[转帖] ［2011.02.04 ] Dusk for the patriarchs 垂暮之年的掌舵人

showcraft

http://www.ecocn.org/thread-45235-1-1.html
Chinese family businesses
中国家族式生意

Dusk for the patriarchs
垂暮之年的掌舵人

As ageing tycoons die, their heirs are feuding and their empires are at risk
当年迈的巨头们死去时，他们的继承人就开始纷争产权，其商业帝国也随之危机四伏

Feb 3rd 2011 | HONG KONG | from PRINT EDITION
2011年2月3日 |  香港  | 打印版



COMPANIES can survive for hundreds of years. Their founders cannot. Hence the problem that eventually faces all family-owned firms: how to hand over from one generation to the next. In Stanley Ho’s case, the transition is proving stormy.

企业能生存数百年，但它们的创办人却不能。因此所有的家族企业最终需要面对这样的问题：如何将企业世代传递。以何鸿燊家族企业为例，其产权的交接却历经风雨。

Mr Ho is the gambling king of Macau: the founder of an empire that includes casinos, ferries, an airline, hotels and commercial property. He is also 89 years old, in poor health and less lucid than he once was. His four families are fighting like harpies over his assets, which are held within an array of complex structures.

何生是澳门博采业之王：他建立的商业帝国经营着赌场，船渡业，航班，酒店和商业地产。已年届89岁高龄的他身体状况堪忧，思维也不如以往那么敏捷清晰。他的资产盘根错节的掌控在他的四个家族成员手中，并被他们贪噬地争夺着。

It is messy: Mr Ho (pictured, with his third wife and their daughter) had four concurrent “wives” in a territory that does not recognise polygamy. Three are still alive, plus at least 16 children. Mr Ho apparently had a stroke in 2009, prompting his relatives to start struggling for control.

复杂的家庭状况：在不承认一夫多妻的香港,何生（图中为他的第三任太太和他们的女儿）拥有四房太太。至今仍有三位太太健在，他们的子女达到16人之多。2009年何先生身患中风，促使他的家人开始争夺产权。

Their feud has become a YouTube sensation. Every few days, a wheelchair-bound Mr Ho issues a statement that contradicts his previous one: either accusing his relatives of robbery or exonerating them. Throngs of Hong Kongers have joined the journalists outside the family’s many opulent residences, straining for the latest whispers. Two photographers have had their feet run over by limousines.

他们的纷争在YouTube网上掀起轰动效应。每隔数日，只能靠轮椅活动的何生就会发表一份与之前相抵触的声明：内容无非是指控他的家族成员抢夺他的财产，再不就是为他们的行为开脱免责。成群的香港人也加入新闻记者行列，守候在这个家族诸多豪宅门外，极力打探最新的消息。在此事件中，两名摄影师的双脚就曾被豪华轿车车轮碾压过。

The Ho saga has prompted fresh scrutiny of other firms that will soon face succession tussles. A major investor in two of Mr Ho’s Macau companies (one controlling casinos, the other ferries) is Cheng Yu-tung, 85, who runs his own swelling conglomerate, New World Development, with unresolved succession issues.

何家的一系列争产事件已引发对即将面临继承纷争的其它公司全新的审视。85岁的郑裕彤是何生在澳门两间公司的主要投资人（一家是赌场，另一家是船渡业），他自己旗下的新世界发展集团公司正积极扩张，同样也面临未决的继承问题。

At Sun Hung Kai, Hong Kong’s largest property owner, the succession seemed settled in 1990 with the death of the founder and management passing to his three sons. But turmoil erupted in 2008 when the founder’s then 79-year-old widow, Kwong Siu-hing, emerged as the true power, pushing out her eldest son, Walter, who had been chief executive. On Sun Hung Kai’s board sits Lee Shau-kee, 82, who runs another property company, Henderson Land, with its own succession issues.

新鸿基是香港最大的地产开发商，早在1990年随着企业创始人的故去和管理权分配给他的三个儿子，家族企业的继承问题似乎已得到解决。但在2008年，该家族企业创办人的遗孀邝肖卿突然发难将其时任行政总裁的大儿子沃尔特 Walter排挤出局，成为公司实权人物。新鸿基董事会中82岁高龄的李绍基自己经营的恒基兆业地产开发公司，也同样存在着财产继承的问题。

Any talk in Hong Kong about succession soon touches upon Li Ka-shing, 82, the territory’s richest resident, whose empire encompasses utilities and property. Much of his wealth has been pledged to charity, but no one knows who will run his firms when Mr Li dies. When he was abruptly hospitalised in 2006, shares in his listed companies immediately sank.

