非洲首富禁食只喝西瓜汁 豪賭煉油廠業界
Africa's richest man sat barefoot on his new yacht in a lagoon here after another night of about three hours sleep.
在又一個只睡三小時左右的夜晚之後，非洲首富阿里科・丹格特(Aliko Dangote)赤腳坐在他漂浮於尼日利亞拉各斯一片瀉湖中的新遊艇上。The day was filled with meetings about his cement company and preparations for a polio-fighting trip with fellow billionaire Bill Gates. His BlackBerry buzzed every few minutes with messages from the president of Benin, and a former U.S. ambassador wanted some face time.
那一天特別忙碌，要跟人會面談他的水泥公司，還要爲了跟另一位億萬富翁比爾・蓋茨(Bill Gates)一同踏上抗擊小兒麻 症之旅做準備。他的黑莓手機每隔幾分鐘就會因爲貝寧總統發來的信息而響起，一位前美國大使也想跟他見面。'You don't see any sign of stress on me,' Aliko Dangote said with a tight smile. The 56-year-old businessman said he was getting an energy boost from a weeklong fast that limits him to six glasses of watermelon juice a day.
56歲的丹格特(Aliko Dangote)帶着一絲僵硬的微笑說：“你在我身上看不到任何壓力的跡象。”他說他正在進行爲期一週的禁食，一天只喝六杯西瓜汁，所以感到充滿了活力。
For two decades, Mr. Dangote (pronounced DAHN-go-tay) has turned his relentlessness, connections and entrepreneurial bets on the rise of Africa into a fortune estimated at about $22 billion.
20年來，丹格特利用他的堅韌精神、人際關係，通過創業押注非洲崛起，積累了一筆據估計達220億美元左右的財富。Most of it comes from his controlling stake in a conglomerate of cement, sugar, salt and noodle factories sprawled across 16 countries. Profits in three publicly traded companies he controls hit $1 billion in the first nine months of 2013, up 43% from a year earlier.
大部分財富來自他在一家多元化企業集團持有的控股股權，該集團由遍佈16個國家的水泥、糖、鹽、麪條工廠組成。他控股的三家上市公司在2013年頭九個月實現利潤10億美元，較上年同期增長43%。Mr. Dangote now has a plan to quintuple his wealth -- and become one of the five richest people in the world. He will spend $9 billion to build the largest privately owned refinery in Nigeria, which produces more oil than any other African country but must import most of the motor fuel and diesel it uses because existing refineries are dilapidated and inefficient.
丹格特現在有一個將其財富擴大到目前的五倍、躋身世界五大首富之列的計劃。他將花90億美元建成尼日利亞最大的私有煉油廠。尼日利亞的石油產量比其他任何非洲國家都高，但它使用的大部分發動機燃料和柴油都必須進口，因爲現有煉油廠年久失修，效率低下。Within about two years, the new refinery in a stretch of swampy shoreline outside Lagos could start piping in crude from roughly 7 miles offshore, bypassing a traffic jam of tankers often stuck for weeks. Competing against four government-managed refineries that run at barely 20% of their capacity, Mr. Dangote would double the country's maximum refinery output.
新煉油廠將位於拉各斯城外一條泥濘的海岸線上。大約兩年之內，它可能就會開始從入海大約七英里的地方泵入原油，繞過常常滯留數星期的油輪造成的擁堵。與丹格特競爭的是四家產能利用率僅20%的國營煉油廠。新煉油廠投產後，尼日利亞的最大煉油產量將會翻上一番。The refinery project is a bet that Africa's economy will keep growing much faster than the rest of the world, especially as a wave of consumerism sweeps the continent.
這個煉油廠項目是在下注非洲經濟的增長速度將繼續遠遠快於世界其他地區，特別是在消費主義浪潮席捲這個大洲的時候。New airlines are taking off so quickly that some jet-fuel sellers, hurt by a shortage, have been caught trying to fill airplane tanks with kerosene instead. Car imports through Nigeria's main port have risen to about 300 cars a day.
