[2008.08.16] 上海证券交易所：巨龙重现

The Shanghai Stock Exchange
上海证券交易所

Re-enter the dragon
巨龙重现

Aug 14th 2008 | HONG KONG
From The Economist print edition

After almost 70 years, Shanghai’s stock exchange is reopening to the world
历经近七十年，上交所再次向世界开放

FROM the 1860s until the Japanese invasion of China in 1941, Shanghai’s bustling stockmarket listed not only domestic companies but also foreign firms, such as those now known as HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank, which operated out of the international concession. When trading resumed in 1992, only domestic firms could list. But many foreign ones have been eager to join them, and after a change in securities laws announced on August 6th, some may now have the chance.

从18世纪60年代直至1941年日本侵华，中国企业和受到国际庇护的外资企业，如汇丰和渣打银行竞相在如日中天的上海股市上市。当1992年恢复贸易，只有中国企业可以上市。但众多外商一直急于加入上海资本市场。8月6日宣布的关于证券法的一系列改革似乎让他们看到了曙光。

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) hopes to be the first foreign firm to list in Shanghai, and may have the blessing of the regulators, according to Chinese press reports. But there is competition. HSBC and Standard Chartered are also reportedly angling to return, and other big banks have put out feelers.

据中国的新闻报道，纽约证券交易所（ NYSE ）希望成为第一家在上海上市的外国公司，它也受到监管机构的青睐。但竞争依旧存在。报道说汇丰和渣打开始抛锚回归，同时其他的大型银行也跃跃欲试。

Had the opening come in 2007 when the Shanghai market was riding a wave of euphoria for much of the year, the motivation for a listing by any Western company would have been self-evident: money-and lots of it. Conditions, however, have nosedived. Corporate profits may have risen since but share prices are down by half, and there is little appetite left to provide capital to domestic companies.

要不是2007年开始对外资公司上市的开放，当时的上海市场行情一片叫好，令人欢欣，任何中国西部公司的上市动机不会如此明显：钱，很多很多钱。然而行情一落再落。公司的利润可能会上升，但由于股票价格下跌了一半，造成众多国内企业不愿涉足股市。

The first foreign firms to list may be luckier, however, because they offer Chinese investors a rare opportunity to diversify into non-Chinese shares. With lower portfolio risk, local investors would also theoretically be able to pay more for Chinese companies, says William Goetzmann, a professor at Yale University who has published a rare paper on the pre-war ties between China’s financial markets and the rest of the world.

然而，首家上市的外国公司依然很幸运，因为他们提供给中国投资者一个将资本市场外资多元化难得的契机。耶鲁大学William Goetzmann教授先前就战前中国金融市场与世界的关系上发表了一篇独一无二的论文。他认为较低的投资组合风险使本地投资者在理论上能够向中国公司投入更多的资本。

For the newcomers, there would be many potential benefits including, above all, in marketing themselves to the Chinese. For example, just as a listing by the NYSE would confer some status on Shanghai, so would it also encourage Chinese firms to use New York’s main exchange as their market of choice. (The big state-owned ones have largely ignored the Big Board since a listing in 2003 by China Life, an insurance firm, was met by a barrage of American lawsuits, partly because of poor disclosure.) The NYSE’s own members may also find it easier to list in China. As a fringe benefit, it may be able to sell China its trading technology. For other companies, the shares issued in China could be used as a form of currency to provide performance-linked pay to local employees, as well as to buy Chinese companies.

对于初涉中国资产市场的外资，将在向中国人自我营销的过程获得很多潜在的好处，其中包括上述所有。举例来说，正如一家公司在纽约证券交易上市后将赋予其在上海更高地地位，同时这也会鼓励中国企业将纽约交易所作为其市场选择。（自2003年上市的保险公司中国人寿由于信息不透明，接二连三地遭到美方诉讼后，一些大的国有企业在很大程度上地不再考虑在大型资本市场上市 ）。纽约证券交易所的上市公司也会发现在中国更容易上市。同时一附带利益是它可以向中国出售其贸易技术。对于其他公司，其在中国发行的股份可被用来作某种形式的货币，通过绩效考核发给当地雇员，抑或用来购买中国公司。

But there are pitfalls. Exchange rules may permit the Chinese authorities to attend the board meetings of listed companies, something that might not bother the NYSE, which does not face competition from Chinese exchanges in its home markets of Europe or America, but would probably horrify a global bank. More importantly, the financial barriers that surround China’s economy, such as its closed capital account, restrictions on currency trading, and prohibition on short-selling, mean that shares in China trade at different prices from those with identical rights listed on other overseas exchanges.

但这也有缺陷。交易规则可允许中国当局出席上市公司的董事会，这可能不会对纽约证券交易所造成困扰，目前它不用面对来自中国交易所对其在其欧洲或美国的本土市场展开的竞争。但这可能会使一全球性银行惊慌失措。更重要的是，中国经济的金融壁垒，如其封闭的资本帐户，对货币交易的限制，和禁止卖空，意味着在中国的股权交易与其他海外交易市场确定权益后的价格有所不同。

That kind of trading inefficiency looks bad for China and would be an embarrassment for the NYSE, which prides itself on its ability to price shares cleanly. To solve it, the potential entrants are considering how to issue other types of shares known as depository receipts-but that is complicated by China’s trading and capital restrictions. To find a solution, they may have to help China to liberalise its financial markets even further. That would not only benefit the foreigners, but China too-which is probably the main reason it is courting them in the first place.

这种低效率交易对于中国很糟，同时却让以其清理股价能力而自豪的纽约证券交易所陷入尴尬。为了解决这个问题，潜在的加入者正考虑如何发行其他类型的股份，被称为存托凭证收益-不过中国对贸易和资本的限制让它变得异常复杂。要找到解决办法，他们可能帮助中国进一步开放其金融市场。这将不仅有利于外国人，更是利于中国-这可能是将讨好外资摆在首位主要的原因。

译者：santclaire    http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=13355&pid=83983&page=1&extra=#pid83983