TE||Blocked transfer
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导读
蚂蚁金服放弃收购速汇金
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音乐| 精读 | 翻译 | 词组
Blocked Transfer
交易受阻
本文英文部分选自经济学人Leaders版块
China’s Ant Financial is obliged to abandon an American acquisition
中国蚂蚁金服不得不放弃美国收购
“THE geopolitical environment has changed considerably since…a year ago.” That was the explanation given this week by Alex Holmes, chief executive of MoneyGram International, a Dallas-based American money-transfer firm, for Ant Financial abandoning its $1.2bn deal to buy his firm. Ant, the online-payments affiliate of Alibaba Group, a Chinese e-commerce giant, had outbid Euronet, an American rival, in 2017 and secured the approval of MoneyGram’s board for the acquisition. In normal times, Ant would have secured the prize.
“自…一年前地缘政治环境发生了很大的变化。” 这是本周速汇金国际公司（一家位于德拉斯的美国汇款公司）总裁Alex Holmes对蚂蚁金服放弃12亿美金收购速汇金事件的解释。蚂蚁金服，中国电子商务巨头阿里巴巴集团旗下的在线支付机构，2017年竞标击败美国竞争对手Euronet取得了速汇金董事会对收购的认可。在正常时期，蚂蚁将得偿所愿。
PS：MoneyGram International, 速汇金国际有限公司创立于1926年，总部位于美国德州达拉斯，全职雇员2,820人，是一家全球性付款服务公司，也是仅次于西联汇款的全球第二大汇款机构，服务包括全球汇款、汇票和支付服务，在全球190多个国家和地区拥有近20万个网点。
But it is up against a rising tide of anti-China sentiment in Washington, DC. Donald Trump has often argued that China does not play fair in global commerce. The sense that China and its companies are not to be trusted is spreading on Capitol Hill, too. Ant’s bid was blocked by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a government body reporting to the Treasury. It reviews such deals for national-security implications. Two congressmen claimed that approving Ant’s purchase of MoneyGram might allow “malicious actors” to get hold of financial data belonging to American soldiers and their families.
然而，目前正面临着华盛顿反华情绪的升温。特朗普总统时常争辩说，中国在全球贸易中不按规矩办事。不能轻信中国及其企业的观念也传到了美国国会。蚂蚁金服的出价遭到了美国外国投资委员会（CFIUS）的阻挠。该委员会隶属于美国财政部，会出于国家安全的考虑对此类交易进行审查。两名国会议员声称，若批准蚂蚁金服收购速汇金，很有可能使得“恶意破坏者”能够掌握到美国士兵及其家庭的金融数据。
注：A malicious actor： is an entity that is partially or wholly responsible for an incident that impacts – or has the potential to impact -- an organization's security.
Alibaba seemed the least likely of Chinese firms to encounter a backlash in America. Alipay, Ant’s online-payment offering, has already entered into partnerships with Verifone and First Data, two American payments firms , and is accepted at some 175,000 locations in the country. In January 2017 Jack Ma, its charismatic boss, met with then President-elect Trump and promised to create a million American jobs through crossborder e-commerce. News of the deal for MoneyGram came shortly afterwards.
阿里巴巴似乎是最不可能在美国遭遇反对浪潮的中国企业。支付宝，蚂蚁金服旗下的线上支付服务，已经与惠尔丰和第一资讯集团(两家美国支付公司)建立了合作关系，并被美国约17.5万个终端所接受（可以使用）。2017年1月，作为阿里巴巴富有魅力的老板，马云会见了时任总统特朗普，并且承诺通过跨境电子商务创造100万个美国就业机会。不久之后就传出了有关速汇金业务这笔交易的消息。
注：1. VeriFone（惠尔丰）是全球领先的安全电子支付解决方案的供应商，为金融机构、商户及消费者提供借记卡、信用卡、智能卡及互联网交易方面的硬件、软件和服务。http://www.verifone.cn/
2.美国第一资讯集团（FirstData，简称FDC）是美国一家著名的金融行业资讯服务公司，为全球数十个国家的金融机构和商户提供电子商务和支付服务，是全球500强企业之一。
https://www.firstdata.com/en_cn/home.html
This week’s decision is not just a blow for Alibaba. It is another sign of a deteriorating environment for Chinese firms in America. The Ant deal is the most prominent transaction blocked by CFIUS recently, but it is not the only one. In September Mr Trump sided with CFIUS to stop China’s Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, a government-backed investment firm, from acquiring America’s Lattice Semiconductor, a tech firm. In November, China Oceanwide Holdings said that it would delay the deadline for closing its $2.7bn takeover of Genworth Financial, an American insurer, until April due to problems with CFIUS.
