【中英互译】能源跟争－欧洲公用事业掀起合并风潮.doc

《经济学家》读译参考 Translated Edited by Chen Jilong PAGE Page PAGE 1 of NUMPAGES 4 European utilities欧洲公用事业 Power struggles 能源之争（陈继龙 编译） Nov 30th 2006 From The Economist print edition Political and business interests collide as Europes energy firms consolidate 欧洲能源公司合并引发政治与商业利益冲突。 “WE expected a wave—but what happened was a tsunami,” says Emmanuel Turpin, a utilities analyst at Morgan Stanley, an investment bank. Energy-industry insiders predicted a series of mergers and acquisitions in European utilities at the beginning of this year. But hardly anyone expected the announcement in February of two of the biggest-ever takeovers in corporate Europe: the bid for Endesa, a Spanish electricity company, by E.ON, a German power giant; and the merger of Gaz de France (GDF), a French gas firm, and Suez, another French utility. 摩根斯坦利投资银行的公用事业分析专家伊曼纽尔?特尔平说：“我们本来期待的是一阵浪潮，可发生的却是一场海啸。”能源产业内部人士早就预言今年伊始欧洲公用事业将实施一连串的并购，但今年2月公诸于众的两宗迄今为止欧洲最大的并购案却是大多数人始料未及的：一个是德国能源巨头E.ON公司竞购西班牙Endesa电力公司，另一个是法国燃气公司（GDF）与另一家法国公用事业公司Suez的合并。 The latest takeover in the industry, announced this week, is smaller, less spectacular and not much of a surprise. Iberdrola, a Spanish electricity company, announced on November 28th its euro17.2 billion ($22.5 billion) bid for Scottish Power, a British utility. Compared with the E.ON bid, now valued at euro37 billion, and the euro78 billion merger of Suez and GDF, the deal looks like small beer. （1）Yet the acquisition will create one of Europes six biggest utilities and a world leader in renewable energy. And in striking contrast to the two bigger deals, which are bogged down[1] in legal and political quagmires, it is likely to proceed smoothly. 相比之下，本周宣布的能源产业最近一次并购则比较小，不太引人注目，而且也不怎么出人意料。11月28日，西班牙Iberdrola电力公司宣布将以172亿欧元（约合225亿美元）收购英国公用事业公司Scottish Power。相比E.ON竞购案（现价已达370亿欧元）及苏伊士与GDF之间780亿欧元的合并案，这笔交易看上去似乎微不足道，不过本次并购将造就一个跻身欧洲前六位的大型公用事业公司及全球可再生能源先锋。而且，与陷入法律和政治泥潭而停滞不前的前述两单大买卖形成鲜明对比的是，这一次有可能一帆风顺。 （2）The catalyst for the frenetic[2] merger activity