由於新航空公司如雨後春筍般出現，一些飽受短缺之苦的航空燃料公司曾試圖往飛機燃料罐裏裝煤油，結果被抓了現行。經由尼日利亞主要港口進口的汽車數量已經上升到一天300輛左右。As a result, Africa now is the world's fastest-growing oil user, and the International Energy Agency expects oil consumption in Africa to surge about 30% to 4.5 million barrels a day by 2018. The jump represents 15% of the world's projected rise in oil demand.
因此非洲已經成爲世界石油用量增長最快的地方，國際能源署(International Energy Agency)預計非洲石油用量到2018年將猛增三成左右至每日450萬桶。這個增量佔世界石油需求預期增量的15%。Mr. Dangote and his supporters, including Nigeria's president, see more than money in the new refinery. To them, it also defies centuries of Africa exporting its most precious resources -- including gold, diamonds and humans -- rather than putting them to work at home.
在這座新煉油廠身上，丹格特以及包括尼日利亞總統在內的支持者看到的不只是金錢。對他們來講，它還顛覆了非洲幾百年來一直出口黃金、 石和人口等最珍貴資源，而不是讓這些資源在境內發揮作用的歷史。Nigeria's government has collected about $1.3 trillion in oil revenue since 1980, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. Yet about 60% of the country's 170 million people live on less than $1 a day, according to the government. It says as much as 400,000 barrels of oil per day -- or one-sixth of total output -- are pilfered from pipelines by bandits. Most of the stolen crude is loaded onto barges at night and shipped abroad.
據經濟學人智庫(Economist Intelligence Unit)數據，從1980年以來，尼日利亞政府獲得石油收入約1.3萬億美元。但尼日利亞政府數據顯示，該國1.7億人口當中還有六成人口每天生活費不到一美元。政府表示，匪徒從石油管道盜走石油，多的時候達40萬桶一天，相當於總產量的六分之一。大部分被盜原油都在夜間裝上貨船，發往國外。The refinery planned by Mr. Dangote will 'change the economic and industrial landscape of Nigeria,' said Doyin Okupe, senior special assistant to Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan. The president thanked the billionaire and his bankers by inviting them to Mr. Jonathan's villa on a day usually reserved for government planning sessions.
尼日利亞總統古德勒克・喬納森(Goodluck Jonathan)的高級特別助理杜因・奧庫普(Doyin Okupe)說，丹格特擬建的煉油廠將“改變尼日利亞的經濟和工業版圖”。在一個通常用來開政府規劃會議的日子，喬納森邀請丹格特和他的銀行家合作伙伴們到自己的別墅，以示感謝。The project faces daunting challenges. Competition will be fierce from U.S., Asian and European companies that also want to satisfy Africa's thirst for gasoline and other fuel products. Some energy firms are expanding operations in Africa, and American refineries are gaining an edge around the world as the U.S. shale-oil boom lowers their production costs.
煉油廠項目面臨着巨大的挑戰。美國、亞洲和歐洲的一些企業也想滿足非洲對汽油和其他燃料的渴求，它們將帶來激烈的競爭。一些能源企業正在拓展非洲業務，而隨着美國頁岩油浪潮降低了生產成本，美國的煉油企業在世界範圍內更是獨具優勢。Nigeria also subsidizes imported oil, keeping prices at the gas pump about one-third lower than they are in the U.S.
尼日利亞還補貼進口石油，將加油站的油價保持在比美國低大約三分之一的水平。'I don't know how he's going to do it, but I do know it's going to be very, very tough,' said Bismarck Rewane, managing director of Financial Derivatives Co., a research firm in Lagos. He has known Mr. Dangote since they lived near each other in the 1980s and attended middle-of-the-night house parties together.
