经济学人215:重塑皮拉马尔

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　　商业报道

　　Reimagining Piramal

　　重塑皮拉马尔

　　Blood, sweat, but no tears

　　流血，流汗，不流泪

　　An old Indian business house still has fire in its belly¹

　　作为印度一家老牌企业，皮拉马尔依然激情澎湃

　　WHEN his brother's death in 1984 is mentioned, Ajay Piramal , a big, calm man, still looks sad.

　　提起1984年他哥哥之死时，阿贾伊?皮拉马尔，这个高大冷静的汉子，仍然是面露悲伤。

　　That tragedy propelled him at the age of 29 to the helm of one of India's big, old and flagging business houses.

　　那场悲剧将29岁的他推上了企业舵手的位子，执掌印度一家正在衰落的老资格大型企业。

　　Since then he has run it with a stark² lack of sentimentality and with outrageous⁴ success.

　　从那时起，他在企业运营上没有半点多愁善感，取得了巨大的成功。

　　Having sold the crown jewels—a generic⁵-drugs outfit—in 2010, for $3.8 billion, he is now busy re-imagining the family firm for the third time.

　　2010年他将企业皇冠上的珠宝非专利药部门以38亿美元售出，现在，他正忙于家族企业的第三次重整。

　　Given his record, it is worth paying attention.

　　以他过去的记录来看，此事值得关注。

　　Piramal's first reincarnation came in the 1980s.

　　80年代，皮拉马尔经历了第一次重生。

　　The main textiles business was dying. Its workers were striking; its mills were outdated⁶ and packed into central Mumbai.

　　企业的主业纺织业正走向衰亡。企业的工人在罢工，陈旧的工厂拥挤在孟买市中心。皮拉马尔先生削减了员工，搬迁了工厂。

　　Mr Piramal cut staff and moved out. Today the land he freed forms a new business district, where snazzy towers sprout⁷ from the ruins of old factories.

　　今天，当年腾出来的地块形成了新的商业区，一座座时髦的高塔如雨后春笋般从老厂房的废墟上拔地而起。

　　Some textiles clans⁹ have since lived off their property. Others began new adventures.

　　一些纺织企业从此吃上老本，其他的转去开拓新的生意。

　　A branch of the Wadia family, old Mumbai royalty¹⁰, started an airline.

　　孟买历史悠久的瓦蒂亚皇室家族4旗下一个分支，开始经营航空业。

　　Piramal began making generic drugs for Indians, buying in 1988 the local unit of a British firm and then picking up similar operations from other foreign pharmaceutical¹¹ firms which had lost hope in India.

　　皮拉马尔则开始为印度百姓生产非专利药，他于1988年收购了一家英国制药公司的本地部门，之后，又轻松地与其他几家对印度丧失信心的外国药企完成了多宗类似交易。

　　Often multinationals¹² move in a herd¹³ mentality³, says Mr Piramal.

　　通常，跨国公司的行动带有从众心理，皮拉马尔先生说道。

　　By the late 2000s Piramal was India's third-largest drugs firm.

　　到本世纪头十年的末期，皮拉马尔成为了印度第三大制药公司。

　　This second incarnation ended abruptly¹⁴.

　　皮拉马尔的第二次重整戛然而止。

　　In 2004, with his brother's sons grown up, the clan⁸ split, apparently¹⁵ amicably¹⁶, with Mr Piramal's nephews and their mother taking the property and textile units.

　　2004年，他哥哥的儿子们长大成人，家族也随之分裂，皮拉马尔的几个侄儿和他们的母亲分得房地产和纺织部门，表面上还是一团和气。

　　In 2010 Abbott, an American drugs firm with a history of failing to crack India, bid a preposterous¹⁷ $3.8 billion for the Indian generic-drugs business, which had just $425m of sales.

　　2010年，一直未能叩开印度市场大门的美国雅培制药，对皮拉马尔年销售额不过4.25亿美元的非专利药部门开出了高得离谱的38亿美元收购价格。

　　It was a stiff price, says the diplomatic Mr Piramal, who had not expected the bid and says the negotiations¹⁸ over price took only a few hours.

　　这是个高昂的报价，老练的皮拉马尔说，他没有料到这个出价，而且协商价格只用了几个小时。

　　What now?

