中漁集團與亞洲大銀行的債務糾紛

The conference room was packed with dozens of angry creditors representing Asia’s biggest banks. They wanted to know what had happened to a $650m loan, extended in March 2014 to China Fishery Group and related companies, as concerns grew that they would never be repaid

會議室裏擠滿了數十名憤怒的債權人，他們代表亞洲多家大銀行。他們想知道2014年3月份向中漁集團(China Fishery Group)及其關聯公司發放的6.5億美元貸款的情況，並日益擔心這些貸款將會永遠得不到償還。

It was December 2015, and the creditors ranged from HSBC and Standard Chartered to Maybank, Malaysia’s largest financial services group. They had summoned Ng Joo Siang, the then chief executive of China Fishery, a Hong Kong-based, family-controlled operation, to explain why the company had stopped complying with the terms of the debt — secured to refinance the 2013 purchase of a Peruvian fisheries business. Within minutes Mr Ng was heard shouting at the assembled audience as they grilled him on what happened to their money, according to three people present.

這是2015年12月的事情，當時債權人既有匯豐(HSBC)和渣打(Standard Chartered)這些銀行，也有馬來西亞最大的金融服務集團馬來亞銀行(Maybank)。他們叫來了時任中漁集團首席執行官黃裕翔(Ng Joo Siang)，要求他解釋爲何該公司不再履行債務協議條款——所借債務用於爲2013年收購一家祕魯漁業企業提供再融資。中漁集團是一家總部在香港的家族控股企業。根據三位在場人士的話，當時人們圍住黃裕翔質問資金去向，結果沒幾分鐘就聽到他衝這些人叫喊起來。

Two years on from that clash at the Maybank offices on the 18th floor of Hong Kong’s Citic Tower, the creditors are still waiting.

這場衝突發生在香港中信大廈18層馬來亞銀行的辦公室。如今兩年過去了，債權人們仍在等待。

The wrangling has since shifted to New York, where the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2016, to the surprise of its creditors in Hong Kong. In a US court filing, some of those creditors raised concerns regarding the Ng family over “questionable transactions totalling more than $1bn and suspicions of substantial overstatements of revenues and receivables/prepayments” made by the group. They asked the court to appoint a trustee, William Brandt, who is shuttling between South America, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong trying to sell assets including the Peruvian business.

自2016年6月中漁集團依據美國破產法第11章申請破產保護之日起——此舉令其香港債權人頗感意外——這場爭執就轉移到了紐約。在向美國法院提交的一份文件中，一些債權人表示就“總額超過10億美元的可疑交易”對黃氏家族感到擔憂，並懷疑該集團“大幅高報營收和應收/預付賬款”。他們請求法庭指定一位受託人，如今這位受託人威廉?勃蘭特(William Brandt)在南美、紐約、新加坡和香港之間奔波，試圖出售包括那家祕魯企業在內的資產。

A separate investigation into the group’s finances, by FTI, the consultants, raised questions about the ultimate destination of some of the money the creditors lent. Mr Brandt is investigating this aspect of the case, according to court documents. Meanwhile, the Ngs and at least one of the lawyers who represent the family, Bertie Mehigan of the Mehigan law firm in Hong Kong, strongly deny that the family has done anything wrong.

諮詢公司FTI對中漁集團的財務狀況進行了單獨調查，發現部分債權人所提供資金的最終去向存疑。根據法庭文件，勃蘭特正在調查這方面的情況。與此同時，黃氏兄妹以及至少一位代表黃氏家族的律師——香港Mehigan律所的伯蒂?梅西甘(Bertie Mehigan)堅決否認黃氏家族有不當行爲。

The banks declined to comment about the China Fishery loan deal. They have sold much of their debt to hedge funds on both sides of the Pacific in recent months. But the case has triggered questions over whether, despite the extra safeguards regulators introduced after the financial crisis, enough due diligence is being carried out in some cases by banks before they lend to corporate clients.

這些銀行拒絕就中漁集團的貸款協議置評。近幾個月來，它們把其中部分債務賣給了太平洋兩岸的對衝基金。但是該案提出了一個問題：儘管監管機構在金融危機之後出臺了額外的保障措施，但在某些情況下，銀行向企業客戶發放貸款之前是否進行了充分的盡職調查？

“It [has turned into] a massive blame game,” says a lawyer acting for some bondholders. “Why did someone not say at the time: Where did it start? How did we miss it?’”

一些債券持有人的代理律師表示：“這（已經變成了）大規模的推卸責任。爲什麼當時人們不說問題從哪裏開始的？我們怎麼就沒注意到？”

The Ng family sits at the top of a relatively straightforward industrial fishing business. Launched in the late 1980s China Fishery ships trawl the oceans from off the coast of Chile to the cold waters around Vladivostok. Its factories — most are in China but it has one floating facility — turn the catch into fishmeal, and frozen fish fingers.

黃氏家族掌控着一個相對簡單的工業化漁業捕撈業務。中漁集團成立於上世紀80年代末，捕撈範圍從智利附近海域到符拉迪沃斯託克周邊的寒冷水域，旗下工廠——大多數在中國，但有一個上市公司——把魚做成魚粉和凍魚條。