全球併購交易下滑至三年來最低水平
Global dealmaking has sunk to its lowest level in three years due to a record value of withdrawn bids, a sharp drop in US activity and a 20-year low for British involvement in takeover deals.
全球併購交易已下滑至三年來最低水平，原因包括創紀錄金額的撤回報價，美國併購活動急劇下降，以及英國企業參與併購交易的水平跌至20年低點。
Data from Thomson Reuters show that merger and acquisition activity has slowed markedly in the first three quarters of 2016, with companies agreeing to $2.37tn of deals — a 22 per cent drop compared with the record breaking activity of a year ago.
來自湯森路透(Thomson Reuters)的數據顯示，合併和收購活動在2016年前三個季度顯著放緩，企業達成了總計2.37萬億美元的交易，較一年前創紀錄的併購活動下降22%。
This slowdown is at its sharpest in the US, where the value of M&A deals has fallen 31 per cent in the first nine months of the year, to $1tn.
這種放緩在美國最爲明顯，該國今年前九個月的併購交易總價值同比下滑31%，至1萬億美元。
But around the world a series of big deals has fallen apart, contributing to a record value of withdrawn bids of $692bn.
但世界各地有一系列大筆交易半途夭折，使撤回報價的總價值達到創紀錄的6920億美元。
“There is caution in light of the number of deals that have been blocked,” said Rob Kindler, global head of M&A at Morgan Stanley. He pointed to deals doomed from the outset such as the $6.3bn Staples and Office Depot merger, which was blocked by US regulators, saying the companies had been “forced into a deal by activists”.
“面對被否決的交易數量，企業表現出謹慎，”摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)併購部門全球負責人羅布•金德勒(Rob Kindler)表示。他指出，有些交易，比如被美國監管機構封殺的Staples和Office Depot（美國兩家辦公室用品零售商——譯者注）63億美元合併計劃，從一開始就註定不了了之；他稱，這些公司是“被維權投資者逼着做交易的”。
Deals with a value of $5bn or more accounted for $817bn of the total volume, a 40 per cent decrease on last year. However, a number of the year’s biggest deals were agreed in the third quarter, including Bayer’s $66bn takeover of rival Monsanto.
50億美元以上的交易總計達到8170億美元，比去年減少40%。然而，今年最大的幾筆交易在第三季度達成，包括拜耳(Bayer)以660億美元收購競爭對手孟山都(Monsanto)。
Daniel Wolf, an M&A partner at law firm Kirkland & Ellis in New York, said judging the market just by the total dollar volume of deals was a mistake. “A much better metre is the number of overall deals that have been carried out and that’s gone up measurably,” he said.
紐約凱易律師事務所(Kirkland & Ellis)併購業務合夥人丹尼爾•沃爾夫(Daniel Wolf)表示，從併購交易美元總值來評判市場是一個錯誤。“一個好得多的衡量標準是達成的交易總數，那個數字明顯上升，”他說。
Figures show about 140 deals of more than $1bn were announced in the three months to the end of September — roughly in line with the average over the past 10 quarters.
數據顯示，在截至9月底的三個月裏宣佈了約140筆超過10億美元的交易，與過去10個季度的平均數量大致相符。
But UK involvement in dealmaking, which typically accounts for 10-20 per cent of global activity, has slipped to just 8 per cent so far this year, its lowest level in two decades. The drop came even as some big deals, such as the ￡24.3bn takeover of chip designer Arm Holdings by Japan’s SoftBank, were agreed in the aftermath of the UK’s Brexit vote.
但是，通常佔全球併購活動10%-20%的英國參與水平，今年迄今降至僅僅8%，這是20年來最低水平，儘管一些大筆交易，如軟銀(SoftBank)以243億英鎊收購英國芯片設計公司ARM控股(Arm Holdings)，是在英國公投退歐之後達成的。
Overall, European deal volumes have dropped 19 per cent, to $484bn, compared with last year, while Asia-Pacific activity has fallen 20 per cent to $625bn.
總體而言，歐洲的交易總價值同比下降19%，至4840億美元，而亞太地區的活動同比下降20%，至6250億美元。
