[2013.01.05] Huddling for comfort 抱团取暖
本帖最后由 mirisa 于 2013-1-21 16:55 编辑
Exchange mergers 交易所合并
Huddling for comfort 抱团取暖
The Tokyo and Osaka bourses get together 东京和大阪证交所合并
Jan 5th 2013 | TOKYO |From the print edition
THE pressures on established stock exchanges are immense. Revenues from cash-equities trading are plunging amid fierce competition; the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) is in long-term decline; the opportunities for growth lie in the movement of derivatives onto exchanges. Exemplifying the trend, IntercontinentalExchange, an upstart specialising in energy derivatives, swooped in December for NYSE Euronext, which runs the New York Stock Exchange among other things.
老牌证交所如今正经受着巨大的压力。在激烈的竞争之下，从现金股票交易中获得的收益巨幅缩减，首次公开募股数量持续下滑，证交所纷纷推出金融衍生品交易服务以攫取商机。专长于能源类金融衍生品的新贵——洲际交易所(IntercontinentalExchange)在去年十二月收购了纽约证交所-泛欧交易所（NYSE Euronext），这正是这一趋势的典例。
It makes matters an awful lot worse if you add in two decades of relative economic decline. The value of Japanese stocks has slumped by three-quarters since December 1989. The number of foreign companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has plummeted from 127 to just ten in the same period. Tokyo now trails behind Singapore, Shanghai and even Shenzhen as a venue for listings. Last year it hosted less than 1% of global IPOs by value, according to Bloomberg. In the words of one analyst, that leaves the TSE “sucking on air”.
二十年的经济衰退使得情况更加恶化。自1989年十二月至今，日本股市的总市值已缩水四分之三。在此期间内，在东京证交所上市的外国公司数量从127个下降到了区区十个。现在，东京证交所作为企业上市地点的人气排名落到了新加坡、上海之后，甚至不如深圳。据彭博社报道，该所去年的首次公开发行募资额仅占全球总额的1%不到。用一位分析师的话说，东京证交所“弱爆了”。
Hence the merger, on January 1st, of the TSE and the Osaka Securities Exchange under a new holding company, Japan Exchange Group. The deal, which is in effect a takeover of the Osaka bourse by the TSE, creates the world’s third-largest exchange by market capitalisation. Atsushi Saito, the group’s new chief executive, calls it “a defensive merger” that combines Tokyo’s cash-equities business with the derivatives activity of the Osaka exchange. The new group will provide a one-stop service for everything from Nikkei 225 stocks to government bonds, putting Japan back at the “leading edge” of the industry.
因此东京证交所和大阪证交所于一月一日正式合并，缔造出一个新的控股公司——日本交易所集团（Japan Exchange Group）。这场交易其实相当于东京证交所收购了大阪证交所，巩固了东京证交所作为全球第三
大证交所（按上市公司总市值计算）的地位。该集团总裁齐藤惇（Atsushi Saito）称，这是一场“防御性的合并”，目的是将东京的现金股票交易业务和大阪的金融衍生品业务整合起来。新成立的集团将会提供一站式服务，内容包括从日经225股票到政府债券在内的所有业务，将日本重新推回本行业的“领先地位”。
Perhaps, but with the notoriously bureaucratic Tokyo side in the driving seat (Mr Saito is the TSE’s former head) many fear the deal will simply produce a bigger target for low-cost rivals to knock over. The TSE looks increasingly old-fashioned alongside electronic exchanges such as Chi-X, which charge a tiny fee for each trade.
也许吧，但是考虑到处在主导位置的东京方面（齐藤淳先生是东京证交所的前任领导）官僚主义臭名昭著，多方担忧这次兼并无法阻止低成本的对手将其轻松击败。和收费低廉的电子交易市场（如Chi-X）相比，东京交易所越来越显得过时了。
Ambitions for the new bourse to attract firms and investors from elsewhere in the region will also be hard to realise for governance reasons. “It is virtually the only stock exchange in Asia without proper rules for director training or disclosure,” says Nicholas Benes of the Board Director Training Institute of Japan, an NGO. Nor will the deal alter the TSE’s culture of subservience to Japan’s Ministry of Finance, although putting it together with the more independent-minded Osaka exchange might provide incentives to change, says Sadakazu Osaki of the Nomura Research Institute.
这家新的交易所想要从亚太地区的其他国家吸引公司和投资者，但政府的问题使得这一雄心难以实现。“这可能是全亚洲唯一一家对董事培训和披露没有适当规定的证券交易所，”日本董事培训协会（the Board Director Training Institute of Japan，一家非政府组织）的尼古拉斯·贝奈斯（Nicholas Benes）称。东京交易所对日本政府财务省俯首帖耳的传统也不会改变，虽然与较为独立的大阪交易所合并可能会带来一些改变的动力，日本野村总合研究所的大崎祯一（Sadakazu Osaki）说。
In theory the new holding company is open to a hostile bid by a foreign operator. Most analysts predict the Japanese government would intervene if that happened, just as the Australian government blocked an $8 billion bid by Singapore’s stock exchange for the Australian exchange in 2011. Mr Saito says he is unafraid of a takeover for that reason. Come what may, the pressure to keep consolidating will not go away.
按理说，这家新控股公司有可能被外国公司恶意竞购。多数分析师预测，如果这种情况发生，日本政府将会出面阻止，就像2011年澳大利亚政府阻止了新加坡证交所以八十亿美元收购澳大利亚证交所一样。因此齐藤淳先生称，他不惧怕收购。不论如何，进一步抱团的压力都不会消减。
