|
帕玛拉特(Parmalat)的牛奶和乳酪也许很新鲜，但在投资者看来，它的账目却正在变味。上周末，一家债权银行的管理人员表示，该公司的基本业务尚可，但控制该公司的坦济(Tanzi)家族，其财务状况需要加以改善。
|
Parmalat's
milk and cheeses might be fresh but its accounts are looking increasingly
sour for investors. At the weekend, an executive at a creditor bank said
the company's basic business was sound but that the finances of the Tanzi
family, which controls Parmalat, needed to be improved.
|
|
市场再次萌生对该公司的疑问：一家去年实现75亿欧元（合88亿美元）销售额的全球乳业集团，为何会有53亿欧元的债务和35亿欧元的流动性资产呢？不过，帕玛拉特所拥有似乎很机敏的能力，可以通过收购快速提高利润和收入，才打消市场疑虑。
|
Questions
have re-emerged over why a worldwide dairysgroupswith €7.5bn (.8bn) in
sales last year should have gross debt of €5.3bn and stated liquidity of
€3.5bn. Only Parmalat's seemingly astute ability to rapidly grow
earnings and revenues with acquisitions had placated those concerns.
|
|
而在过去一周内，市场对帕玛拉特本来脆弱的信心动摇了。相反，帕玛拉特公司也成了又一个让人警觉的故事。据说，这家由家族操纵的公司行事隐秘，利用薄弱的财务报告规定获益，以便回避投资者的需求。
|
During
the past week, that fragile confidence has been shattered. Parmalat
instead became another cautionary tale about a secretive family-controlled
company that profited from weak reporting rules insgroupsto ignore
investor demands.
|
|
分析师表示，帕玛拉特旗下控股公司网络遍布全球，公司之间贷款达8亿欧元。虽然该集团不大会有垮台的危险，不过要想恢复市场对帕玛拉特的信心，光靠公司管理人员及创建者坦济家族在上周所作的空泛保证，是远远不够的。
|
Although
analysts say Parmalat's global web of sub-holding companies, with more
than €800m in inter-company loans, appears not to be a teetering house
of cards, it will take far more than last week's bland reassurances from
Parmalat executives and the founding Tanzi family to restore faith.
|
|
帕玛拉特的麻烦始于一周前，当时，为公司进行审计的德勤会计师行(Deloitte
& Touche)指出，公司有近5亿欧元现金已投入驻开曼群岛(Cayman
Islands)的一家不为人知的投资基金中，因此它不能把这笔现金视为流动性资产。德勤还表示，帕玛拉特已把1.35亿美元计入公司上半年的一次性收益，相当于公司上半年的净利润。这笔收益来自与上述鲜为人知基金的一项货币掉期，该基金被称作Epicurum。标准普尔(Standard
& Poor's)立即威胁说，要把帕玛拉特的债务级别降至“垃圾”级。
|
The
trouble began one week ago when Deloitte & Touche, Parmalat's auditor,
noted that nearly €500m in cash had been invested in an unknown
investment fund based in the Cayman Islands, which it could not consider
liquid. Deloitte also said Parmalat had booked m in first-half
one-time gains, the equivalent of its first-half net profit, from a
currency swap contract with the same obscure fund, called Epicurum.
Standard & Poor's immediately threatened to cut Parmalat's debt to
junk status.
|
|
上周五，帕玛拉特承诺，将在两周内从上述基金中撤资，从而初步缓解市场对公司流动性危机的担忧。但接着，该公司再次令市场吃惊。
|
On
Friday, after initially easing fears of a liquidity crunch by promising to
pull out of the fund within two weeks, Parmalat stunned the stock market
again.
|
|
首先，帕玛拉特宣布，公司仅上任8个月的首席财务官即将离职。其次，公司透露说，公司负债第三季度已升至60亿欧元，流动性资产至42亿欧元，同期的营运利润确实提高了8%，但利润（不包括税金及未披露的一次性项目）下降13%，至1.08亿欧元。公司没有提供净利润数字。依照意大利法律，三季度财务报告中不必提供上述数字。
|
Firstly,
it announced that its chief financial officer of only eight months was
leaving. Secondly, it revealed that debt had risen to €6bn and liquidity
to €4.2bn during the third quarter. Operating profit in the quarter did
rise 8 per cent but profit before taxes and undisclosed one-time items
fell 13 per cent to €108m. No net profit figure was given. Under Italian
law, none is required for the period.
|
|
而更糟糕的是，在为分析师召开的电话会议中，卢契亚诺•德尔索尔达托(Luciano
del Soldato)作出的回答引发了更多疑问。他是公司现任首席财务官，且长期担任公司行政官员。例如，分析师询问，他为何不能透露第三季度的现金流数字？另外，一笔5.72亿欧元的期票（其中“绝大部分”由银行担保）与公司在食品工程领域合资企业的融资相关，既然如此，这笔期票怎能作为流动性资产入账呢？而且账目中没有注明合资企业的名称。
|
Worse
yet, during a conference call with analysts, Luciano del Soldato, the new
CFO and a longtime company executive, gave answers that raised even more
questions. Why, for example, could he not disclose third-quarter cashflow?
