Japanese companies should be snapping up acquisitions all over the world. Balance sheets are light on debt and heavy on cash: Canon, which reported strong first-quarter figures yesterday, has $7.2bn in net cash and equivalents, more than LG Electronics, Ericsson and Xerox put together. Debt has rarely been cheaper, with higher-rated companies paying just a few dozen basis points over government bond yields. Paying with stock should be no stretch either, as the world's highest price/earnings ratios give Japanese issuers the world's lowest cost of equity. Most significantly, there is precious little nominal growth at home, where vested interests – as in the aborted $25bn Kirin/Suntory deal – often get in the way of mergers aimed at making cost savings. The clincher should be the 25 per cent swing in the yen/dollar rate over the past three years, in effect handing bidders who expect the yen to weaken again a control premium for free.
日本企業(yè)目前應(yīng)該在全球各地出手搶購(gòu)資產(chǎn)。在它們的資產(chǎn)負(fù)債表上，債務(wù)負(fù)擔(dān)很輕，現(xiàn)金儲(chǔ)備充沛。比如昨日發(fā)布強(qiáng)勁一季度業(yè)績(jī)的佳能(Canon)，其賬上擁有72億美元凈現(xiàn)金及現(xiàn)金等價(jià)物，超過(guò)了LG電子、愛立信(Ericsson)和施樂(lè)(Xerox)三家公司的總和。日本企業(yè)的債務(wù)成本幾乎低得不能再低，評(píng)級(jí)較高的公司只需支付比政府債券收益率高出十幾個(gè)基點(diǎn)的價(jià)格。以股票支付收購(gòu)成本也沒什么壓力：全世界最高的市盈率水平，使日本發(fā)行方的股權(quán)成本位居全球最低。最重要的是，其本土市場(chǎng)名義增長(zhǎng)率極低，在那里，旨在節(jié)省成本的并購(gòu)交易往往會(huì)受到既得利益群體的阻礙。比如，麒麟啤酒(Kirin)和三得利啤酒(Suntory)之間250億美元的交易就被迫流產(chǎn)。而一個(gè)關(guān)鍵因素應(yīng)該是日元兌美元匯率在過(guò)去三年中25%的波動(dòng)幅度。對(duì)預(yù)期日元將再次走軟的競(jìng)購(gòu)方來(lái)說(shuō)，它們付出的控制權(quán)溢價(jià)實(shí)際上為零。