本周的决定不仅仅是对阿里巴巴的打击。这也是中国企业在美国环境恶化的另一个迹象。蚂蚁并购事宜是最近被CFIUS封锁的最重要的交易，但并不是唯一的。去年 9月份，特朗普支持CFIUS（美国外资投资委员会），阻止中国政府支持的投资公司Canyon Bridge Capital Partners（中资背景私募基金峡谷桥）收购Lattice Semiconductor（美国莱迪思半导体公司）。去年11月份，Oceanwide Holdings（中国泛海控股）表示，由于CFIUS（美国外资投资委员会）的问题，它将延迟完成27亿美元收购Genworth Financial（Genworth金融）一家美国保险公司的截止日期，这将持续到今年4月份。
A thaw looks unlikely. Bipartisan efforts are now under way in Congress to grant CFIUS broader powers still to block foreign investment in American companies, especially by Chinese investors. Euronet, meanwhile, which hails from nearby Kansas, has seen its warnings about the dangers of handing American data to Chinese companies pay off. It may now rebid for MoneyGram.
破冰看上去可能性不大。两党势力仍影响着国会给与CFIUS更大的权利，以阻止境外对美国公司的投资，尤其中国投资客。同时，来自于堪萨斯附近的Euronet已经看到了将美国数据交给中国企业引起的危险警告。它可能会重新竞标速汇金。
翻译组：
Ema, 女，外贸民工，经济学人粉丝
Tru ，女，金融民工，经济学人粉丝
Button，男，自由职业，经济学人爱好者
Grace，女，建筑民工，经济学人粉丝
校核组：
Lulu ，女，金融民工，经济学人粉丝
Vambie，女，互联网民工，经济学人粉丝
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观点 |评论|思考
美国外资投资委员会（CFIUS)称出于国家安全角度考虑否决了蚂蚁金服收购速汇金这项交易。而实际上蚂蚁金服已经做过承诺，速汇金的数据基础设施将保留在美国，用户信息将被加密或保存在美国安全的设施内。所以安全这个理由貌似特别扯淡，但是仔细分析确实如此。
首先我们来缕一缕，蚂蚁金服的前身是什么？支付宝。那么支付宝和阿里巴巴的关系又是什么？支付宝是从阿里巴巴里分离出来的。那么阿里巴巴那么好的公司，支付宝为什么要分离出来呢？这个问题我们等下回答
我们先来看一段文章后面的一段评论。
Jack Ma and Alibaba stole Alipay and Ant Financial from America's Yahoo.com. Yahoo had a 40% ownership and Jack Ma used China's lawlessness to rewrite the agreement. He forced Yahoo to take little for their shares and took Alipay with no payment to Yahoo shareholders. If Alibaba was an American company Jack Ma would be put in jail for theft. Lets not forget the past just because Mr. Ma and Alibaba got away with it. I am thrilled by this American decision. More should be done to level the playing field with China. This is what The Economist wrote on the subject in 2011:
https://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2011/05/yahoo_and_alibaba
评论中提及的经济学人2011年5月份的关于雅虎与阿里巴巴的文章，主要讲述的是当年马大大在大股东不知情的情况下把支付宝转给了由他自己控股的公司（浙江阿里），最后给出的理由是政府规定只有全内资公司才能申请支付牌照。最后文中说到China's politics are complex and either by law or procedure, it appears the payment business is yet another bit of the Chinese market that will be hard for a foreigner to crack. 意味深长，总结一下：出于安全考虑。
再联系最近的蚂蚁金服收购速汇金失败，美国给出的理由也是一样一样的，从中我们可以得出一个结论：金融乃国之重器，绝对不允许外人把持，当年阿里的大股东是软银和雅虎，如果不把支付宝从阿里里面“解救”出来，谁也不能保证软银背后没有日本政府的影子，或者雅虎背后没有美国政府的影子，中国人口众多，放到现在，所有支付消费数据，一旦泄露无疑将是一场灾难。细及恐思，支付宝之所以独立出来，小编觉得当年一定是有“超人”指点，具体是谁？这个问题留给大家。
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愿景
小组
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