The China Conundrum Facing Wall Street Banks


在中美监管机构相互冲突的要求越来越多的情况下，投行人士要处理许多棘手的问题。而如何定义中国公司是最难回答的问题之一。


过去十年中，中国公司通过赴美IPO筹资超过770亿美元。图为上个月的上海。

中国公司的定义是什么？ 6park.com
What’s the definition of a Chinese company?  6park.com
    
这个看似简单的问题实际上很难回答，也让华尔街投行头疼不已，这些投行不得不同时应对中国和美国监管机构相互冲突的要求，而且这种情况越来越多。 6park.com
That apparently simple question is proving difficult to answer, creating headaches for Wall Street banks that are increasingly being forced to juggle the competing demands of Chinese and U.S. regulators.  6park.com
    
这种不确定性意味着投行人士无法确定哪些IPO需要在哪里获得批准，也无法确定中国监管机构会在多大程度上阻止海外市场的交易。 6park.com
The uncertainty means bankers don’t know for sure which IPOs need approval where—or how far Chinese regulators could go to block deals in foreign markets. 6park.com
   
根据Dealogic的数据，过去十年中，中国公司通过赴美IPO筹资超过770亿美元。但近年来，这部分业务来源不断减少，迫使华尔街投行寻找中国以外的新业务来源。 6park.com
Chinese companies have raised more than $77 billion from U.S. initial public offerings in the past decade, according to Dealogic. But that source of business has dwindled in recent years, forcing Wall Street firms to look outside China for new sources of business.



首先要弄清“中国以外”在实际操作中意味着什么。 6park.com
Step one: figure out what “outside China” means in practice. 6park.com
    
这种不确定性源于中国证监会去年3月实施的境外上市备案新规。中国证监会要求公司在上市前进行备案，而不像之前许多公司在实际操作中所做的那样，事后通知证监会。重要的一点是，这项规定适用于可变利益实体(VIE)，这是很多中国企业在美国上市采取的一种架构，包括之前互联网巨头阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba Group)和京东(JD.com)的IPO。 6park.com
The source of their uncertainty is a rule change implemented by China’s securities regulator last March. The China Securities Regulatory Commission asked companies to register before a listing rather than informing the regulator afterward, which many companies were previously able to do in practice. Crucially, the ruling applied to variable-interest entities, a popular structure for Chinese listings in the U.S. that was used by companies including internet giants Alibaba Group and JD.com. 6park.com
    
如果一家公司一半以上的收入、利润或资产在中国大陆，无论其总部在哪里，中国证监会都希望看到相关备案。证监会还要求主要在中国大陆开展营商活动的公司、或高层管理人员在中国出生或主要居住在中国的公司提交备案。 6park.com
The regulator wants to see paperwork if more than half of a company’s revenue, profit or assets are in mainland China, regardless of where their headquarters are. It also wants filings from companies whose business activities are mainly conducted in the mainland, or those companies whose senior managers are either born in China or mostly live there.  6park.com
    
但在一家公司中国身份不明确的情况下做出裁定时，中国证监会也采取了一种“实质重于形式”的做法，从而使这个定义可以有广泛的解释。 6park.com
But the regulator has also adopted an approach known as substance over form for giving a ruling when a company’s Chinese status isn’t clear. That leaves the definition open to broad interpretation.  6park.com
    
快时尚巨头希音(Shein)就因“中国公司”的定义模糊不清而受到影响，搁置了有望为华尔街投行带来巨额费用收入的IPO。该零售商总部设在新加坡，在上一轮融资中估值约为660亿美元。 6park.com
Fast-fashion giant Shein has suffered from the ambiguities about what defines a Chinese company, putting on hold an IPO that could generate huge fees for Wall Street banks. The retailer, which was valued at around $66 billion during its last funding round, is based in Singapore. 6park.com
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希音于2023年底向美国证券交易委员会(SEC)秘密提交了IPO申请，而在告知中国证监会的问题上出现反复。希音最终还是向中国监管机构提交了备案，但这加大了该公司的上市将面临美国政界人士新一轮施压的风险。由于对该公司供应链的质疑，美国政界人士已呼吁暂停IPO。 6park.com
Shein confidentially filed for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in late 2023, and flip-flopped on informing the CSRC. Shein ultimately did file paperwork with Chinese regulators but that has raised the risk that its listing will come under renewed pressure from U.S. politicians, who have already called for the IPO to be put on hold due to questions about the company’s supply chain. 6park.com
    
需要兼顾监管机构和政治担忧，只会使得华尔街交易撮合者的压力更大，它们在过去几年经历了IPO市场时好时坏的情况。投行人士和律师们不想失误和激怒中国证监会。知情人士表示，结果是，投行人士和律师们在提交招股说明书之前会过于谨慎，主动询问中国证监会是否需要备案。 6park.com
The need to juggle regulators and political concerns only amplifies the pressure on Wall Street dealmakers, who have endured a patchy IPO market over the past few years. Bankers and lawyers don’t want to misstep and potentially anger China’s securities regulator. As a result, they are erring on the side of caution and proactively checking with the CSRC before filing their prospectuses, said people familiar with the matter. 6park.com
    