拉各斯研究公司Financial Derivatives Co.董事總經理俾斯麥・雷瓦內(Bismarck Rewane)說：“我不知道他將怎樣去做，但我知道做起來將非常非常艱難。”雷瓦內是在20世紀80年代和丹格特相鄰而居、一起參加午夜別墅聚會的時候開始認識他的。Despite all his connections, Mr. Dangote hasn't won government approval for a license needed to build the refinery. That is not unusual. From 2000 to 2010, more than 100 refinery construction projects were announced in Africa. Only one was built, according to consulting firm Citac Africa Ltd. Others often fell victim to political interference or high borrowing costs.
雖然擁有深厚的人脈，丹格特申請修建煉油廠所需的執照還沒有得到政府的批准。此事並不鮮見。據諮詢公司Citac Africa Ltd.說，從2000年到2010年，非洲宣佈將要建設的煉油廠項目超過100個，但建成的只有一個。其他項目常常因爲政治干預或高昂的借款成本而流產。'We will get it,' Mr. Dangote said about the license. The ministry reviewing the license application declined to comment. Nigeria's next presidential election is scheduled for 2015.
丹格特說：“我們會拿到（執照）的。”評估執照申請的部門拒絕置評。尼日利亞下次總統大選按計劃將於2015年舉行。In an interview on his yacht, named Mariya after his mother, the billionaire said his refinery will have no trouble competing because it will avoid Nigeria's costly and congested ports. He hasn't said if it will sell gasoline to retailers for less than they pay now.
丹格特在他以母親名字命名爲“瑪麗亞”(Mariya)的遊艇上接受採訪，表示他的煉油廠將不懼競爭，因爲它將避開尼日利亞成本高昂、船滿爲患的港口。他沒有透露賣給零售商的汽油價格會不會低於現在的水平。He also expects Nigeria to eventually abolish foreign-oil subsidies, which cost the government $6.5 billion last year.
他還預計，尼日利亞終將放棄對外來石油的補貼。2012年政府在這方面的補貼款爲65億美元。In the past decade, Africa's economy has grown by an average of 5.6% a year, compared with the world-wide growth rate of 3.6% per year, according to the International Monetary Fund. The surge has helped turn some of the richest businessmen in Africa into tycoons.
國際貨幣基金組織(International Monetary Fund)數據顯示，在過去10年，非洲經濟平均每年增長5.6%，相比之下世界經濟年增速爲3.6%。這種高速增長幫助一部分非洲最富有的生意人變成了富豪。Africa now has 27 billionaires, up from 16 in 2012 and just two a decade ago, according to Forbes magazine. Those two were white South Africans.
據《福布斯》雜誌(Forbes)統計，2013年非洲擁有10億美元以上財富的人有27位，2012年有16位，10年前只有兩位，而且那兩位都是南非白人。Mr. Dangote was born into wealth. Near the dawn of British colonialism in the early 1900s, his great-grandfather, Alhassan Dantata, cornered the peanut market in drought-prone northern Nigeria. While other Nigerians chafed at colonial rule, Mr. Dantata exported tons of peanuts to feed Europe's growing appetite.
丹格特生於富裕家庭。20世紀初期英國殖民統治開始之前不久，他的外曾祖父阿爾哈桑・丹塔塔(Alhassan Dantata)壟斷了旱災頻發的尼日利亞北部的花生市場。在其他尼日利亞人爲殖民統治感到憤怒的時候，丹塔塔將一噸噸的花生出口到歐洲，滿足那裏越來越大的胃口。During the oil boom of the 1970s, an uncle of Mr. Dangote gave him a government-issued license to import cement. But few Nigerians had ever heard of him. Mr. Dangote spent much of his time and earnings in Brazil, usually enjoying the Carnival festival before Lent. In the 1990s, a friend talked him into flying to Atlanta, where he bought a house and then swung through every other month for jaunts at nightclubs.