　　现在是个什么情况？

　　Mr Piramal has parked part of the proceeds by buying a stake in Vodafone's Indian arm, an arrangement that looks temporary.

　　皮拉马尔先生将部分交易收益投入对沃达丰印度公司的股权收购中，貌似这只是暂时的安排。

　　He is a critic of crony capitalism¹⁹ in India, which limits his options.

　　他总是批评印度的裙带资本主义，这使得他的选择有限。

　　The boom in infrastructure²⁰ in 2007-10, when well connected entrepreneurs milked government links, did not feel right, he says. Many are now in financial trouble and a few are under investigation²¹.

　　2007年至2010年，基础设施建设蓬勃发展，人脉广泛的企业家们与政府勾结而自肥，皮拉马尔对此感觉不对劲。很多这类企业现在深陷财务危机，有一些正被调查。

　　Instead, Piramal has three new areas of emphasis.

　　相反，皮拉马尔将重点放在三个新的领域。

　　One is a limited re-entry into property.

　　一个是有限地再次进军房地产业。

　　Land prices have dropped as some Mumbai developers have become overstretched.

　　由于孟买一些开发商扩张过度，地价有所下跌。

　　And there has been a recent crackdown on the corrupt²² nexus²³ between developers and officials.

　　近期政府又打击了一起官商勾结的腐败问题。

　　People like us were at a disadvantage, he says.

　　像我们一样的人吃了亏，他说到。

　　Now, at least for a while, they are not.

　　现在，至少暂时，他们没有吃亏了。

　　The second new area is health-care services in America.

　　第二个新的领域是美国的医疗服务业。

　　On May 16th Piramal spent $635m on Decision Resources, a Massachusetts firm that analyses and crunches²⁴ data on drugs and treatments.

　　五月十六日，皮拉马尔向马萨诸塞州一家名为决策资源的公司投资6.35亿美元，该公司从事药物与疾病治疗的数据分析与处理业务。

　　He is betting that treatments will become ever more specialised and that the buyers of drugs in America—state bodies and insurance firms—will become even more finicky and cost-conscious.

　　他的判断是，疾病治疗将会更加专业化，而美国的药品买家将会更加挑剔、更加注重节省成本。

　　Drug firms are outsourcing this kind of activity.

　　制药公司将此类业务进行外包。

　　That logic²⁵ seems to embody²⁶ a conventionally gloomy view of the pharmaceuticals²⁷ industry, which seems unable to discover enough new drugs or to protect its patents on old ones.

　　这种逻辑似乎体现了对于制药业习以为常的悲观看法，即人们认为制药业无法开发出足够多的新药，并且也无法保护已研制出的药品专利。

　　Piramal's third area of expansion is thus a surprise:

　　因此，皮拉马尔的第三个扩张领域出人意料：

　　Mr Piramal wants to invent new blockbuster drugs.

　　皮拉马尔先生想要创造出有巨大影响的新药。

　　Surely that is a business model as obsolete²⁸ as inner-city textile mills?

　　这不是和在城中心建纺织厂同样过时的商业模式吗？

　　Mr Piramal thinks not, especially if research and clinical trials can be shifted to India, where costs could be as little as a tenth of those in the rich world.

　　皮拉马尔先生并不这么认为，尤其是考虑到如果能将药物研发与临床试验从发达国家迁移到印度进行，成本将会降至十分之一。

　　We're hopeful that we'll discover new drugs and make breakthroughs, he says.

　　我们对发现新药并取得突破充满信心，他说。

　　We take a contrarian view.

　　我们的观点是逆势而为。

　　1.belly n.腹部

　　My belly is empty.

　　我肚子饿了。

　　2.outrageous a.过分的；骇人的

　　The princess spent an outrageous amount on clothes.

　　公主在穿着上挥霍无度。

　　3.reincarnation n.转世；再生

　　Buddhists²⁹ believe in reincarnation.

　　佛教徒相信投胎转世。

　　4.property n.财产；所有物；地产，房地产

　　The property was returned to the original owner.

　　财产已归还原主。

　　5.pharmaceutical a.制药的；配药的

　　Her brother is interested in pharmaceutical botany.

　　她的哥哥对药草感兴趣。

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