Concerns over leverage as HNA Group builds empire
海航集团全球扩张引发杠杆质疑
广州航空翻译公司：中国海航集团正力图建立一个横跨航空、物流和旅游业的全球帝国，但它的收购狂欢引起对其整体债务水平的担忧。
HNA Group’s $6.5bn bid for a 25 per cent stake in the Hilton hotel chain has cemented its reputation as one of China’s most acquisitive groups.
海航集团(HNA Group)斥资65亿美元收购希尔顿(Hilton)连锁酒店25%的股份，此举巩固了它作为中国最热衷收购的集团之一的声誉。广州航空翻译公司。
In less than two years the privately controlled company has announced foreign and domestic transactions worth more than $33bn — half spent offshore, according to data provider Dealogic — as it builds a global empire with interests spanning aviation, logistics and tourism.
数据提供商Dealogic的数据显示，在不到2年时间里，这家民营控股企业宣布的海外和国内收购交易总值超过330亿美元——其中一半是海外收购——它正在建立一个全球帝国，资产横跨航空、物流和旅游业。
Begun in 1989 as a private airline on the tropical island of Hainan, HNA’s buying spree shows no sign of slowing. Founder Chen Feng, a former employee of China’s state civil aviation administration, has transformed Hainan Airlines, the group’s flagship company, from a two-jet operation into the country’s fourth-largest airline and has built a sprawling conglomerate.
1989年从热带岛屿海南岛的一家非上市航空公司起家，海航集团的收购狂欢并未表现出丝毫的放缓迹象。创始人陈峰曾在中国民航系统任职，他将海航集团的旗舰企业海南航空(Hainan Airlines)从一家只运营两架飞机的公司转变成为中国第四大航空公司，并建立了产业范围广泛的综合集团。
While Mr Chen has largely ceded control of the group’s day-to-day operations to his co-chairman, Wang Jian, and chief executive Adam Tan , the Hilton acquisition, revealed on Monday, is a key piece of his plan to profit from Chinese tourists as they travel around the world.
尽管陈峰目前基本把海航集团日常运营的控制权交给了集团董事局董事长王健和首席执行官谭向东，但是周一公布的希尔顿收购案是陈峰从中国游客赴海外旅游的热潮中获益计划的关键部分。广州航空翻译公司。
“The vision is to be a vertically integrated aviation and tourist group,” says a person close to HNA. “They are buying different pieces and putting it together like a jigsaw puzzle.”
“愿景是打造纵向一体化的航空和旅游集团，”一名熟悉海航集团的知情人士表示，“他们正在购买不同的板块，并拼成一张拼图。”
However, the dizzying rate of HNA’s recent acquisitionns, the diversity of its targets and indebtedness of many of its units has raised questions about the pace and coherence of its expansion.
然而，海航最近令人眼花缭乱的收购频率、收购目标的多样性以及旗下很多公司的负债规模，引发了有关其扩张步伐和协调性的问题。
From its humble origins, HNA Group has grown to a company with Rmb190bn ($28bn) in annual revenues, Rmb600bn of assets and 180,000 employees. The group comprises 12 listed entities and dozens of smaller businesses ranging across tourism, property and logistics.
出身平平的海航集团，如今已经成长为一家年收入1900亿元人民币（合280亿美元）、资产达6000亿元人民币、拥有员工18万人的公司。该集团包含12家上市公司和数十家较小企业，遍布旅游、房地产和物流行业。广州航空翻译公司。
At the end of last year, it had 30 overseas operational entities in 16 countries and territories and had joined the Fortune Global 500 as the world’s 464th-largest company. This year, after a spate of dealmaking, it was ranked 353rd.
截至去年年底，该集团在16个国家和地区共拥有30家海外经营实体，跻身《财富》世界500强(Fortune Global 500)企业之列，位列第464位。今年，在完成了一连串的交易后，海航排在第353位。
“Even if there is appetite to continue expanding, there needs to be integration and group synergies,” says Will Horton, an aviation analyst at CAPA Centre for Aviation.
“尽管海航有继续扩张的胃口，但是它需要进行整合以及集团内部协同，”CAPA航空中心(CAPA Centre for Aviation)的航空业分析师威尔•霍顿(Will Horton)称。
“The group appeared too sprawling and unfocused even before the dizzying pace of deals over the past year.”
“即便是在过去一年令人目不暇接的收购举动前，该集团的范围似乎就已经太过庞大和分散。”
Sceptical analysts point to HNA’s $6bn purchase in February of Ingram Micro, a software company, and RocketSpace, a US start-up incubator in San Francisco, as evidence of its sometimes haphazard expansion.
持怀疑态度的分析师指出，海航集团于2月斥资60亿美元收购软件公司英迈(Ingram Micro)，后又收购位于旧金山的美国初创企业孵化器RocketSpace，便是它有时随意扩张的证据。广州航空翻译公司。
HNA’s defenders reply that the group’s international expansion is a rational response to the limits it faces at home, where the domestic aviation industry has long been dominated by the “big three” state airlines, Air China, China Eastern and China Southern.
该集团的维护者回应称，它进行国际扩张是对在国内受到限制的理性回应。中国国内的航空行业长久以来一直被中国国航(Air China)、东航(China Eastern)和南航(China Southern)“三大”国有航空公司主导。
“If there were no constraints in terms of government protectionism they would have taken over,” says the person close to HNA.
“如果国内不存在政府保护主义方面的限制，他们早就夺取市场了，”那位知情人士称。
“Most of the state airlines would have been wiped out. There were limits to their growth in aviation at home so they diversified internationally into other things over time.”
“多数国有航空公司会被淘汰。他们在国内航空业的发展受到限制，因此他们逐渐进行国际多元化发展，进入其他领域。”
One person involved in the Hilton transaction argues that the group’s most recent deal is a good example of its broader strategy.
