Sinopec typifies China’s state-owned industrial sector: it is huge, sprawling and needs cash. Should investors pay heed now that Sinopec is opening itself up to outside capital?

中石化(Sinopec)体现了中国国企的典型特点：规模巨大、业务庞杂、并且需要资金。如今，中石化打算向外部资金开放，这是否值得投资者予以关注？

The company, Asia’s biggest oil refiner, reported annual revenues of $438bn in 2012 and operates an empire spanning convenience stores, property and hotels, in addition to chemicals, power plants and, of course, oil products.

中石化是亚洲最大的石油精炼商，财报显示，其2012年取得营收4380亿美元。它经营着一个庞大的帝国，除了化工、电厂，当然了，还有石油产品以外，旗下业务还包括便利店、房地产、酒店。

But like most of China’s state-owned enterprises – hundreds of which have raised trillions of dollars through listing shares in Hong Kong and China since the market opened in 1990 – about threequarters of its equity is in state hands.

但如中国大多数国企一样，中石化约四分之三的股份掌握在国家手中。自上世纪90年代开放市场以来，有数百家国企通过在香港和内地上市筹集了数万亿美元的资金。

Hence the paradox at the heart of privatisation, Chinese style: SOEs want to gain capital without relinquishing control. It is a conundrum that is again under scrutiny as Sinopec and a handful of others embark on a fresh round of capital raising.

于是出现了国企私有化中的中国式核心悖论：国企想获得资金，但又不想交出控制权。随着中石化等国企开始新一轮筹资，这个难题再一次受到关注。

SOEs in sectors such as transport and energy plan to use reforms floated nearly two years ago to allow private, foreign or “social” capital – the Chinese term for pension funds and the like – to fill a funding gap by selling minority stakes of up to 30 per cent in discrete business units.

交通、能源等行业的国企计划利用近两年前提出的改革措施，通过出售部分独立业务部门最多30%的股份，让私人资本、外资或“社会”资本（这在中国指社保基金等资本）填补自身的资金缺口。

That reform stops well short of opening strategic infrastructure sectors to private or outside competitors, which might threaten monopolies – disappointing those who had hoped for a bigger window for the private sector.

这项改革还远远达不到向私人或外部竞争者开放具有战略重要地位的基础设施领域，因为这样做可能挑战国企的垄断。一些人曾寄望于一扇更大的窗口向私人部门打开，这样的改革令他们失望。

“To be blunt, it’s only when an industry runs into a difficult time for development that private capital gets a chance,” said Guo Guangchang, head of the private Fosun conglomerate, during China’s annual legislative gathering this month.

私营集团复星(Fosun)的董事长郭广昌在本月的“两会”期间表示：“坦白说，只有当一个行业发展遇到困难时，私人资本才有机会。”

Nor is the infusion of private capital likely to transform state behemoths into nimble players, says Somshankar Sinha, an analyst at Barclays. “Things such as divesting a minority stake are certainly helpful for raising cash, but I don’t see evidence of structural reforms.”

巴克莱(Barclays)分析师索姆尚卡尔•辛哈(Somshankar Sinha)表示，私人资本的注入也不大可能让庞大的国企变得灵活。“出售一小部分股份当然有利于筹集资金，但没有迹象显示会出现结构性改革。”

Sinopec – which has a capitalisation of $95bn based on the 19 per cent of its shares listed in Hong Kong – plans to sell up to 30 per cent of its petrol stations business, a cash cow. It has taken a first step by separating its 23,000 Easy Joy convenience stores into their own division.

根据中石化在香港上市的19%股份的价格计算，该公司市值达950亿美元。中石化计划出售加油站业务最多30%的股份，该业务是该公司的“现金牛”。中石化已迈出第一步，它旗下的2.3万个易捷(Easy Joy)便利店最近成立了单独的公司。

The stake sale could raise $20bn, analysts estimate. That money is likely to stay in the Sinopec family: either funding coal-conversion projects, many of which would be built by its sister group, listed Sinopec Engineering, or flowing back to its wholly state-owned parent, which would inject into expensive overseas assets.

分析师估计，售股可筹集200亿美元资金。这些资金很可能会留在中石化的大家族内，为煤转化项目提供资金（这些项目多由中石化旗下的另一家上市公司——中石化炼化工程(Sinopec Engineering)负责），或回到国家独资持有的母公司，然后被用于投资昂贵的海外资产。

Unlike the other two Chinese oil groups, Sinopec’s state-owned parent is more leveraged than its listed subsidiary.

