In the casino of dealmaking, a small bet on a potentially big return is often worth making. Nestlé has done just that. The S$2.1bn it is offering for 60 per cent of Singapore-listed Hsu Fu Chi is less than 1 per cent of the Swiss food group’s market capitalisation. And the Chinese food maker will only add about 0.5 per cent to Nestlé’s Sfr110bn in revenues last year. Yet for what is effectively a rounding error, the Swiss giant has agreed to buy an extensive distribution network in everyone’s dream market. Hsu Fu Chi is a call option on growth in the Chinese middle class.
在撮合交易的賭場里，用小額賭注押注于可能獲得的巨大收益，通常是值得的。雀巢(Nestlé)就押下了這樣一注。該公司將以21億新元收購在新加坡上市的徐福記60%的股權，這個金額還不到這家瑞士食品集團市值的1%。這家中國食品制造商將為雀巢增加的收入，僅相當于后者去年1100億瑞士法郎營收的約0.5%。然而，相對于幾乎可以忽略不計的收購成本，這家瑞士巨頭同意買入的，卻是一個遍布中國這個人人都垂涎的巨大市場的分銷網絡。徐福記是對中國中產階層壯大的看漲期權。