If you listen closely, you might be able to hearsomething that sounds like the continents shiftingand grinding together, deep under the earth’s crust.Is there an earthquake coming? No, that’s just thesound of massive piles of cash being moved—thevast sums of money that Uber and its Chinese rivalDidi Chuxing are stockpiling for their battle to ownthe global ride-hailing market.
假如細心凝聽，眾人大概能聽到地殼深處大陸板塊漂移擠壓的聲音。是要地動了嗎?非也。那不外是兩大堆資金移動的聲音，更精確點說是優步及個中國競爭敵手滴滴出行動爭取環球叫車辦事市場籌集巨款。
Just a couple of weeks ago, Uber raised $3.5 billion in financing from the investment fundbelonging to Saudi Arabia’s royal family as part of a total financing worth $5 billion, one of thelargest funding rounds ever raised by a venture-backed company. That investment broughtthe total raised by Uber to more than $10 billion, and gave it a theoretical market value ofabout $62 billion.
就在幾周前，沙特皇室旗下的投資基金向優步投資35億美元，優步本輪融資範圍已達50億美元，成為風投支撐的公司有史以來籌集金額最大的一次。優步的總融資額也是以沖破100億美元，理論上市場代價到達約620億美元。
Now there are reports that Uber is raising as much as $2 billion more, but this time it is doingso via the debt market, a somewhat more risky endeavor than the equity or venture-capitalmarkets. One reason it may be doing so is to avoid diluting its existing equity value forexisting investors, in advance of a possible initial public offering of stock next year. A debtissue of this kind also means it doesn’t have to publicly release its financial information.
今朝有報導稱，優步還要再融資20億美元，不外是從債券市場，債市融資比從股市或私募市場融資危害若幹要大一些。優步之以是斟酌這類方法，一個緣故原由多是為防止攤薄現有投資者手中的權柄代價，由於來歲該公司有大概上市。別的，優步采用的債務融資方法發債無需頒布財政數據。
Not to be outdone, Didi Chuxing just finished raising $7 billion in funding from a group ofinvestors that includes Apple and China’s top life insurance company. The round consisted of$4.5 billion in equity funding and $2.5 billion in debt, and gives the Uber competitor atheoretical market value of about $28 billion.
不甘落於下風的滴滴出行也方才向一群投資者籌集了70億美元資金，包含蘋果公司和中國最大的壽險公司。滴滴此輪融資包含45億美元的股票和25億美元的債券，其理論市場代價到達280億美元上下。
But Didi’s strongest card in this rapidly accelerating game of automotive chicken may not beits growing cash hoard. The company, which was created last year by the merger of twocompeting taxi-hailing apps, also has some extremely powerful local investors—includingChina’s e-commerce giant Alibaba and its social-networking behemoth Tencent. Bothreportedly put money into the latest round, and they clearly have the resources to finance asignificant battle. Start your engines.
但是，在這場愈演愈烈的汽車界怯夫博弈中，滴滴的王牌不見得是連續增加的資金貯備。滴滴由兩家曾互相競爭的叫車辦事商歸並而成，暗地裏的投資者有一些氣力相稱深摯，個中包含中國電子商務巨頭阿裏巴巴和交際收集巨無霸騰訊。據報導，阿裏和騰訊都介入了滴滴的最新一輪融資，並且兩家的資本頂住一場大仗明顯不可題目。軍號已吹響，焚燒動員引擎吧。
市場價：HK$ 110
