西方銀行爭(zhēng)搶“一帶一路”蛋糕

Their political leaders may be refusing to endorse China’s Belt and Road Initiative, but British and US banks are still rushing to seize opportunities thrown up by Beijing’s vast investment in the “new silk road” trade corridors spanning 65 countries.

西方政治領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人或許仍拒絕支持中國(guó)的“一帶一路”倡議(BRI)，但英美銀行急于抓住北京方面大舉投資覆蓋65個(gè)國(guó)家的“新絲綢之路”貿(mào)易走廊所帶來(lái)的機(jī)遇。

The hundreds of billions of dollars China has committed to trade and infrastructure projects across much of central and south-east Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa has whetted the appetite of big western banks with operations in those areas, such as Citigroup, HSBC and Standard Chartered.

中國(guó)承諾在中亞和東南亞、中東、歐洲和非洲大片地區(qū)的貿(mào)易和基建項(xiàng)目上投入的數(shù)千億美元，激起了花旗集團(tuán)(Citigroup)、匯豐(HSBC)、渣打(Standard Chartered)等在這些地區(qū)有業(yè)務(wù)的大型西方銀行的興趣。

“It’s huge — the private sector capital that comes in afterwards will be really impactful, assuming it all happens,” says Bill Winters, chief executive of Standard Chartered. “Our job is to try and pull the different pieces together, because there will be some local financing that is required as well.”

“(機(jī)會(huì))巨大——如果一切按計(jì)劃實(shí)現(xiàn)的話(huà)，隨之而來(lái)的私人部門(mén)資本將非常有影響力，”渣打行政總裁溫拓思(Bill Winters)說(shuō)，“我們的工作就是嘗試穿針引線，把不同的碎片湊成一塊拼圖，因?yàn)檫€必須有一些當(dāng)?shù)氐娜谫Y。”

The big banks have held conferences on BRI, appointed senior bankers to champion their role in the initiative and set up committees to co-ordinate their approaches across different business activities. They say these efforts are bearing fruit, listing dozens of financing deals they have won that are related in some way to the project.

這些大型銀行舉行了關(guān)于“一帶一路”的會(huì)議，任命資深銀行家為他們?cè)谶@項(xiàng)倡議中爭(zhēng)取有利角色，還設(shè)立了委員會(huì)來(lái)協(xié)調(diào)跨越不同業(yè)務(wù)活動(dòng)的戰(zhàn)略。他們表示這些努力正在取得成果，并列出了已經(jīng)贏得的與“一帶一路”多少相關(guān)的數(shù)十項(xiàng)融資交易。

Gerry Keefe, head of corporate banking in Asia-Pacific at Citigroup, says: “Our multinational clients — both from the US and in Asia — see the Belt and Road Initiative as a generational opportunity to expand the scale and reach of their businesses.”

花旗亞太區(qū)企業(yè)銀行業(yè)務(wù)主管杰瑞•基夫(Gerry Keefe)表示：“我行的跨國(guó)客戶(hù)——無(wú)論是來(lái)自美國(guó)還是在亞洲——都把‘一帶一路’倡議視為一代人難遇的良機(jī)，能夠擴(kuò)大業(yè)務(wù)規(guī)模和觸角范圍。”

Despite their public enthusiasm, however, nagging doubts exist among western bankers about whether BRI will provide the instant bonanza that some may have initially hoped.

然而，盡管西方銀行家們?cè)诠_(kāi)場(chǎng)合熱情高漲，但對(duì)于“一帶一路”能否像某些人最初希望的那樣立即帶來(lái)效益，他們?nèi)孕拇嬉蓱]。

Their position is undermined by the ambivalence of their own governments towards the initiative. Theresa May refused to give written support to the project during the UK prime minister’s trip to China last month, while the US has viewed it with suspicion, particularly since president Donald Trump’s designation of China as a “strategic competitor”.

他們的地位被本國(guó)政府對(duì)這一倡議的矛盾態(tài)度削弱。英國(guó)首相特里薩•梅(Theresa May)上月訪華期間拒絕簽署支持“一帶一路”倡議的諒解備忘錄，美國(guó)則對(duì)該倡議持懷疑態(tài)度，尤其是因?yàn)樘萍{德•特朗普(Donald Trump)總統(tǒng)將中國(guó)列為“戰(zhàn)略競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手”。

The vagueness of the project invites scepticism. “It is pretty broad: based on what Beijing has put out it covers half the world,” says another western banker. “It is just part of China’s outbound policy. I don’t know any BRI bankers. I don’t even know what they are.”

