變廢為寶？馬雲砸7億美金收購英國跨境支付公司，網友們都沸騰了

How Jack Ma Can Turn British Coal Into an Asian Gem

馬雲如何將英國的煤炭變成亞洲的瑰寶

素材來源：彭博社 翻譯：世界播

Jack Ma has found a way to turbocharge the benefits that Ant Financial, the Chinese payments giant he controls, can derive from the global ambitions of Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd., his e-commerce behemoth.

馬雲找到了一種方法，讓他管控的中國支付巨頭螞蟻金服能夠從其電子商務巨頭阿里巴巴集團的全球雄心中獲得更多好處。

Ant, which was spun out of Alibaba in 2014 and is best known for its Alipay service, has agreed to acquire London-based WorldFirst. The little-known international transfers specialist has technology which could serve as an important foreign beachhead for the two Chinese firms.

螞蟻金服於2014年從阿里巴巴剝離出來，以支付寶服務聞名。該公司已同意收購總部位於倫敦的WorldFirst。這位鮮為人知的國際收付款專家掌握的技術，可能成為這兩家中國公司在海外的重要灘頭陣地。

This is not Ma』s first attempt to build out his fintech footprint abroad. He was forced to abandon an attempted $1.2 billion acquisition of Moneygram International Inc. last year after the deal was blocked by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. The WorldFirst purchase would only be subject to similar scrutiny in the U.K. if it were it a bank. Since it』s not, it』s a more straightforward opportunity to get a foothold outside Ant』s home region.

這並不是馬雲第一次嘗試在海外拓展他的金融科技足跡。去年，他被迫放棄了以12億美元收購速匯金國際的計劃，原因是這筆交易被美國外國投資委員會否決。如果WorldFirst是一家銀行，那麼對它的收購在英國才會受到類似的審查。然而它不是，所以這是一個在螞蟻金服的家鄉區域之外站穩腳跟的更直接的機會。

If you』ve never heard of WorldFirst, that might also explain its appeal as an acquisition target. It doesn』t have the name recognition of other British fintech darlings such as TransferWise Ltd., Monzo Bank Ltd or Starling Bank Ltd.

如果你從未聽說過WorldFirst，這或許也可以解釋它作為收購目標的吸引力。它沒有TransferWise、Monzo Bank或Starling Bank等其他英國金融科技寵兒的知名度。

Which also means it likely comes more cheaply. Ant, which dominates electronic payments in China with Alipay, was discussing paying about $700 million for WorldFirst, the Financial Times reported in December. Adyen NV, another payments company, albeit with a different business, trades at a staggering 121 times predicted earnings. If WorldFirst is getting a similar premium, that would imply it generates just $6 million in net profit. Given its scale – WorldFirst says it has 600 employees and 400,000 customers – such low profitability would be surprising, which suggests that Ant got a far better deal.

這也意味著它可能會變得更便宜。據英國《金融時報》去年12月報道稱，螞蟻金服正在討論以7億美元收購WorldFirst。螞蟻金服的支付寶在中國電子支付領域佔據了霸主地位。另一家支付公司Adyen NV雖然業務不同，但其預期市盈率達到了驚人的121倍。如果WorldFirst獲得了類似的溢價，那就意味著它的凈利潤只有600萬美元。鑒於WorldFirst的規模，該公司表示，它擁有600名員工和40萬名客戶，如此低的盈利能力著實令人吃驚，這同時也表明螞蟻金服得到了一筆好得多的交易。

I suspect the British company doesn』t quite have the aura of its peers because it has failed to keep technological pace with newer firms. But one strength in particular explains its appeal to Ant: its provision of multicurrency accounts to merchants selling their wares through Amazon.com Inc.』s marketplace or Shopify Inc. That offering lets vendors collect all of their international revenue in one account, without having to worry about negotiating transfer fees or delays. Reducing those impediments makes it easier to sell goods across borders, which in turn brings more business to the marketplaces.

我懷疑這家英國公司不太具備同行的光環，因為它沒能跟上新公司的技術步伐。但有一種優勢可以特別解釋它對於螞蟻金服的吸引力：它為通過亞馬遜的marketplace或Shopify銷售商品的商戶提供多貨幣賬戶。這種服務允許供應商將所有的國際收入集中在一個賬戶上，而不必擔心協商轉讓費或延遲。減少這些障礙使得跨境銷售商品更加容易，從而為市場帶來更多的業務。

Cash Is Dead

現金已死

Global expansion is a strategic priority for Alibaba as it seeks to drive its gross merchandise value to $1 trillion by March 2020. Efforts outside Asia have so far focused on AliExpress, a marketplace which lets largely Chinese merchants sell their wares abroad. You can see how WorldFirst』s expertise could help Ant benefit from that growth, positioning it as an intermediary to allow Chinese manufacturers to collect foreign sales more easily.

全球擴張是阿里巴巴的戰略重點，該公司希望在2020年3月之前將其商品總價值提升至1萬億美元。到目前為止，阿里巴巴在亞洲以外的業務主要集中在全球速賣通上。你可以看到，WorldFirst的專業性功能將如何幫助螞蟻金服從這種增長中受益，而且未來將會將其定位為一家中介機構，使中國的製造商能夠更容易地進行海外銷售。

Having raised $14 billion last year at a $150 billion valuation, the cost of buying WorldFirst is a drop in the ocean for Ant.

在去年以1500億美元的估值籌集了140億美元後，收購WorldFirst的成本對螞蟻金服來說只是滄海一粟。

But for Jack Ma, it could be a crucial building block for his growth plans. World first, indeed.

但對馬雲來說，這可能是他的增長計劃中的一個關鍵基石。確實稱得上世界第一。

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