中興回購股票的政治考慮 Lex
It is hard to imagine why shareholders would cheer when a company overpays for an asset. On Tuesday, Hong Kong and China-listed communications equipment maker ZTE said it had earmarked up to $160m for a share buy-back. The (China-listed) A shares opened 10 per cent higher — the maximum upside limit — while the (Hong Kong-listed) H shares opened 31 per cent higher.
當一家公司爲某項資產支付過高的價錢時，很難想象股東怎麼會感到高興。週二，在香港和內地兩地上市的通信設備製造商中興通訊(ZTE)表示，已劃撥至多1.6億美元進行股票回購。（在內地上市的）A股開盤上漲10%，達到單日漲幅上限；在（香港上市的）H股開盤上漲了31%。
The issue is not the buyback per se, although these benefit holders and sellers unequally. Nor is it that the shares are not especially cheap: before Tuesday’s pop, both A and H lines traded around their five-year average multiples of forward earnings. It is the choice of which line to buy. ZTE will buy back A shares, which are a third pricier than H shares.
問題不在於股票回購本身，儘管股東和股票賣家從此類舉措獲得的好處是不平等的。中興股票也並不特別便宜：在週二的決定公佈前，中興的A股和H股的市盈率都大致處於5年平均水平。問題在於選擇回購哪一隻股票。儘管其A股比H股貴三分之一，但中興選擇了回購A股。
The choice may be symbolic — a reply to China’s call to support mainland markets. But it is also a substantive reminder: in China, politics comes before shareholder value.
這個選擇或許是象徵性的——迴應政府提出的支持內地市場的號召。但這個選擇同時也是一個實質性的提醒：在中國，政治高於股東價值。