How could €572m in promissory notes, "a major part" of which
are guaranteed by banks, be considered liquid if they are tied to the
financing of unspecified joint ventures in food engineering?
|
|
德尔索尔达托先生还提及了一系列与他方达成的货币掉期合约，有些合约赢利，另一些则没有赢利。当分析师问他，既然像Epicurum这样的公司既没有评级又不为人所知，那么，他怎能放心地把该公司作为交易方呢？他回答说，“因为该公司过去一直有偿付能力”，而且该公司“答应在很短的时间内把我们的（基金投资）变现”。
|
Mr
Del Soldato also told of a series of currency swap contracts with other
parties, some profitable, others not. Asked how he could be sure Epicurum,
for one, could be considered a sound counterparty given that it was not
rated and not known, he answered: "Because it has always paid in the
past" and it "agreed to liquidate our [fund investment] in a
very short time".
|
|
德尔索尔达托先生的确重申，帕玛拉特与坦济家族旗下运营失败的旅行社之间没有财务关联。但他承认，那家设在开曼群岛的基金正考虑向帕玛拉特可能感兴趣的“休闲娱乐类”公司投资，这使投资者感到慌乱，因为他们也是刚刚获悉，上述基金的流动性是很强的。
|
Mr
Del Soldato did reiterate that Parmalat had no financial connections with
the Tanzi family's failing tourism group. But his admission that the
Cayman Islands fund was looking to invest in "leisure and
pleasure" companies that could have interested Parmalat rattled
investors who had also just been told the fund's investments were to be
highly liquid.
|
|
他没有对帕尔玛足球俱乐部(AC Parma)的前景加以说明。该俱乐部是帕玛拉特拥有的一家亏损的足球队。去年，该球队通过发行一笔由资产担保的债券，将自己未来收入的很大一部分售出。
|
Nor
did he clarify the future of AC Parma, the lossmaking football team owned
by thesgroupsthat last year sold a good portion of future revenues through
an asset-backed bond.
|
|
可能要假以时日，才能从帕玛拉特获得更令人满意的回答。德尔索尔达托先生过去曾是福斯托•通纳(Fausto
Tonna)的得力助手。通纳先生在帕玛拉特长期担任首席财务官，打造了该公司复杂的资产负债表，且经常怠慢分析师。通纳先生今年春天下台，因为他计划发行5亿欧元债券，投资者对此表示不满。虽然帕玛拉特当时对外保证不再发行债券，但很快就在私下里发行了另一笔债券。
|
Receiving
more satisfactory answers could take time. Mr Del Soldato had been the
right hand man to Fausto Tonna, the long-time CFO who built up the complex
balance sheet and regularly snubbed analysts. Mr Tonna stepped down this
spring when investors complained about a €500m bond he was planning.
Although Parmalat then promised no further bond issues, another was
quickly placed privately.
|
|
英国基金公司赫莫斯焦点资产管理公司(Hermes Focus Asset
Management)认为，帕玛拉特可以在流动性资产占公司收入10%（大约不到35亿欧元现金）的基础上运营，而多余的流动性资产应当用来减少负债。
|
Hermes
Focus Asset Management, the UK fund, believes Parmalat could operate on
liquidity equivalent to 10 per cent of revenues, or some €3.5bn less in
cash, and that much of the excess liquidity should be used to reduce debt.
|
|
一位分析师说：“我们不太担心该公司的赢利能力。直到目前为止，我们担忧公司的资金效率实在太低。如今，我们担忧管理层冒了很大的风险，而且试图加以掩盖。”
|
Said
one analyst: "We're not greatly concerned about the profitability of
the business. Until now we were worried that the finances were simply very
inefficient. Now we're worried that management has taken large risks and
has tried to hide them."
|
|
至于该公司的牛奶，买者只想知道奶牛(译者注:指公司)是健康的。
|
As
with milk, buyers like to know that the cows are healthy.
|
|
译者/江洁
|
