阿里巴巴與俄羅斯最大銀行放棄合作計劃

Plans for an ambitious partnership between Russia’s biggest bank and China’s ecommerce group have fallen apart after nearly a year of negotiations, people familiar with the talks have told the Financial Times.

知情人士告訴英國《金融時報》，在歷經近一年的談判後，俄羅斯最大銀行俄羅斯聯邦儲蓄銀行(Sberbank)與中國電商巨頭阿里巴巴(Alibaba)雄心勃勃的合作計劃流產。

Sberbank, which holds half of all Russian retail deposits, and Alibaba, which recorded $547bn of gross merchandise volume last fiscal year, had planned to bring that clout to bear in an ecommerce push in Russia, where more than half the 140m population use the internet daily.

俄羅斯聯邦儲蓄銀行的零售存款約佔全俄羅斯的一半，而阿里巴巴上個財年的商品交易總額(GMV)達到5470億美元。兩家公司原本計劃強強聯手，在俄羅斯開拓電商業務。在俄羅斯1.4億人口中，一半以上的人每天都會上網。

The proposed tie-up was an attempt to leverage state-run Sberbank’s vast client base with the Chinese ecommerce juggernaut to sell items to customers through the bank’s app.

按照之前的合作計劃，雙方原本打算利用身爲國有銀行的俄羅斯聯邦儲蓄銀行的龐大客戶基礎以及阿里巴巴在電商領域的強大實力，通過俄羅斯聯邦儲蓄銀行的APP向客戶銷售商品。

But the companies abandoned the discussions after falling out over how it would work, the people said.

但知情人士表示，兩家公司在就如何開展業務產生分歧後放棄了談判。

Sberbank said: “We don’t comment on rumours.” Alibaba declined to comment.

俄羅斯聯邦儲蓄銀行表示：“我們不對傳言發表評論。”阿里巴巴拒絕置評。

Herman Gref, Sberbank’s chief executive, is friendly with Alibaba founder Jack Ma and has long been keen for the bank to move into technology-dominated sectors, which he sees as essential to stay relevant in a digital world. Last month, he said the bank would prioritise moves into ecommerce and medicine in addition to finance.

俄羅斯聯邦儲蓄銀行首席執行官赫爾曼?格列夫(Herman Gref)與阿里巴巴創始人馬雲(Jack Ma)是朋友。很長時間以來，格列夫一直希望該銀行進軍由科技主導的行業，他認爲，這對於在數字世界站穩腳跟至關重要。上月，他表示，除金融業以外，該銀行將優先進軍電商和醫藥行業。

“About 50 per cent of businesses [in Russia] work in trade and it’s all intermediary functions. With the growth of ecommerce all physical intermediaries will be a thing of the past” in five or six years, Mr Gref said.

格列夫表示，“（在俄羅斯）大約一半企業從事貿易行業，都是起到中介作用。隨着電商發展，”五六年後，“所有實體的中介性質的企業都將落伍”。

In August, however, Sberbank announced a new joint venture with Yandex, the Russian search engine group, that is trying to turn et, a shopping comparison site, into a fully fledged ecommerce company. The bank invested Rbs30bn at a valuation of Rbs60bn ($1bn) and expects to conclude the deal by the end of the year.

然而在今年8月，俄羅斯聯邦儲蓄銀行宣佈與俄羅斯搜索引擎集團Yandex成立一家新的合資企業，Yandex正試圖把購物比價網站et轉變爲一家成熟的電子商務公司。該銀行對這家估值600億盧布（合10億美元）的合資企業投資了300億盧布，並預計在今年年底完成交易。

A person briefed on the discussions said Mr Gref turned to Yandex after talks with Alibaba fell through over who would control the joint venture, which Sberbank saw as an attempt to gain access to its customer database without offering much in return.

一位知情人士表示，在就合資企業控制權問題與阿里巴巴談崩後，格列夫轉向了Yandex。俄羅斯聯邦儲蓄銀行認爲阿里巴巴組建合資企業意在利用其客戶數據庫卻不想提供多少東西作爲交換。

But another person familiar with the companies’ thinking said the talks fell through later, after Sberbank invested in the Yandex joint venture and tried to partner it with Alibaba. “Alibaba doesn’t want to work with some comparison website,” the person said.

但另一位熟悉兩家公司想法的人士表示，俄羅斯聯邦儲蓄銀行投資於Yandex合資企業，並試圖讓它與阿里巴巴合作，後來談判失敗。該人士說：“阿里巴巴不想與比價網站合作。”

Russia is one of the biggest markets for AliExpress, Alibaba’s cross-border ecommerce business selling from China into international markets. Cross-border retail grew 37 per cent last year to more than Rbs300bn ($5bn), about a third of the total online market.

俄羅斯是全球速賣通(AliExpress)最大的市場之一，後者是阿里巴巴旗下從中國向國際市場銷售的跨境電子商務業務。俄羅斯跨境零售業務去年增長37%，至逾3000億盧布(合50億美元)，大約佔到整個在線市場的三分之一。

Alibaba is holding early-stage discussions with other potential partners in Russia, but “it has to be a deal that makes sense”, the person said.

該人士表示，阿里巴巴正在與俄羅斯其他潛在合作伙伴進行早期談判，但“交易必須合理”。