《经济学人·商论》精选文章

华尔街的人常说：“五月清仓，完事离场。” 加上热浪来袭的借口，夏季通常都是一片慵懒怠惰。但那些在私募股权公司工作的人却松懈不得。各家“店”（私募股权基金喜欢这样自称）积攒了大量资金，而且还在不断增加。据咨询公司Preqin的数据，除了1.1万亿美元的“干火药”可随时投向世界各地，3050家私募股权公司正在另外筹集9500亿美元 。

“SELL in May and go away,” say the denizens of Wall Street, and to the usual summer lethargy is added the excuse of a heatwave. But for those working in private equity, there is no let-up. The “shops”, as private-equity funds like to call themselves, are stuffed with money and raising more: $1.1trn in “dry powder” ready to spend around the world, according to Preqin, a consultancy, with another $950bn being raised by 3,050 firms.

市场如此火爆，传言称有些资金都不得其门而入。私募股权公司对自己管理的资产收取管理费，连它们也不知道该怎么利用所有这些一拥而入的资金。它们做出的尝试并不少。今年迄今已有近1000宗收购交易（见图表1）。医疗保健市场尤其活跃。

So hot is the market that there are rumours of money being turned away. Even the firms themselves, which receive fees linked to assets under management, cannot fathom how to use all that may come their way. It is not for want of trying. The year to date has seen nearly 1,000 acquisitions (see chart 1). Health care has been particularly vibrant (see next article).

相比涌入私募股权市场的资金量，更值得留意的是这项业务正在走向成熟。银行正在重新调整业务，以便为这个业务繁忙的客户群提供服务。作为私募股权投资资金的主要来源，公共养老金计划、主权财富基金、捐赠基金和家族财富管理办公室等有限合伙人正在发挥更积极的作用。这一切正在悄然却显著地重塑金融生态系统。

Even more noteworthy than the volume of money pouring into private equity is the way the business is maturing. Banks are reconfiguring their operations to serve such a transaction-heavy clientele. Limited partners—the public-pension schemes, sovereign-wealth funds, endowments and family offices that provide the bulk of private-equity investment—are playing more active roles. It all adds up to a stealthy, but significant, reshaping of the financial ecosystem.

收益方面的数据零散不全。衡量业绩的手段往往稀奇古怪，信息披露时有时无。但有充分理由相信私募股权基金在过去十年里表现不俗。低利率有利于其高债务的商业模式。资产价格节节攀升，可轻易出售获取厚利。

Data on returns are patchy. Odd measures are often used to gauge performance and disclosure is intermittent. But there is plenty of reason to believe that private-equity funds have done well in the past decade. Low interest rates have favoured their debt-heavy business model. Rising asset prices have made it easy to sell for large gains.

不久前浮现的一些阴霾也已消散。之前酝酿的税制改革本来要阻止私募股权公司从其应税收入中扣除所支付的债务利息，并迫使基金经理们就其投资利润（又称“附带权益”）按个人所得税税率而非较低的资本利得税率缴税。然而到头来，去年提出的新规则并未触及附带权益的问题，只是略微调低了债务税盾。

And some recent clouds on the horizon have dissipated. Mooted tax reforms would have stopped private-equity firms from deducting the interest they pay on debt from their taxable income and forced their managers to pay the personal-tax rate on their investment profits (or “carried interest”), rather than the lower capital-gains rate. In the event, however, the new rules brought in last year did not touch carried interest at all and only slightly reduced the benefits of debt.

之前另一个引人担忧的因素是监管支持力度会减弱。去年接任美国证券交易委员会（SEC）主席的杰伊·克莱顿（Jay Clayton）明确表示希望企业回流公开市场。他指出，企业投奔私募股权，剥夺了小投资者的投资机会。在他上任后，连串公开上市随之而来，包括私募股权公司出售的公司股权。但企业上市的负担仍然很重，包括要应对繁琐的申报要求，而且日常业务决策都可能引起激烈的公共争论。

Another fear had been that regulations would become less supportive. Jay Clayton, who took over at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last year, made it clear that he wanted to see a shift towards public markets. He noted that the loss of companies to private equity had denied opportunities to small investors. A flurry of public offerings followed his appointment, including sales by private-equity firms. But the burdens of being listed remain heavy. These include onerous filing requirements and the knowledge that routine business decisions may become the subject of caustic public debate.

结果是上市公司被私有化的规模持续上升（见图表2）。图中数字并未充分反映这一趋势，因为其中没有考虑越来越多的大公司将旗下部门出售给私募股权公司这一情况。这些交易很少受到关注——但在一定程度上，要的就是这样的效果。总部不变，高管留任。最近的例子包括食品公司斯味可（J.M. Smucker）决定将其烘焙业务出售给私募股权Brynwood Partners，以及GE将其工业发动机部门出售给安宏资本（Advent International）。另外，同样不受注意的是，私募股权公司更多地把资产出售给其他私募股权公司，而不是公开上市。

The result is that the value of public companies being taken private continues to rise (see chart 2). The figures understate the trend, since they omit the growing number of large companies selling off divisions to private-equity firms. These deals attract little attention—which is partly the point. Headquarters do not move; senior executives keep their jobs. Recent examples include the decision by J.M. Smucker, a food company, to sell its baking business to Brynwood Partners and GE’s move to sell its industrial-engines division to Advent International. Similarly unremarked is the rising number of transactions in which one private-equity firm sells to another, rather than listing an asset on the public markets.