年利达律师事务所(Linklaters)专门从事与中国相关交易的公司业务合伙人徐宏(John Xu)说，如果这些投行中的任何一家在中国证监会那里遇到麻烦，都可能会影响它们未来的业务。 6park.com
“If any of the banks got into trouble with the CSRC, that may affect their future business,” said John Xu, a corporate partner specializing in China-related deals at Linklaters.  6park.com
    
由于美国的银行和投资公司正面临越来越大的压力，要求它们切断或限制与中国的关系，因此这种模糊性尤为危险。美国总统拜登(Joe Biden)去年签署了一项行政令，旨在限制美国私募股权和风投基金投资中国。威斯康星州共和党众议员加拉格尔(Mike Gallagher)已敦促华尔街金融机构远离中国。 6park.com
The ambiguity is particularly treacherous because banks and investment firms in the U.S. are coming under increasing pressure to cut or limit their ties to China. President Biden signed an executive order last year aimed at limiting U.S. private-equity and venture-capital funds from investing in China. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.) has urged Wall Street firms to back away from the country. 6park.com
    
TikTok首席执行官周受资(Shou Zi Chew)是新加坡公民，他上个月出席了美国参议院的一次听证会，并多次被问及他是否是中国人。 6park.com
TikTok’s Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew, a Singaporean citizen, appeared in front of a Senate hearing last month and faced repeated questions about whether he was Chinese.  6park.com
    
交易撮合者们也表示看到了中国证监会规定的好处，这些规定减少了此前投行人士在为中国公司进行大型上市时所面临的一些不确定性。他们提到了滴滴(Didi Global) 2021年融资额达44亿美元IPO的警示故事。滴滴的IPO出乎中国监管机构意料，因而受到严厉的监管打击，随后在上市后股价暴跌。不到一年，该公司股票从美国退市。 6park.com
Dealmakers say they see the benefits of the CSRC’s rules, which reduce some of the uncertainty that previously confronted bankers working on big listings for Chinese companies. They point to the cautionary tale of Didi Global’s $4.4 billion IPO in 2021. The ride-hailing company’s shares slumped after its listing, following a painful clampdown by Chinese regulators who had been surprised by the IPO. Within a year, the company had delisted its shares. 6park.com
    
Ashurst驻香港的资本市场律师Melody He说，一些有中国背景和海外业务的公司已探索出避免向中国证监会提交备案的方法。她说，这包括组建一个主要由外国人组成的新管理团队。 6park.com
Some companies with a Chinese background and an overseas presence have explored ways to avoid triggering a CSRC filing, said Melody He, a Hong Kong-based capital-markets lawyer at Ashurst. This includes assembling a new management team mostly staffed by foreigners, she said. 6park.com
    
但年利达律师事务所的徐宏说，上述实质重于形式的规则旨在防止此类变通方法。 6park.com
However, the substance over form rule was designed to prevent such workarounds, Linklaters’s Xu said.  6park.com
    
关于中国公司定义的模糊性让一些为部分公司处理交易的投行人士头疼不已，这些公司包括总部位于纽约和香港的Insilico Medicine以及总部位于新加坡、为制造商提供服务的Tungray Technologies。 6park.com
The ambiguity over what counts as a Chinese company has created headaches for bankers working on deals for companies including Insilico Medicine, which is based in New York and Hong Kong, and Tungray Technologies, a Singapore-based company that provides services to manufacturers.  6park.com
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据知情人士称，为Insilico经办交易的投行人士曾询问中国证监会是否需要备案，但未得到明确答复。当他们决定在未经中国证监会批准的情况下提交招股说明书时，证监会明确要求注册。 6park.com
Insilico’s bankers asked the CSRC whether they needed to register and didn’t get a clear response, according to people familiar with the matter. When they decided to file a prospectus without CSRC approval, the regulator specifically requested registration.  6park.com
    
Tungray最初不确定是否需要备案，后来出于谨慎决定备案。该公司等了四个月才得到答复。 6park.com
Tungray, after initially not being sure whether it needed to file, decided to do so out of caution. It waited four months for a response. 6park.com
    
中国证监会表示，截至2月4日已处理了94家寻求在香港或纽约上市的公司的申请，并未拖延这些申请。但投行人士说，中国证监会往往不会阻止交易，而只是让它们一直等着。 6park.com
The CSRC has said it processed 94 applications from companies seeking to go public in Hong Kong or New York as of Feb. 4, and that it didn’t delay them. But bankers say the regulator doesn’t often block deals—instead it just leaves them waiting.