万达投资把西班牙带进中国投资者视野
王健林是中国最大的富商之一，今年6月，他在马德里买下了一栋空置多年的地标性建筑物。这栋佛朗哥时代的建筑物于1953年开业，当时是西班牙最高的摩天大楼，2008年时，它成了西班牙房地产市场崩溃的象征。
王健林的企业集团大连万达斥资2.65亿欧元（约合人民币21亿元），买下这栋25层楼高的西班牙大厦(Edificio España)，在当地，此举被视为其国内房地产市场正在复苏，以及该国在中国投资者的计划中正在变得更加重要的一个证据。
这笔交易“把西班牙带进了中国机构投资者的视野中，当看到至少有一宗大规模的交易在进行，他们对于进入一个新市场就会更觉安心，”费尔南多·贡戈拉(Fernando de Góngora)说；他是Reliance Star Partners咨询公司的创始人，该公司位于香港，为西班牙和中国投资者提供咨询服务。
但如果西班牙若想趁着这个势头有所作为，它还有很多工作要做。本周三，西班牙首相马里亚诺·拉霍伊(Mariano Rajoy)开始对中国的为期三天的国事访问。这是他2011年年底上任之后，第一次出访中国。而2005年成为德国总理的安格拉·默克尔(Angela Merkel)，已经在今年7月完成了她对中国的第七次正式访问。
为了让投资者感到受欢迎，西班牙政府出台了若干举措。例如，根据西班牙之前的一项法律，国家法庭可以起诉中国领导人侵犯西藏人权，该国今年取消了这项法律。此外，西班牙还允许在该国购置物业的人申请居留权，中国的一些个人投资者已经从该方案中受益。
7月，西班牙贸易国务秘书詹姆·加西亚-勒加斯(Jaime García-Legaz)前往中国时，称马德里总共签署了1880份“黄金签证”，其中282份由中国公民获得。外国人如果在西班牙购置了价值不低于16万欧元的物业，就可以获得该国的居留签证。
加西亚-勒加斯承认，中西目前的交易水平“仍然属于小规模投资，但最重要的是，中国的目光已经投向了西班牙。”他还警告说，中国是仅次于美国的全球第二大经济体，西班牙企业应该更加关注中国。
“任何具有国际视野的人，都不能错过这个投资机会，”加西亚-勒加斯说。
但是，在考虑新兴市场的机会时，西班牙公司历来都把目光投向拉丁美洲。西班牙艾赛德商学院(Esade)最近的一份报告称，在该国的投资目的地中，中国排名第26，仅占西班牙外国直接投资总额的0.5%。
两国之间的企业关系仍然不强，只有少许例外。西班牙能源公司雷普索尔(Repsol)与规模大得多的中国同行中石化成立了一家合资公司，在巴西勘探石油。
贷款机构西班牙对外银行(BBVA)的情况更为典型，它目前在墨西哥开展的银行业务，比其国内市场的利润更高。2013年10月，西班牙对外银行决定削减其在中信银行的持股比例，以满足国际资本要求。中信银行属于中国政府控制的一个企业集团。
2012年，西班牙电信业巨头Telefónica为了削减债务，也将其持有的中国联通的股份减半。
与此同时，目前只有60家中国公司在西班牙开展业务，艾赛德的教授伊万娜·卡萨布里(Ivana Casaburi)说，她是该商学院关于中国的一份报告的主要作者。中国人对西班牙的投资正在大幅增加，但其基数较低，艾赛德的研究称。他们最近把目光投向西班牙房地产市场，正值今年第二季度该国房价上涨，这还是自2008年以来的首次上涨。
大连万达对西班牙大厦的收购，显示了全球各地的投资者，可以在西班牙遭受重创的房地产市场找到价廉物美的目标。万达集团支付的价格，比桑坦德银行(Banco Santander)2005年支付的3.89亿欧元低了约三分之一；2005年是西班牙房地产开发热潮的鼎盛期。
大连万达打算改造这栋建筑物的结构，开设豪华公寓和一家酒店，配合这片地区将要进行的规模更大的改造。这里将会兴建一些酒店，而中国投资者对酒店物业特别感兴趣，因为“他们认为，中国游客出外旅行的时候，应该感觉像在家里一样，”艾赛德的卡萨布里说。
中国投资者最近还收购了马略卡岛的度假酒店瓦尔帕莱索宫(Valparaíso Palace)，交易价格为4800万欧元。今年5月，另一家中国集团海航集团宣布，将把对西班牙酒店集团NH Hoteles的持股比例增加至29.9%，仅低于30%的门槛；西班牙规定，持股比例达到30%将构成完整的收购义务。海航最初是在2013年收购了NH Hoteles 20%的股份。
这宗投资受到了NH的欢迎。该集团总部位于马德里，旗下367家酒店主要分布在欧洲，欧元区主权债务危机爆发之后，NH出现了资金短缺。
NH首席执行官费德里科·冈萨雷斯·特赫拉(Federico González Tejera)承认，海航集团的前期投入发生“在一个对我们而言非常微妙的时刻”。但他表示，海航集团成为该公司第一大股东的好处，已经超出现金范畴：该集团拥有海南航空以及一些中国酒店，因而提供了开展更深层次合作的前景。（更多资讯请浏览中国进出口网）
Sale of a Landmark Skyscraper Puts Spain on the Map of Chinese Investors
MADRID — In June, one of China’s richest men, Wang Jianlin, bought a landmark office tower in Madrid that had stood empty for years. The Franco-era building, Spain’s tallest skyscraper when it opened in 1953, had become a symbol of the Spanish real estate market’s collapse in 2008.The purchase of the 25-story Edificio España by Mr. Wang’s conglomerate, the Dalian Wanda Group, for 265 million euros, or about $340 million, was seen here as evidence that the nation’s property market was on the mend — and that Spain was figuring more prominently in the plans of Chinese investors.
