信贷、发行债券、私募股权和其他融资方式的组合，以满足不同阶段的资金需求和投资风险能力。
Very early on, H&A devolved from a traditional corporation that most people would be familiar with to a complex intertwined web of China-based investment entities.
H&A公司从最初的普通公司逐渐演变成一个复杂的、交织在中国投资实体中的网络。
Some of these are privately held, but a great deal are public, including 10 on the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock markets and 7 on the Hong Kong markets.
其中一些是私人持有的，但大部分是公开的，包括深圳和上海证券交易所的10家公司和香港市场的7家公司。
As H&A acquired entire companies or stakes and companies during its acquisition frenzy, even as they borrowed more and more money to acquire it, they can inject those acquisitions into their web and then remorgge them out for even more money.
在H&A的收购狂潮中，他们不断借债购买整个公司或公司股份，然后将这些收购注入到他们的网络中，再重新抵押以获得更多的资金。
Though the company seems to be run and operated by its management in the core H&A group corporation, the stock ownership and debt ownership links are so complicated that it is hard to tell who owns what.
尽管该公司似乎由核心H&A集团公司的管理团队运营，但股权和债务所有权的关系非常复杂，很难确定谁拥有什么。
I am kind of reminded of a Portuguese man of war.
我有点想起了一只葡萄牙水母。
That's not a real jellyfish, but an agglomeration of smaller creatures.
那不是真正的水母，而是由许多小生物聚集而成的。
They band together as a clump consuming anything in its way.
它们结成一堆，无所畏惧地吞噬着它们路径上的一切。
The other thing about the man of war is that it is entirely dependent on the season currents for survival.
关于水母，另一个重要的事情是它完全依赖于季节洋流来维持生存。
If the waves were to suddenly push this beast onto the shores, they would not survive for very long.
如果海浪突然将这个巨兽推到海岸上，它们将无法生存很长时间。
In mid-May 2017, H&A issued $500 million in bonds for its 245-park avenue purchase.
在2017年5月中旬，H＆A发行了5亿美元的债券用于购置位于245公园大道的房产。
It would be one of H&A's last overseas M&A financing transactions.
这将是H&A的最后一项海外并购融资交易之一。
On June 22, 2017, the China Banking Regulatory Commission ordered several banks to conduct wrist checks on the amount of overseas borrowing and investing by H&A and other conglomerates like Anbang and Dalianwanda.
2017年6月22日，中国银行监管委员会要求几家银行对H＆A及其他企业集团（如安邦和大连万达）的海外借贷和投资金额进行调查。
Everything changed from there.
从那时起，一切都发生了改变。
In July 2017, H&A subsidiary Shiroko canceled their in-process purchase of a 34.9% stake of the American In-flight Entertainment Company Global Eagle Entertainment.
在2017年7月，H&A旗下子公司Shiroko取消了他们正在进行的购买美国机上娱乐公司Global Eagle Entertainment 34.9%股份的交易。
At that month, it was reported that Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Bank of America stop taking any more shares of H&A Group companies has pledges for new loans.
当时有报道称，摩根士丹利、花旗银行和美国银行已停止接受H＆A集团公司的新股份抵押获取新贷款的承诺。
Goldman Sachs followed suit a few months later in September 2017.
在2017年9月，高盛（Goldman Sachs）也紧随其后效仿此举。这意味着在此之前已经有企业采用了某种行动或策略，而高盛在几个月后也加入了这个行列。
That same month, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority requested information from H&A about its financial status.
同一个月，香港金融管理局向H＆A要求有关其财务状况的信息。这句话的意思是，在某一月，香港货币管理局向H＆A公司请求提供其财务状况信息。
In November 2017, H&A issued $300 million of $363-day dollar bonds at an interest rate of 8.875%.
2017年11月，H＆A以8.875％的利率发行了3亿美元的363天美元债券。这意味着H＆A借了3亿美元，需要在363天内偿还本金和利息。
The extremely high interest rate was China's highest ever rate for its class.
这个极高的利率是中国同类贷款中历史上最高的。
Yields on H&A debt began to rise.
