中國新一代家族理財室崛起 Chinese family money fills gap after retreat

Last month, brokers and private bankers in Hong Kong began contacting local clients to gauge their interest in a private capital-raising for Silicon Valley-based Palantir Technologies — an artificial intelligence group that is seeking a $25bn valuation.

上月，香港的經紀商和私人銀行開始接觸當地客戶，看他們有多少興趣參與硅谷公司Palantir Technologies的私募融資活動。這家人工智能(AI)集團正在尋求250億美元的目標估值。

Qihoo 360 Technology, a Chinese internet company, recently abandoned its US listing and went private with a generous valuation of $9.3bn. Similarly, the finance arm of Chinese ecommerce group found itself able to raise $1bn in far less time than its local group of blue-chip investors anticipated.

不久前，中國互聯網企業奇虎360科技有限公司(Qihoo 360 Technology)宣佈將從美國退市，以93億美元的高額估值進行私有化。同樣，中國電商集團京東()旗下的京東金融發現，其融資10億美元所用時間遠遠低於國內那些藍籌投資者所預計的時間。

“The offshore market and the public market were both nervous,” says one investor in the two Chinese transactions. “But we found there was no challenge to get the funding done. There is still a lot of capital in this region.”

“離岸市場和公開市場都感到擔心，”一位參與了上述兩起中國企業交易的投資者表示，“但我們發現，融資完成得毫不吃力。這一地區仍有大量資本。”

It seems that despite the fears of China bears, there are still big pools of money in the country — and an increasing part of that wealth comes from a new generation of family offices. Owned by the likes of Jack Ma, the founders of Tencent, and other tech billionaires, these offices have become an important source of capital and an early port of call for venture capitalists, hedge funds and private equity firms.

看起來，儘管看空中國者有各種擔心，但目前中國仍存在大量的可用資金——其中來自新一代家族理財室的比例越來越高。由馬雲(Jack Ma)、騰訊(Tencent)創始人和其他科技界億萬富翁所擁有的這些家族理財室，已成爲一個重要的資本來源，是風險資本家、對衝基金和私人股本公司早期融資的必到之處。

The financial clout of this Chinese family money is doubly important because of the declining role played by many sovereign wealth funds, which were the great source of rescue finance during the financial implosion in 2008. Nowadays, sovereign wealth funds have far less money to put to work — the sharp drop in oil prices has hit energy producing countries, and lower foreign exchange earnings have affected other countries’ sovereign wealth funds, including China’s.

中國家族資金的金融實力之所以具有突出重要性，還因爲許多主權財富基金髮揮的作用正在減弱。在2008年的金融危機期間，主權財富基金是主要的紓困資金來源。如今，主權財富基金所能調動的資金比以往少得多——油價暴跌衝擊了產油國，而外匯收入的減少削弱了其他國家（包括中國）的主權財富基金。

Moreover, new pools of Chinese capital have become especially active in the private markets at a time when many US tech investors are becoming more cautious, amid worries about a potential bubble. Family office enthusiasm is helping to support the valuations not only of Qihoo and JD’s finance arm but other internet groups. Their role matters to the Chinese economy more broadly, too. Creating and supporting new jobs in tech and ecommerce is vital at a time when overcapacity in traditional sectors is leading to job losses and lower income for many workers.

此外，在美國的科技投資者因潛在泡沫引發擔心而變得更謹慎之際，中國的大量新資金卻在私募市場上變得尤爲積極。家族理財室的熱情不但幫助支撐了奇虎和京東金融的估值，也支撐了其他互聯網集團的估值。這些資金對整個中國經濟也很重要。當傳統行業產能過剩導致許多工人丟掉工作或薪水降低之際，在科技和電商領域創造並支撐新增就業，具有至關重要的作用。

These Chinese tech family offices are still at an early stage of development. But they control tens of billions of dollars and are often more sophisticated than the fund managers who hope to help them invest their growing piles of money. In some cases, they resemble the US robber baron families of an earlier century, because they combine an aggressive, monopolistic drive for financial success with a desire to engage in philanthropy and leave the world a better place.

這些中國科技界富豪擁有的家族理財室仍處於早期發展階段。但是，他們控制着數百億美元的資金，並且往往比那些希望幫助他們把日益增加的財富投出去的基金管理公司更復雜。在某些情況下，他們就像一個多世紀之前的美國“強盜貴族”(robber baron)，一方面積極地以壟斷手法追求金錢上的成功，另一方面又希望從事慈善事業，讓世界變得更美好。

To be sure, family offices have always been part of the landscape in Asia, particularly among the overseas Chinese network. But, in the past, most of the money was made in real estate and shipping. It came from families such as the Lee family of Henderson Land or the Pao family, which founded Wharf, or the founders of Nan Fung, which started out in manufacturing and shifted into property. This older generation of family offices got involved in everything from helping to raise money, to negotiating with kidnappers when clients’ children were held for ransom, to selecting race horses. They also advised on the purchase of yachts and helped to hide money in tax havens before regulators made that far more difficult.

毫無疑問，家族理財室一直是亞洲商業格局中的組成部分，尤其是在海外華人家族網絡當中。但在過去，他們的大部分財富是在房地產和航運領域賺到的。家族理財室的資金所來自的家族，有恆基兆業地產(Henderson Land)的李氏家族、創立九龍倉(Wharf)的包氏家族、以及從製造業起家然後進入房地產業的南豐(Nan Fung)創始人家族，等等。老一代家族理財室的業務包羅萬象，從幫助客戶融資到在客戶子女遭綁架與索要贖金的綁匪談判，再到挑選賽馬。它們也在購買遊艇方面提供諮詢意見，並幫助客戶把財富藏到避稅地去，直到後來監管機構讓這種操作的實現難度大大增加。

Of the new generation of family offices, the most substantial is Blue Pool Capital in Hong Kong, which represents part of the wealth of Mr Ma and a greater part of the almost $7bn value of his partner Joe Tsai. Mr Ma also uses other vehicles, including his Yunfeng Capital, and a new family office that takes up an entire floor of a Hong Kong office tower.

在新一代家族理財室當中，資產管理規模最爲可觀的是香港的Blue Pool Capital——馬雲將部分財富投了進去，馬雲的合夥人蔡崇信(Joe Tsai)也將其近70億美元身家的一大部分投了進去。馬雲還使用了其他工具，包括他旗下的雲峯基金(Yunfeng Capital)以及在香港一處寫字樓佔據整整一層的一家新的家族理財室。

It is not always clear with some of the tech billionaires what goes into their family offices and what goes into their public companies. The conflicts can be especially sharp since often the family office is an extension of the public company rather than an effort to diversify away from the core business.

對於部分科技億萬富翁而言，把哪些業務放進了家族理財室，又把哪些業務放入了旗下公衆公司，並非總是一目瞭然的。兩者之間的利益衝突可能會非常激烈，因爲家族理財室經常是公衆公司的延伸，而非旨在實現核心業務以外的多元化拓展。

It is also not clear whether the drop in US tech valuations will eventually be transmitted across the Pacific. But the new deep pockets of Asia may well prove willing to pay more for new economy companies than their Silicon Valley counterparts. It would reflect their confidence that there is more growth on their side of the world.

美國科技企業估值降低的局面是否將最終傳導至太平洋這一端的亞洲，目前也是個未知數。但是，事實很可能會證明，亞洲新出現的鉅額財富擁有者，願意爲代表新經濟的公司支付比硅谷同行的出價更高的價格。這將表明他們對於亞洲有更大增長潛力的信心。