在香港，任何与继承权相关的话题都很快会牵扯到香港首富李嘉诚，他的商业帝国涵盖了公用事业和地产。他的大部分财产都拨捐给慈善组织，但李先生死后其公司归谁运作却始终无人知晓。他于2006年突然入院后，他名下公司的股价立刻缩水。



Many Hong Kong tycoons are getting old (see table). Typically, their fortunes date back to the early post-war years, when Hong Kong was a desolate rock, Macau was in decline and Singapore was a swamp. They built empires while keeping tight personal control, often using bewildering interlinked corporate structures.

香港许多商业巨头们正逐渐老去（见表）。尤其是他们的财富都来源于战后的初期，当时香港还是荒凉的孤岛，澳门日渐衰退，而新加坡经济也是一片沼泽地带。他们建立了自己的商业帝国，同时在人事控制上经常采用令人困惑错综复杂的公司架构进行严格管理。

Within a few years, dozens of publicly listed (but family-controlled) Asian companies will change hands. If history is any guide, the process will hurt, says Joseph Fan, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. A study he jointly conducted of 250 companies in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore controlled by Chinese families found that successions tended to coincide with tremendous destruction of value (see chart).

数年内，诸多亚洲上市公司（实为家族企业）将面临易手交接。香港中文大学教授范博宏(Joseph Fan)说，如果历史可以做为参考，那么其进程将阵痛难免。他对香港，台湾和新加坡的250家中国家族企业进行了联合研究后发现家族企业的继承总是伴随着巨大的财产贬值(见图)。



There are exceptions. Sir Run Run Shaw, a 103-year-old media mogul, appears to be retiring in peace. On January 26th he announced that he would sell his controlling stake in TVB, Hong Kong’s largest television network, for more than $1 billion. It was the last public link to an empire that once included the largest private film studio in the world. Mr Shaw retired from active management on his 100th birthday, in favour of a much younger manager, his then 77-year-old second wife, Mona Fong.

凡事也总有例外。年届103岁的媒体巨头邵逸夫先生的隐退似乎就显得风平浪静。今年1月26日，他就宣布将自己持有的TVB股份出让。做为香港最大的电视网络运营机构的TVB，其市值超过10多亿美元。这家与公众息息相关并曾经拥有世界最大私人电影公司的家族帝国也将成为过去。在邵先生100岁寿辰时，他从一线管理层退下来，转而支持比他更年轻的管理者，他的第二任太太77岁的方逸华（Mona Fong）小姐。

Many patriarchs built their fortunes with risky bets: movies, the first casino, manufacturing. But many have shifted into merely collecting rents from property and related businesses (ports, hotels, retail) or from government concessions (electricity, telecommunications, gas, casino licences).

许多家族创办人都靠风险赌注积累他们的财富：电影业，第一家赌场，制造业。但是他们当中的许多已转为只靠收取地产和相关业务（港口，酒店，零售）的租金或从政府特许权（电力，通讯天然气，赌场牌照中）获利。

The simplicity of the underlying businesses may account for the ferocity of the family battles—it is not hard to make money if you own a casino near mainland China these days. However, in areas that are genuinely competitive, such as banking, Hong Kong’s family firms have been largely elbowed aside by multinationals.

低端商业生意的易经营特点可以解释家族成员为它们而激烈争夺的原因—现在要是在中国大陆附近拥有一家赌场，想要赚到大钱绝非难事。然而在竞争真正存在的地区，比如银行业, 香港的家族企业却一直受到跨国公司的排挤。

Patriarchs add value in two ways that do not appear on balance-sheets, says Mr Fan. Their reputation ensures that banks will lend money to their companies. And their relationships with government are often lucrative. Alas, these strengths are hard to bequeath to one’s children. Which is why some Asian empires will struggle to outlive their founders.

范先生说家族企业创办人有两种方法为其财产增值，这在资产表上体现不出来。他们的声誉确保银行愿意为其公司贷款。他们与政府的关系经常让他们有利可图。可惜的是，这些影响力很难传给他的子女们。这就是为什么一些亚洲家族帝国竭尽努力使其企业寿命长过其创办人。

from PRINT EDITION | Business