CARREFOUR TO SLIM DOWN IN ASIA

家乐福亚洲“瘦身”

CARREFOUR TO SLIM DOWN IN ASIA

英国《金融时报》 记者 报道

Three years ago, Carrefour, the French hypermarket group, announced an expansion drive to open new stores in Thailand, backed by a Bt5bn ($154m) investment.	3年前，法国大型超市集团家乐福(Carrefour)宣布了一项扩张计划，在泰国投 资50亿泰铢（合1.54亿美元）开设新店。
Today Carrefour is planning to quit the country – where it added 16 stores to the 24 it had, to become one of the top five players – and to pull out of Malaysia and Singapore. Despite being the world’s second-largest retailer by sales after Walmart of the US, it seems Carrefour will become less international under Lars Olofsson, chief executive.	此后，在泰国，家乐福在24家分店的基础上，又新开了16家，从而跻身市场前五名。但 如今，家乐福正计划撤出泰国，同时撤离马来西亚和新加坡。尽管以销售额衡量，家乐福是全球第二大零售商，仅次于美国的沃尔玛(Walmart)，但在首席 执行官罗盛中(Lars Olofsson)的领导下，家乐福的国际化程度似乎正在下降。
The former Nestlé senior manager, who took the helm in January 2009, is charged with turning round the underperforming retailer by Carrefour’s two activist shareholders, Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH, and Colony Capital, which between them hold a 14 per cent stake.	曾担任雀巢(Nestlé)高管的罗盛中，于2009年1月接管家乐福，使命是带领表 现不佳的家乐福扭转局面。罗盛中受命于集团两位维权股东——路易威登轩尼诗(LVMH)董事长伯纳德•阿尔诺(Bernard Arnault)与柯罗尼资本(Colony Capital)，他们共拥有家乐福14%的股权。
The shares rallied on reports last week that Carrefour was preparing the pull-out – something the company will not comment on – but the decision has provoked surprise, given the favourable long-term demographics of those countries. Carrefour was one of the first into China, where it is still market leader with 424 stores. It also has a large business in Taiwan and Indonesia – Mr Olofsson described the latter at May’s annual meeting as “very promising”.	上周传出家乐福准备撤离上述市场的消息后——该公司拒绝就此置评——家乐福股价有所反 弹。但考虑到这些国家的长期人口发展前景较为有利，上述决定令人颇感意外。家乐福是首批进入中国的零售商之一，目前仍以424家分店的规模占据着市场领导 者地位。该集团在台湾和印度尼西亚的业务规模也相当庞大——罗盛中今年5月在年会上形容后者的“前景非常光明”。
The remaining three countries – Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore – had total sales last year of €1bn, ($1.27bn) representing 15 per cent of Carrefour’s Asia sales but only 1.1 per cent of group sales of €86bn.	其余三个国家——马来西亚、泰国和新加坡——去年的销售总额为10亿欧元（合12.7 亿美元），占家乐福亚洲销售总额的15%，但在整个集团860亿欧元的销售总额中，仅占1.1%。
“Carrefour may remain committed to China and Brazil, but getting out of other growth markets seems at odds with a desire for long-term growth,” said Christopher Hogbin, analyst at Bernstein Research. “There is no reason why Carrefour needs to restrict its Asian presence in this way – Tesco manages to be in many countries quite successfully.”	伯恩斯坦研究公司(Bernstein Research)分析师克里斯托弗•霍格宾 (Christopher Hogbin)表示：“家乐福可能仍然致力于在中国和巴西的发展，但撤离其它成长型市场，似乎与其长期发展愿望相左。家乐福没有理由以这种方式限制其亚洲 业务规模——特易购(Tesco)就相当成功地进入了多个国家。”
Mr Olofsson’s strategy is to make France, Carrefour’s biggest market, and its three other large European markets – Spain, Italy and Belgium – more profitable. These countries have been allocated the lion’s share of investment this year along with important “growth” markets, notably China and Brazil.	罗盛中的战略是增强家乐福最大市场即法国、及其它三大欧洲市场——西班牙、意大利和比 利时——的盈利能力。今年集团大部分投资都配置到了这些国家，以及重要的“成长型”市场（尤其是中国和巴西）。
He has said that he will consider pulling out of countries where Carrefour has no realistic prospect of becoming market leader. So far he has exited Russia and southern Italy and is examining a sale of the Portuguese business. Some analysts say that to concentrate resources on countries with the greatest growth potential is sensible and that Carrefour is present in too many, which weighs on management time. Mr Olofsson’s predecessor, Jose-Luis Duran, also withdrew from markets where the company was weak, such as Mexico and Japan.	罗盛中曾表示，将考虑撤出那些家乐福无望成为市场领袖的国家。迄今，他已撤出了俄罗斯 和意大利南部地区，并正在审视葡萄牙的销售情况。一些分析师表示，将资源集中到那些最具增长潜力的国家是明智的做法，因为家乐福目前在太多国家拥有业务， 这会带来管理时间上的压力。罗盛中的前任杜浩诚(Jose Luis Duran)也曾退出公司表现不佳的市场，例如墨西哥和日本。
“Carrefour is not exactly strapped for cash – so we would not see the disposal of these assets as that material from an earnings nor valuation perspective,” said Justin Scarborough, analyst at RBS. Analysts estimate the businesses could fetch €500m-€700m.	苏格兰皇家银行(RBS)分析师贾斯廷•斯卡伯勒 (Justin Scarborough)表示：“家乐福并不是缺现金——因此，无论是从收益还是估值角度来看，我们都不会认为出售这些资产有多么重大”。分析师估计，这 些业务的售价会在5亿至7亿欧元之间。
The pull-out is in its early stages. Carrefour is talking to bankers but has yet to decide how to proceed and, according to one person familiar with the situation, there have been no serious discussions yet with potential buyers.	退出计划仍处于初期阶段。家乐福正与银行进行商讨，但尚未决定如何处置。据一名知情人 士透露，家乐福目前尚未与潜在买家进行严肃的谈判。
Talk among mergers and acquisition bankers in Hong Kong is that the sale would probably be split into two separate chunks: Malaysia and Singapore on one side; Thai assets on the other.	香港并购银行家内部的传言称，出售很可能分成两块进行：马来西亚和新加坡是一块，泰国 资产单独是一块。
Tesco, the UK retailer, is regarded as the most likely trade bidder for the Malaysia and Singapore assets, but Dairy Farm, the Singapore-listed retailer and Aeon, the Japanese retail group, could be interested.	人们认为，英国零售商特易购最有可能成为马来西亚及新加坡资产的商业竞购者，但新加坡 上市零售商牛奶国际(Dairy Farm)及日本零售集团永旺(Aeon)可能也会感兴趣。
Potential private equity bidders include CVC and Navis Capital, the Malaysia-based group. NTUC Fairprice of Singapore, which runs a supermarket chain, is seen as a potential buyer for the Singapore and Malaysia businesses, if they were to be sold separately.	潜在的私人股本竞购者包括CVC和马来西亚的Navis Capital。如果新加坡和马来西亚业务可以分开出售，新加坡连锁超市——新加坡职工总会平价合作社(NTUC Fairprice)也被视为一个潜在买家。
Tesco is also a top contender for Thailand as is France’s Casino group. These two chains are the biggest in the country. Neither would comment.	特易购和法国的卡西诺集团(Casino)也是泰国业务的主要竞争者。它们是泰国规模 最大的两家连锁超市，但双方均拒绝置评。
	译者/陈云飞