在70年代石油行情好的時候，丹格特的一個舅舅送給他一張政府發放的水泥進口執照。但那時候尼日利亞沒幾個人聽說過他。丹格特把很大一部分時間和收入都花在了巴西，常常在四旬齋前享受當地的狂歡節。90年代，他在一位友人的勸說下飛到美國亞特蘭大，他在那裏買下了一棟房子，然後每隔一個月就會去那裏的夜總會閒逛。He felt comfortable amid Atlanta's historically black colleges and restaurants, far away from a succession of military coups and botched elections in Nigeria. Startled by a snake in his basement one day, Mr. Dangote sold the house and bought a larger one.
他在亞特蘭大曆來以黑人爲主的大學和餐館如魚得水，遠離了尼日利亞一連串的軍事政變和流產選舉。有一天丹格特被地下室的一條蛇嚇到，於是他賣掉了房子，買了一棟更大的。But he started to feel the tug of his homeland, the most populous country in Africa. On trips to Brazil for Carnival, he saw signs of the economic progress the country had made: Desperate hustlers, touts and money changers didn't swarm him at the airport any more. And cement factories were popping up in the mountains.
但他開始感受到人口居非洲之最的祖國的吸引力。在前往巴西參加狂歡節的途中，他看到尼日利亞取得經濟進步的跡象：機場不再有騙子、票販子和貨幣兌換商不顧一切地朝他涌來。水泥廠也在山區紛紛涌現。That gave him an idea to do something big, he said. He flew back to Nigeria, contributed to the upstart People's Democratic Party and made a promise after its presidential candidate won election in 1999. Mr. Dangote vowed to build one of the world's largest cement plants if the government restricted the flow of cement through the country's ports.
他說，這使他萌生了做大事的想法。1999年，丹格特飛回尼日利亞，向新興的人民民主黨(People's Democratic Party)捐款，並在該黨總統候選人贏得選舉之後許下了一個諾言。他聲言，如果政府限制水泥進口，他將建成世界上最大的水泥廠之一。The businessman got what he wanted. The limits on imports of cement -- the most common building material in Africa -- lifted prices to twice the world-wide average. His business empire mushroomed. Dangote Group now makes a two-thirds markup on every bag of cement it sells.
丹格特如願以償。水泥是非洲最常用的建築材料，進口限制使其價格上漲到世界平均水平的兩倍。他的商業帝國迅速壯大。現在丹格特集團(Dangote Group)每賣一袋水泥，就要賺取三分之二的利潤。In return, Mr. Dangote spent $1 billion on the cement factory and an adjoining, 1.7 mile-long airstrip, borrowing some of the money at an interest rate of 42%. They opened in 2008, and he vaulted onto the billionaires' list for the first time.
作爲回報，丹格特花10億美元建成了這家大型水泥廠和與其毗鄰的一條1.7英里長的飛機跑道，其中部分資金以42%的利率借得。水泥廠和跑道在2008年開業，他首次躋身億萬富豪的行列。Dangote Group now employs about 25,000 people in Nigeria, is building cement factories in 14 countries in Africa and is buying mining licenses from Kenya to Zambia.
目前丹格特集團在尼日利亞的員工數量在2.5萬人左右，正在非洲14個國家修建水泥廠，並從肯尼亞、贊比亞等國家購買採礦執照。A pop song in Nigeria called 'Aliko Dangote Special' includes the line 'Cover of Forbes, he no be joke.' The motivational book 'Dangote's Ten Commandments on Money' cites the billionaire's advice 'to make the best of your time because any time lost cannot be regained.' No. 8: 'Believe in Nigeria.'
尼日利亞有一首流行歌曲名叫“阿里科・丹格特不一般”(Aliko Dangote Special)，裏面有一句歌詞是“他上了福布斯封面，真的不開玩笑”。勵志書《丹格特10條金錢戒律》(Dangote's Ten Commandments on Money)引用了這位富豪的這樣一條建議：“最大化地利用自己的時間，因爲浪費掉的時間是無法挽回的。”第八條戒律是：“相信尼日利亞。”'It's something he said to me years ago: 'Only Africans will build Africa,'' said Kola Karim, chief executive of oil-exploration company Shoreline Natural Resources Ltd. Mr. Karim sells most of the oil from Shoreline's fields in the Niger River delta to India but would rather do business with Mr. Dangote.