与中国其他两家石油集团不同，中石化的国有母公司比旗下的上市公司杠杆率更高。

“They will be essentially divesting a solid asset and using the money to get less profitable assets from the parent,” says Mr Sinha.

辛哈表示：“从本质上说，他们要做的其实是卖掉扎实赚钱的资产，用筹得的资金从母公司那里换取盈利能力差一些的资产。”

Other SOEs saddled with costly state-mandated infrastructure projects are also looking for cash. The head of State Grid, which is yet to build a usable network of recharging stations for battery-powered cars, said last week he would seek outside capital.

其他国企同样在寻找资金，它们承担着国家指定的成本高昂的基础设施项目。承担建设电动车充电网络任务的国家电网(State Grid)的负责人最近表示，他将寻求外部资本。

Last year China National Petroleum Corp, parent of the listed PetroChina and Sinopec’s main rival, raised $10bn through joint ventures with domestic funds to defray the costs of a long-distance pipeline to bring gas from central Asia to the industrial east.

去年，为负担中亚长距离天然气管道的成本，中石化主要竞争对手、中石油(PetroChina)的母公司中国石油天然气集团(CNPC)通过与国内资本合资，筹集了100亿美元资金。该天然气管道将从中亚向工业较发达的中国东部输送天然气。

CNPC divided up the project into segments and sold stakes in the units to steel supplier Baosteel, the National Social Security Fund and investment funds channelling both private and government money.

CNPC将该项目分成了几个部分，将各部分的一些股份分别出售给了钢铁供应商宝钢(Baosteel)、社保基金(National Social Security Fund)以及吸收私人和政府资金的投资基金。

“Each company can take its own approach,” says Wang Honglin, vice-director of capital management at Jinchuan, which last month sold 30 per cent of its new copper smelter in southern China to international metals trader Trafigura.

金川集团(Jinchuan)上月将位于华南的一座新的铜熔炼厂30%的股份卖给了国际金属交易商托克(Trafigura)。金川集团资本管理副主管Wang Honglin表示：“每家公司都可以采取自己的方法。”

Sinopec has several options for its 30,532 petrol stations, which contribute about 40 per cent of its operating profit each year.

中石化旗下30532个加油站每年为其带来约40%的营业利润，对这些加油站，中石化有若干种选择。

It could sell equity to investors such as Hopu, a Chinese private equity group whose chairman accompanied Sinopec to Mongolia to sign a memorandum of understanding for a coal-to-chemicals project recently.

一个选择是向厚朴(Hopu)等投资者出售股份。厚朴是一家中国私募股权公司，其董事长最近陪同中石化去蒙古，签订了关于一个煤化工项目的谅解备忘录。

Alternatively it could find a safe silent partner in one of the many Chinese local pension funds that are looking for places to invest. A less likely option would be to list the unit in Hong Kong or Shanghai.

此外，中石化还可以从无数的中国本地养老基金中找到安全又低调的合作伙伴，这些养老基金正在寻找可投资的机会。还有一个可能性较小的选择是，将该业务拿到香港或上海上市。

None of those options involves handing over control of valuable assets to private management or introducing competition – the usual prescriptions for bringing discipline to China’s bloated SOEs.

上述选择全都不涉及将宝贵资产的控制权交给私人管理，也不涉及引入竞争，而要在中国过度膨胀的国企部门树立纪律，这两者才是正常的“药方”。

This fact also explains why Sinopec is unlikely to consider a joint venture with foreign oil groups that have experience operating international petrol brands.

这一事实也能解释，为何中石化不太可能考虑，与在经营国际石油品牌方面经验丰富的外资石油公司组建合资公司。

“The challenge is that SOEs aren’t really intending to offer control. And how can you reform if you don’t control?” asks Paul Gillis, an accounting expert and professor at Peking University.

会计专家、北京大学教授保罗•吉利斯(Paul Gillis)提出：“挑战在于，国企并不真正打算交出控制权。而没有控制权，如何能实施改革呢？”

The structure of these sprawling SOEs illustrates his point. Their confusing tangle of corporate structures and asset transfers has allowed them to raise capital while strengthening their market dominance – a far cry from the shake-up that some reformers are hoping for.

从这些业务庞杂的国企的结构中可以看出，他说得很有道理。国企令人困惑的复杂公司结构和资产转让，使得它们能够在增强市场主导地位的情况下筹集资金，这跟一些改革者希望的“彻底重组”相距甚远。

The latest drive to sell minority stakes in certain units will only compound that problem.

国企最近试图出售某些部门少数股份的做法，只会进一步加剧这个问题。