H&A债券的收益率开始上升。
Then that same month, the Chinese Central Government criticized one of H&A's core real estate projects, the Sanya New Airport Reclamation Project.
同一个月，中国中央政府批评了H&A的核心房地产项目之一——三亚新机场填海工程。
For, quote, quote, suspected illegal use of the C.
引用，引用，涉嫌非法使用C。
这句话的意思比较抽象，需要根据上下文进行推断。可能是在某个文档或者聊天记录中看到的，可能是指某个计算机程序或者工具被怀疑被用于非法用途。需要具体情况具体分析。
This shook confidence in the company's vaunted government connections.
这动摇了人们对该公司所吹嘘的政府关系的信心。
A few days later, in late November 2017, H&A reported its core financial data.
在2017年11月底的几天后，H&A报告了其核心财务数据。这意味着H&A公布了自己的财务状况数据。
The show's stopper was H&A's estimated current loan balance of $637 billion RMB, or $94 billion USD, using 2017 exchange rates, up 36% from the previous year. If you were to include the company's unlisted subsidiaries, estimates went as high as $1 trillion RMB, or $148 billion. Yet, even these estimates fell short of the eventual actual number.
这个节目的亮点是，H&A预估的当前贷款余额达到了6370亿元人民币，或者940亿美元，以2017年的汇率计算，比去年增长了36%。如果计算该公司未上市的子公司，预估数字最高可达到1万亿元人民币，或者1480亿美元。然而，即使是这些预估数字，也无法达到最终实际数字的水平。
This made H&A group a just most indebted company, standard and poor and other credit rating agencies rushed to downgrade the company's debt. Generate 2018 began with a series of reversals. H&A management met with its creditors. They told them the company planned to unwind its build-up and return to its core airlines business.
因此，H&A集团成为了最负债最多的公司之一，标普和其他信用评级机构纷纷降低了该公司的债务评级。2018年开始时，H&A的管理层与其债权人会面，告诉他们公司计划解决积累的问题，回归其核心航空业务。
They would sell 100 billion RMB of assets in the first half of the year. A third of H&A's publicly traded affiliates had their share suspended. This included H&A's tourism service business, Bohai leasing, its leasing business which had once been the third largest in the world, Tianjin Tianhai, the shipping slash logistics company that owns the American IT distributor in Grim Micro, Hainan Airlines holdings which held the company's original airline businesses as well as the others it created over the years, and CCOP Group, which owns and runs a large chain of retailers like supermarkets and department stores in northern and central China.
他们将在上半年出售价值1000亿元人民币的资产。华安集团的三分之一上市子公司的股份已被停牌，其中包括华安旅游服务业务、渤海租赁曾经是全球第三大租赁企业的租赁业务、天津天海航运物流公司拥有美国IT分销商Grim Micro、海南航空控股公司旗下原有的航空业务以及多年来创建的其他业务、以及中北部中国一家大型零售企业连锁超市和百货商店的所有权和管理权的CCOP集团。
For some of these companies, H&A had pledged up to 60% of the total share circulation for loans. That had been one of the company's key sources of cash keeping the whole group together. Throughout 2018, H&A began the process of selling off the various assets that it purchased only a year earlier. This rapid selldown took place in the midst of great personal tragedy.
对于这些公司中的一些，H&A曾承诺贷款的总股份高达60％。这是该公司维持整个集团的主要现金来源之一。 2018年，H&A开始出售仅一年前购买的各种资产。这种快速的减持发生在巨大的个人悲剧之中。
In July 2018, Wang Jian, one of H&A's co-founders and the inside man said to be running the company's day-to-day operations, fell to his death in a tourist area of France. He had climbed a wall so that his family can get a photograph of him and then accidentally fell about 15 meters. There are some dubious reports that he deliberately jumped off the wall but the French authorities don't seem to believe that.
