美的收购德国机器人企业遭政治阻力

A bid for a robot maker faces mounting political opposition in Berlin and Brussels over fears the deal will deliver some of Germany’s most critical industrial know-how into Chinese hands.

对一家机器人制造商的收购要约，在德国政府和欧盟(EU)总部遭遇了越来越大的政治反对，原因是人们担心该交易将使德国某些最关键的工业技术诀窍落入中国人之手。

Midea, an appliance maker based in Guangdong province, last month launched a 4.5bn offer for Kuka, which makes robots used by the carmakers Audi and BMW, and the US aircraft manufacturer Boeing.

上月，总部位于广东省的家电制造商美的(Midea)向库卡(Kuka)发起了45亿欧元的收购要约。库卡生产的机器人被用于汽车制造商奥迪(Audi)和宝马(BMW)，以及美国飞机制造商波音(Boeing)。

Politicians fear technology seen as central to Germany’s “fourth industrial revolution” will end up in China. Kuka is a leading light in the “Industrie 4.0” drive to digitise industrial processes and create fully automated and networked factories.

政界人士担心，被视为德国“第四次工业革命”核心的相关技术将因此流入中国。库卡是“工业4.0”努力的领军者；这项努力的目的是把工业过程数字化，打造完全自动化和联网的工厂。

Markus Ferber, a German MEP, told the Financial Times: “We really need to think about whether we want to give such a key enterprise to the Chinese, or try to keep it in European hands. My concern is that as a result of deals like this, the cars of the future will no longer be built in Stuttgart.”

来自德国的欧洲议会议员(MEP)马库斯•费贝尔(Markus Ferber)向英国《金融时报》表示：“我们真的有必要考虑一下，我们要不要把这么关键的企业交给中国人，还是试图将其留在欧洲人手中。我的顾虑是，类似这样的交易会导致未来的汽车不再在斯图加特生产。”

He said Kuka should be taken over by a consortium of technology companies such as the Swiss group ABB, creating a pan-European entity along the lines of Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer.

他说，库卡应该由类似瑞士集团ABB等高科技企业组成的的财团收购，从而打造一个类似飞机制造商空中客车(Airbus)的泛欧洲实体。

Critics say Beijing would never allow foreigners to invest in strategically important companies.

批评人士指出，中国政府永远不会允许外国人投资于具有战略重要意义的企业。

On a weekend trip to Beijing, Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, called on China to open its market to western investment. “We expect reciprocity on the Chinese side too,” she said.

德国总理安格拉•默克尔(Angela Merkel)在周末访问北京时呼吁中国向西方投资开放市场。她说：“我们期望中国方面也会开放。”

Authorities have been trying to head off Midea’s approach. Sigmar Gabriel, deputy chancellor, said this month that efforts were under way “to come up with an alternative offer”. His economics ministry said yesterday that no alternative had been formally proposed, “but we’d be pleased if there was one”.

当局一直在试图阻止美的收购。德国副总理西格马尔•加布里尔(Sigmar Gabriel)本月曾表示，有关方面正努力“提出替代的收购方案”。他执掌的经济部昨天表示，目前还没有正式提出替代方案，“不过如果有的话我们会十分高兴”。

In a newspaper interview last month, Günther Oettinger, Germany’s EU commissioner in Brussels, said a bid from Kuka’s other shareholders, such as the privately held engineer Voith, with 25 per cent, “could be a better solution”.

在上月接受报纸采访时，德国的欧盟专员冈瑟•厄廷格(Günther Oettinger)曾表示，由库卡其他股东——比如持有25%股份的私有的工程集团福伊特(Voith)——提出收购要约“可能是更好的解决方案”。