马云能否兑现路演承诺？

1992年，马云(Jack Ma)还是杭州的一位英语教师，他需要筹措大约4000美元来创办他的首个企业——一家翻译机构。他努力了好几个月，却没有成功。
上周五，这位阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的创始人却成功实现了史上最大规模的上市活动之一，在一部分全球最大型银行的帮助下，从一部分全球最大的投资者手中筹集了218亿美元。
为了做到这一点，他曾面临一个挑战：要在包括100场会议的路演中说服投资者相信，他的集团可为他们带来中国电商成长故事中的诱人好处，同时不会让他们面临西方投资者常在中国企业身上看到的风险。如今，问题变成了他能否兑现他的承诺。
在上市临近之时，潜在的投资者表达了几点担忧：首先是这家在开曼群岛注册的集团的架构，该集团的许多业务是通过马云及其一位同事所有的“可变利益实体”(VIE)运营的；其次是该集团的治理结构，该集团实权落在一个由30人组成的合伙人团队手中；还有就是对中国自身的担忧，在中国目前的热点新闻中，到处都是有关腐败及政府干预的消息。
马云甚至还曾告诉潜在的股东，他们的利益将被摆在阿里巴巴的客户和员工之后。然而，截至开盘当日收盘时，阿里巴巴的股价较发行价上涨了38%。投资者对阿里巴巴首次公开发行(IPO)的这种回应表明，马云赢得了他们的支持。
今年50岁的马云想让国际投资者相信，不仅阿里巴巴不像许多中国企业那样神秘，而且这次IPO将有助于该集团进一步提高透明度。
在纽约证交所(NYSE)，镜头前的马云一再强调：“要信任。信任我们，信任市场，信任年轻人。信任新科技。世界正变得更加透明。”
摩根凯瑞资本管理公司(Morgan Creek Capital Management)首席执行官马克•尤斯科(Mark Yusko)表示：“对中国企业、中国企业架构和中国政府的偏见，是有待克服的巨大障碍。”
阿里巴巴IPO营销的核心内容，是它对中国增长的预期。在中国，消费者开支正迅速增长，互联网普及率远远落后于欧美和日本，电子商务正呈现爆炸式增长。
马云告诉CNBC，中国每天递送的2700万包裹，多数源于使用阿里巴巴平台的企业。然而，10年内中国每天递送的包裹数或将增长到2亿个。他说，阿里巴巴很像全球最大零售商沃尔玛(Walmart)，是一家“改变了世界”的企业。他接着说，除此之外，“我们还想比沃尔玛做得更大”。
阿里巴巴的治理结构曾令它无法在香港上市。不过马云表示，为确保阿里巴巴的企业文化在创始人离开后仍能延续，这种独特的合伙人结构很有必要。
马云还回答了西方基金经理对中国发展趋势的怀疑。他写道，“由于文化视角、价值观、甚至是地缘政治定位上的分歧”，任何能与阿里巴巴相提并论的中国互联网企业预计都会遭遇人们的怀疑。不过，阿里巴巴有机会“在中国创造新的商业定式”。
部分投资者问到阿里巴巴是否会与中国政府发生冲突，马云对阿里巴巴的描绘却正相反。他说，阿里巴巴是一家帮助解决政府面临的问题的企业。他说，每年有850万商家通过阿里巴巴在线市场交易价值3000亿美元的商品，阿里巴巴不仅创造了就业岗位，还支持着农村小企业的发展，推动着经济增长。
在与投资者谈话时，马云（他取英文名时听从了一名美国游客的建议）一直努力打消人们对其可能在美国电商市场引起一场腥风血雨的担忧。美国电商市场是全世界最发达的。
阿里巴巴已在帮助从加州到华盛顿的小企业将车厘子和海鲜等商品卖到中国。相对于直接挑战亚马逊(Amazon)和eBay，他对开发亚洲和非洲的市场更有兴趣。
马云一直说服投资者信任他，迄今为止他成功了。此次路演让阿里巴巴团队的许多资深成员首次密集接触到从伦敦到新加坡的各国投资者的思维方式。在路演之后，马云国际野心的提升可能会催生此次IPO的另一项宝贵遗产。
In 1992, when Jack Ma was an English teacher in Hangzhou, he needed about $4,000 to start his first business, a translation agency. He tried for months without success.
On Friday, Alibaba’s founder pulled off one of the largest listings in history, raising $21.8bn from some of the world’s largest investors and with the help of some of world’s largest banks.
To do so, he faced the challenge of persuading investors on a 100-meeting roadshow that his group could offer them the allure of China’s ecommerce growth story without the risks western investors often see in Chinese companies. Now, the question is whether he can deliver on his promises.
As the listing approached, potential investors voiced several concerns: about the structure of the Cayman Islands-registered group which conducts much of its business through “variable interest entities” owned by Mr Ma and a colleague; about a corporate governance arrangement wher power resides in a partnership of 30 people; and about China itself, wher headlines are dominated by corruption and government intervention.
Mr Ma even told prospective shareholders that their interests would come after those of Alibaba’s customers and employees. Yet the response to Alibaba’s initial public offering, with the shares ending the opening day 38 per cent above wher they priced, suggests he won them over.
The 50-year-old set out to convince international investors not only that Alibaba was less mysterious than many Chinese companies, but that the IPO would help it become more transparent.
In front of the cameras at the New York Stock Exchange, he hammered home this message: “Trust. Trust us, trust the market, and trust the young people. Trust the new technology. The world is getting more transparent.”
Mark Yusko, chief investment officer of Morgan Creek Capital Management, said: “Bias against Chinese companies, against Chinese corporate structures and against the Chinese government were huge hurdles to overcome.”
At the core of Alibaba’s sales pitch lay its growth projections for China, wher consumer spending is rising fast, internet penetration lags far behind the US, Europe and Japan, and ecommerce is exploding.
Businesses using Alibaba already account for a majority of the 27m packages shipped in China each day, but in 10 years the number of packages could hit 200m a day, Mr Ma told CNBC. Much like Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, Alibaba was a company that “shaped the world”, he said. For good measure, he added: “We want to be bigger than Walmart.”
Alibaba’s governance structure was enough to prevent a Hong Kong listing, but Mr Ma said that its unusual partnership structure was needed to ensure that its culture could outlive its founder.
Mr Ma also tackled western fund managers’ qualms about China head on. Any comparable Chinese internet company could expect to face scepticism “due to differences in cultural perspectives, values and even geopolitical positioning”, he wrote. But Alibaba had the opportunity “to create a new business paradigm in China”.
As some investors asked whether Alibaba might fall foul of China’s government, Mr Ma painted it instead as a company that helped solve the state’s problems. With 8.5m sellers trading $300bn worth of goods through its marketplaces each year, it was creating jobs, supporting small businesses in rural villages and aiding economic growth, he said.
Mr Ma, who adopted his anglicised name on the suggestion of a US tourist, in conversations with investors has played down fears that he might pick a fight in the US, the most developed ecommerce market in the world.
Alibaba was already helping small businesses from California to Washington sell goods including cherries and seafood to China. He is more interested in developing markets in Asia and Africa than in going head-to-head with Amazon and eBay.
Mr Ma has so far persuaded investors to take him on trust. But after a roadshow that gave many of his senior team their first intense exposure to the thinking of investors from London to Singapore, the boost to his international ambitions could provide another valuable legacy from the IPO.