2018年7月，华楼与爱达合作公司的联合创始人之一、据说负责日常运营的内部人员王健，在法国一个旅游区闪亡。他为了让家人拍照攀爬了一堵墙，然后不慎从约15米高的地方落下。有一些不可信的报道称他是故意从墙上跳下去的，但法国当局似乎并不相信这种说法。
Wang's 15% state passed to the American nonprofit that now controlled the majority of H&A's shares. Wang Feng's son, Tong Xiaofeng, was appointed the new deputy CEO and the asset sales continued. Slowly, the assets melted away. Two plots from the Kai-Tok airport site in Hong Kong were sold to Henderson Land for $2 billion, a rare recorded gain. A bit of the stake in Deutsche Bank sold off in 2019. They are still selling it down today.
王先生15%的股权被移交给了美国非营利组织，该组织现在控制了H&A大部分的股份。王峰的儿子童晓峰被任命为新的副首席执行官，资产销售继续进行。慢慢地，资产开始逐渐消失。香港启德机场的两块地段出售给恒基地产，售价为20亿美元，这是一个罕见的盈利记录。在2019年，他们还出售了一部分德意志银行的股份。直至今日他们仍在减持。
Swiss port was swapped away to its senior creditors in August 2020 and the massive Ingram Micro IT subsidiary was sold to platinum equity in the December 2020 sale. It seemed like the company might actually make it through, but the devastating effects that COVID had on H&A's core airline and travel businesses sparked a final crisis that the company could not overcome.
2020年8月，瑞士港口被交换给了它的高级债权人，而庞大的英格拉姆微系统子公司则在同年12月的销售中被卖给了白金私募股权公司。这似乎意味着该公司可能会成功度过难关，但COVID对H＆A的核心航空和旅游业务造成的破坏性影响引发了一场最终危机，该公司无法克服。
And thus, on February 2021, H&A finally entered bankruptcy proceedings. When the filing came in, the company had acknowledged $170 billion of debts from creditors. The company will likely be split into four businesses after all the bankruptcy procedures are done. And as for Tong Feng, on September 2021, he and his chief executive Adam Tan were detained by the Chinese government for suspected crimes.
因此，2021年2月，H＆A最终进入了破产程序。在申请时，该公司承认从债权人处的欠款金额达到了1700亿美元。所有的破产程序完成后，该公司很可能会被分为四个业务。至于童丰，2021年9月，他和首席执行官Adam Tan因涉嫌犯罪被中国政府拘留。
In a 2012 investor presentation reported by the Financial Times, a banker tried to reassure potential investors with the following line. To outsiders, this seems opaque and confusing, but investors should take comfort from close government relationships at many levels, both above and within the H&A umbrella.
在一份2012年的投资者演示中，一位银行家试图通过以下话语来安抚潜在的投资者。对于外部人来说，这似乎是晦涩难懂的，但投资者应该从多个层面的紧密政府关系中感到安心，这些关系都存在于H&A集团的上下层级中。
What held together the whole enterprise were mountains of debt and the unspoken implication of close government involvement. The notion floated around that H&A can only have gotten so far, borrowed so much and bought so much because it had the backing of or was even a vehicle for the Chinese government. This caused a lot of anxiety for people in the West. Was it real? Who knows for sure?
整个企业的支撑依赖于巨大的债务和政府紧密参与的暗示。流传着这样一种观念：华谊只能走得这么远、借这么多钱并买下这么多东西，是因为它得到了中国政府的支持，甚至是政府“摇钱树”。这让西方人感到很焦虑。这是真的吗？谁也不知道确切答案。
Perhaps on some level, H&A and his fellow conglomerates did have that approval. People have made those claims. But one can make an equally strong argument that the company's incredibly complex structure existed for a reason, and that was a dodge oversight. At least until it no longer could.
或许从某种程度上来看，H＆A及其同行企业确实得到了那种认可。一些人已经提出了这样的说法。但同样可以强有力地辩称，公司极为复杂的结构存在是为了规避监管。至少在不再能够这样做之前。
Alright everyone, that's it for tonight, thanks for watching. My thanks to my intern researcher Adam Kim for his work on this. Subscribe to the channel, send up for the newsletter, and I'll see you guys next time.
大家好，今晚的节目就到这里了，感谢您的收看。我要特别感谢我的实习研究员亚当·金在这期节目中的工作。请您订阅我们的频道，订阅我们的通讯，下次节目再见。