“一帶一路”倡議的模糊性使其招致懷疑。“它相當(dāng)寬泛：基于中國(guó)政府所發(fā)布的內(nèi)容，它覆蓋了半個(gè)地球，”另一位西方銀行家表示，“它只是中國(guó)走出去政策的一部分。我不認(rèn)識(shí)任何‘一帶一路’銀行家。我甚至不知道他們是什么。”

Western banking executives also say they are leaving the big state-sponsored infrastructure projects to local banks and development finance institutions. Instead they are focused on picking up ancillary business, such as providing foreign exchange, trade finance, interest rate swaps, or cash management to the multinational companies that work on projects.

西方銀行業(yè)高管還表示，他們把國(guó)家支持的大型基建項(xiàng)目留給本地銀行和發(fā)展金融機(jī)構(gòu)，自己聚焦于爭(zhēng)取配套業(yè)務(wù)，比如向從事“一帶一路”項(xiàng)目的跨國(guó)公司提供外匯兌換、貿(mào)易融資、利率互換或現(xiàn)金管理等服務(wù)。

Citigroup has led large bond issues for Bank of China and Beijing Gas to finance their BRI plans. It has also won cash management and foreign exchange hedging contracts for several Fortune 500 companies operating on BRI projects.

花旗集團(tuán)牽頭安排了中國(guó)銀行(Bank of China)和北京燃?xì)?Beijing Gas)的大宗債券發(fā)行工作，為它們參與的“一帶一路”項(xiàng)目融資?；ㄆ爝€獲得了多家參與“一帶一路”項(xiàng)目的《財(cái)富》(Fortune) 500強(qiáng)公司的現(xiàn)金管理業(yè)務(wù)和外匯對(duì)沖合約。

StanChart is set to highlight its strong position for BRI business when it reports annual results on Tuesday as this is a key part of its plan to generate the revenue growth necessary to achieve its target of making a return on equity above 10 per cent.

渣打在本周二報(bào)告年度業(yè)績(jī)時(shí)，將著重介紹該行在“一帶一路”相關(guān)業(yè)務(wù)上的強(qiáng)大地位。這些業(yè)務(wù)是該行營(yíng)收增長(zhǎng)計(jì)劃的關(guān)鍵部分，目標(biāo)是實(shí)現(xiàn)10%以上的股本回報(bào)率。

The bank lists 20 financing deals it has won in the past four years that are linked to BRI. These include a $515m project financing for a power plant in Zambia that was guaranteed by China; a $200m loan for a Bangladesh electricity plant being built by a Chinese consortium; and a $42m export credit facility for a Sri Lanka gas terminal that was guaranteed by China.

渣打列出了過(guò)去4年期間贏得的與“一帶一路”相關(guān)的20筆融資交易。這些交易包括為贊比亞一家發(fā)電廠提供的5.15億美元項(xiàng)目融資(中國(guó)提供擔(dān)保);為一個(gè)中國(guó)財(cái)團(tuán)承建的一家孟加拉國(guó)發(fā)電廠提供2億美元項(xiàng)目貸款;為斯里蘭卡一個(gè)天然氣碼頭提供4200萬(wàn)美元出口信貸安排(中國(guó)提供擔(dān)保)。

But Ben Hung, head of Greater China and North Asia at StanChart, says investors will need to be patient. “You have to look at it in a 10 to 20-year horizon — things won’t happen in one or two years,” he says.

渣打銀行大中華及北亞地區(qū)主管洪丕正(Benjamin Hung)表示，投資者將需要耐心等待。他說(shuō)，“你必須用10到20年的長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)眼光來(lái)看待——不是一兩年內(nèi)就會(huì)出結(jié)果。”

“People excessively focus on whether there needs to be project financing, but in reality there is a lot of that and bit by bit, step by step, guarantees, FX, escrow accounts, etc — all those things — are very important to these Chinese players.”

“人們念念不忘是否需要項(xiàng)目融資，但現(xiàn)實(shí)是有很大需求;一點(diǎn)一點(diǎn)，一步一步，擔(dān)保、外匯、托管賬戶(hù)等所有這一切對(duì)這些中國(guó)參與者都非常重要。”