The deal “put Spain on the map for Chinese institutional investors, who generally feel a lot more comfortable about going into a new market once they have seen at least one large transaction go ahead,” said Fernando de Góngora, a founder of Reliance Star Partners, a consulting firm based in Hong Kong that advises Spanish and Chinese investors.
But Spain has work to do if it wants to build on that momentum. Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, is to begin a three-day state visit to China on Wednesday. It will be his first visit to China since he took office in late 2011. Angela Merkel, who took office in 2005 as the German chancellor, made her seventh official visit to China in July.
The Spanish government has made several moves to make investors feel welcome. For example, this year it scrapped a law that allowed Spain’s national court to indict Chinese political leaders on charges of human rights violations in Tibet. In addition, individual Chinese investors have benefited from a program that allows foreigners who buy property in Spain to apply for residency.
In July, when the Spanish secretary of state for the economy, Jaime García-Legaz, traveled to China, he noted that Chinese citizens had received 282 of the 1,880 “golden visas” granted by Madrid. In the case of Spain, its visas give residency to any foreigner who buys property worth at least €160,000 or $205,500.
Mr. García-Legaz acknowledged that the current level of deal-making “amounts to still small investments, but the most important thing is that China has put its focus on Spain.” He also warned that Spanish companies should pay closer attention to China, the world’s second-largest economy after the United States.
“To miss out on this investment opportunity is something that nobody with an international vocation can afford,” Mr. García-Legaz said.
But when Spanish companies look at emerging markets, they traditionally focus on Latin America. China ranks 26th as a destination for Spanish investment, accounting for just 0.5 percent of Spain’s total foreign direct investment, according to a recent report by Esade, the Spanish business school.
With some exceptions, corporate ties between the two countries are weak. True, Repsol, the Spanish energy company, is involved in a joint venture with Sinopec, its much-larger Chinese counterpart, to explore for oil in Brazil.
More typical is the case of BBVA, a Spanish lender that now earns more from its banking operations in Mexico than in its home market. BBVA decided in October 2013 to cut its stake in Citic Bank, part of a conglomerate controlled by the Chinese government, to help meet international capital requirements.
Telefónica, the Spanish telecommunications giant, halved its stake in China Unicom in 2012 to cut its debt.
At the same time, only 60 Chinese companies have operations in Spain, said lvana Casaburi, a professor at Esade and the lead author of the business school’s report on China. The Chinese are sharply increasing investment in Spain, but from a low base, according to the Esade study. Their recent focus on the Spanish real estate market comes as housing prices rose in the second quarter for the first time since 2008.
Dalian Wanda’s purchase of the Edificio España is representative of the bargains that investors from anywher in the world can find in Spain’s battered property market. The Chinese conglomerate is paying about a third less than the €389 million that Banco Santander paid in 2005, at the height of Spain’s construction boom.
Dalian Wanda plans to renovate the structure to include luxury apartments and a hotel as part of a broader overhaul of the neighborhood, including some other hotel projects. Chinese investors are particularly interested in hotel properties because “they believe Chinese tourists should feel like at home when they travel,” said Ms. Casaburi of Esade.
Chinese investors also recently acquired the Valparaíso Palace, a hotel resort on the island of Majorca, for €48 million. And in May, HNA, another Chinese conglomerate, announced it was raising its stake in NH Hoteles to 29.9 percent — just below the 30 percent threshold that makes a full takeover bid compulsory in Spain — after acquiring an initial interest of 20 percent in 2013.
The investment was welcome for NH, a Madrid-based operator of 367 hotels, mostly in Europe, that was left short of cash after the eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis.
Federico González Tejera, chief executive of NH, acknowledged that HNA’s initial investment had come “at a very delicate moment for us.” But he said the benefits of having HNA as his company’s largest shareholder went beyond cash: HNA owns Hainan Airlines as well as hotels in China, presenting a prospect of deeper cooperation in the future.
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