石油勘探公司Shoreline Natural Resources Ltd.首席執行長科拉・卡里姆(Kola Karim)說：“他在多年前跟我說：‘只有非洲人才會建設非洲。’”Shoreline公司尼日爾河三角洲油田產出的石油大都賣到印度，但卡里姆更願意跟丹格特做生意。The two men, who are friends, recently talked over the details on a dock next to the billionaire's yacht but haven't announced an agreement. 'This is where my future lies,' Mr. Karim said. 'The market is in Africa.'
兩人是朋友，他們最近在丹格特遊艇旁邊的碼頭上討論了細節問題，但還沒有公開達成協議。卡里姆說：“這裏是我的未來所在，市場就在非洲。”Mr. Dangote will soon borrow $1.5 billion to lease about 740,000 acres, an area 50 times bigger than Manhattan. He wants to grow sugar and rice for Dangote Group's processing plants.
丹格特將在不久之後借入15億美元租賃大約74萬英畝（約合30萬公頃）的土地，相當於紐約曼哈頓面積的50倍。他想爲丹格特集團的加工廠種植蔗糖和稻米。The area in northeastern Nigeria is swarming with fighters from Islamic insurgency Boko Haram, but the fields will put so many people to work that the insurgents will 'leave us alone,' Mr. Dangote predicted. Once the farm is thriving, 'Boko Haram will not have guys to recruit.'
該地區位於尼日利亞東北部，到處都是伊斯蘭反抗組織“博科 地”(Boko Haram)的士兵。但丹格特預計，這些田地將使很多人找到工作，反抗組織將“不再管我們”。一旦農場發展起來，“博科 地就沒有人員可以招募了”。The industrialist nudged Nigerian bankers for more than a year about his refinery plans. Then he started telling them how much they should lend -- and at what interest rate.
這位實業家向尼日利亞的銀行界推銷其煉油廠計劃，講了一年多的時間。接着他開始講他們應該貸給他多少錢，利率應該是多少。'When he wants something, he gets it,' said Edmund Boyo, a partner at law firm Clifford Chance LLP who worked on the deal.
經手這樁交易的律師事務所Clifford Chance LLP合夥人埃德蒙・博約(Edmund Boyo)說：“他想要什麼就有什麼。”In September, Dangote Group announced a $3.3 billion syndicated loan from banks led by Standard Chartered of the U.K. and Nigeria's Guaranty Trust Bank PLC. Terms of the $3.3 billion loan weren't disclosed, though he said it includes a penalty if he repays the banks too quickly.
2013年9月，丹格特集團宣佈獲得一筆33億美元的銀團貸款，牽頭行是英國的渣打銀行(Standard Chartered)和尼日利亞的Guaranty Trust Bank PLC.。貸款的條款沒有披露，但丹格特說，根據其中一個條款，如果他還款過快，就要交一筆罰金。Nowadays, banks sometimes charge him less than 6% interest, he added, a lower interest rate than Nigeria's government gets on its loans.
他還說，目前銀行向他收取的利率有時候不到6%，低於尼日利亞政府的借款利率。Yvonne Ike, chief execuitve of investment bank Renaissance Capital's operations in western Africa, said she has seen bankers' 'eyes watering when they thought about how much they had lent' to Mr. Dangote at rock-bottom interest rates compared with other companies. Still, the bankers 'couldn't stand not to be a part of the biggest debt deal in Africa,' she said.