一位参与此次希尔顿收购交易的人认为，该集团最近这笔交易很好地展现了它的整体战略。广州航空翻译公司。
“There is an industrial logic here,” he says. “HNA has the fourth-largest airline in China and the second-largest online travel agency. China is by far the fastest-growing hotel market in the world and it’s got by far the fastest-growing piece of outbound travel.”
“这其中存在一种产业逻辑，”他称，“海航集团拥有中国第四大航空公司和第二大在线旅游代理商。中国是全世界发展最快的酒店市场，以及发展最快的出境游市场。”
HNA has also developed a profitable aviation leasing business and now owns the largest for-hire jet fleet in China. In that sector, it paid $2.5bn last year for Ireland-based Avolon Holdings and topped that earlier this month with a $10bn bid for US-based CIT Group. The CIT deal will make HNA the world’s third-largest aircraft lessor.
海航集团还开发了赚钱的航空租赁业务，如今拥有中国最大的租赁机队。在该领域，它去年以25亿美元收购了位于爱尔兰的Avolon Holdings，后者又在本月早些时候出价100亿美元收购美国CIT Group。收购CIT将使海航集团成为全世界第三大飞机租赁商。
The spending spree has raised concerns among some overseas lenders about overall borrowing levels.
该集团的收购狂欢引起了一些海外银行对其整体债务水平的担忧。广州航空翻译公司。
“We don’t understand where HNA’s money is coming from,” says a senior foreign banker in China, whose credit committee colleagues are wary of lending to HNA. “They are spending a lot and investing in a lot of things. But it’s too much leverage. When we don’t understand something we don’t lend.”
“我们不明白海航集团的钱是从哪来的，”一名常驻中国的外国资深银行人士表示，他在信贷委员会的同事对向海航集团放贷很谨慎，“他们花钱很多，投资也很多。但是杠杆太高。当我们看不明白一些事时，我们不会发放贷款。”
But one HNA adviser counters: “The leverage is definitely high but it’s coming down. The group realises it overleveraged.”
但是海航集团一名顾问反驳道：“杠杆高是肯定的，但是已经在下降。集团意识到杠杆水平太高了。”
According to the adviser, HNA’s ratio of debt-to-earnings before interest, tax, deprecation and amortisation at group level was 17 in 2012, 12 in 2015 and will be reduced further this year.
据该顾问表示，2012年整个集团的债务是息税折旧及摊销前利润(EBITDA)的17倍，2015年为12倍，今年还将进一步降低。广州航空翻译公司。
Group liquidity rose to $19bn in the first half of this year, boosted by several capital raisings by its Chinese-listed entities.
由于该集团旗下中国上市公司的几次融资，今年上半年海航集团的流动性资金增至190亿美元。
A rights issue by Hainan Airlines cut its gearing — borrowings as a percentage of equity — from 207 per cent to 150 per cent. Gearing also declined from 359 per cent to 280 per cent at the group’s infrastructure investment arm after a restructuring.
海南航空的一次增发将其负债权益比率——负债与权益之比——从207%降低至150%。在一次重组后，海航集团的基础设施投资部门的负债权益比率也从359%下降至280%。
Chinese banks appear to have fewer concerns. In May, China Construction Bank agreed to provide a Rmb30bn line of credit to HNA. In a statement at the time, the group said that “various banks have provided credit facilities of over Rmb530bn”.
中国的银行似乎没那么担忧。5月，中国建设银行(CCB)同意向海航集团提供300亿元人民币的授信额度。在当时发表的声明中，该集团称多家银行对海航集团的总授信额度已超过5300亿元。广州航空翻译公司。
HNA has over-invested before. The global aviation slump after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, exacerbated by the spread of the Sars virus across Asia two years later, inspired it to diversify into shipping. HNA amassed a number of shipyards and a fleet of 97 vessels, both chartered and owned. Soon after that the industry entered a deep downturn, which forced HNA to shed many of its acquisitions.
海航集团此前也曾投资过度。2001年9•11恐袭后，全球航空业陷入低迷，两年后亚洲爆发的非典疫情使形势进一步恶化，这激发该集团向货运领域多元化拓展。海航集团拥有了多家造船厂，并建起了一支由97艘租赁和自有船只组成的船队。随后，该行业很快进入了深度衰退，这迫使海航集团将收购的许多资产出手。
At the centre of the storm was China Grand Logistics, a heavily indebted HNA subsidiary that was the owner of China’s first domestically operated cruise ship.
处于风暴中心的是大新华物流(Grand China Logistics)。它是海航集团旗下一家负债累累的子公司，拥有中国首艘国内运营的邮轮。
Its financial difficulties spilled into the open in 2013 when a rival Chinese company asked South Korean authorities to impound the MS Henna on Jeju island. HNA had to deploy jets to repatriate the 1,600 passengers on board. HNA Cruises suspended operations in 2015 and the Henna was sold for scrap in June.
2013年，大新华物流的财务困难问题公开，当时与之竞争的一家中国企业要求韩国政府在济州岛扣押“海娜号”(MS Henna)。海航集团不得不派出飞机将船上1600名乘客接回国。2015年，海航邮轮(HNA Cruises)停止运营，“海娜号”今年6月拟出售拆解。广州航空翻译公司。
“They got heavily into bulk carriers and charter ships,” says a Hong Kong-based shipping executive who has dealt with HNA. “They’d crowd into things, grew too big too fast and in the end they got caught. They got caught big because they went in big.”
“他们在散装货船和船舶租赁上投入太大，”一名驻香港、与海航集团打过交道的航运高管称，“他们一拥而上，发展太快，规模过大，最终被套牢。被深深套牢就是因为他们做太大了。”