投資銀行Renaissance Capital西非區首席執行長伊馮娜・艾克(Yvonne Ike)說，她曾看到銀行家在想到他們以相比其他公司低得不能再低的利率給丹格特借了多少錢時“滿含淚水”。但她說，這些銀行家“不敢不參與非洲最大規模的債務交易”。Mr. Dangote now is trying to line up oil to feed his refinery. Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC are selling oil fields along Nigeria's coast after long battles with kidnappers and pipeline-bombing oil thieves.
丹格特目前正在爲他的煉油廠籌備石油貨源。雪佛龍公司(Chevron Corp.)和荷蘭皇家殼牌公司(Royal Dutch Shell PLC)在與綁架者、炸油管的偷油賊較量了很長一段時間之後，現在都在出售尼日利亞沿海的油田。The billionaire wants to buy the two companies' tracts of oil-rich swamp. To protect the oil from bandits, he will bury pipelines to and from the refinery. Chevron and Shell declined to comment.
丹格特想從這兩家公司手中買下富含石油的成片沼澤地。爲了避免石油被匪徒盜竊，他將把進出管道一直埋到煉油廠。雪佛龍和殼牌拒絕置評。The billionaire hasn't announced any deals to sell the gasoline, plastic and other fuel products that will be made by his refinery.
丹格特尚未公佈任何銷售煉油廠所產汽油、塑料和其他燃料產品的交易。He likely will have to lure away customers from state-owned oil company Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. It controls the four rundown refineries that dominate Nigeria's oil industry. Government leaders have denounced the company as opaque and unscrupulous.
他可能將需要從國有石油公司尼日利亞國家石油公司(Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.)那裏挖客戶。這家公司控制着四家在尼日利亞石油行業唱主角的老舊煉油廠。政府領導人曾指責它不透明、不守規矩。'It's a waste pipe of corruption,' said Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr., a spokesman for Mr. Jonathan, Nigeria's president. An NNPC spokeswoman couldn't be reached for comment.
尼日利亞總統喬納森的發言人小肯・薩羅-威瓦(Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr.)說：“它是一條充滿了腐敗的廢棄管道。”本報未能聯繫到尼日利亞國家石油公司的發言人置評。Mr. Dangote hasn't had a vacation since he took 18 children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces to Walt Disney World in Florida last year. That was his first vacation in 17 years, and he has no plans for another one. The refinery is keeping him too busy.
丹格特在2012年帶着兒女、孫子孫女、侄兒侄女18人去佛羅里達迪士尼世界(Walt Disney World)遊玩之後就沒有度過假。那是他17年來的第一次度假，現在也沒有再次度假的計劃。煉油廠的事讓他忙不過來。'If there is anything higher than the national honor that the president gave me two years ago, which I do appreciate very much, then he obviously needs to give me another national honor for building a refinery that we never, ever dreamt about,' he said.
他說：“總統在兩年前給了我國家榮譽，我非常感激；如果說有什麼東西高於它的話，那麼他顯然需要再給我一次國家榮譽，表彰我建成一座我們做夢都不曾想過的煉油廠。”The billionaire's private jet was landing in Lagos at 1 a.m. last month when his pilot got a call from air-traffic controllers. Mr. Gates, the Microsoft Corp. co-founder and one of the world's richest men, had just spent two days with Mr. Dangote but was stranded 400 miles away by a broken-down plane.
2013年11月一天的凌晨一點鐘，丹格特的私人飛機正要在拉各斯降落，飛行員便接到空中交通管理員打來的電話。微軟集團(Microsoft Corp.)聯合創始人、世界最富裕人士之一蓋茨剛剛和丹格特一起呆了兩天，但因爲飛機故障，被困在了400英里以外的一個地方。Mr. Dangote told his pilot to turn around, pick up Mr. Gates and fly back to Lagos. Mr. Dangote got home at 4 a.m. and was at his desk by 7:30.
丹格特讓飛行員返航，接上了蓋茨，又飛回拉各斯。丹格特在凌晨四點鐘到家，7點30分的時候他已經坐在了辦公桌前。
