经济学人下载:马恒达呀马恒达 最适的运动型多功能车

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Mahindra & Mahindra
马恒达呀马恒达

SUVival of the fittest
最适的运动型多功能车

Mahindra has become the pin-up of Indian capitalism—a home-grown automotive champion.
马恒达广受印度资本家喜爱—系国产汽车冠军。

Now it must resist complacency and be prepared to take bigger risks
现在，它必须杜绝得意忘形，为更大的挑战做好准备。

INSIDE Anand Mahindra, an Indian tycoon, there is a rebel bursting to get out. He works amid aircraft models and walls of framed posters and has a mildly indiscreet Twitter account with a million followers.
在印度企业大亨阿南德·马欣德拉心里，有一个叛逆小人要爆发冲出来。

A former film student at Harvard, he describes his country's malaise using the metaphor of Star Wars.
他从事于飞机模型制造和带框装饰画的墙壁，拥有一个些微张扬的推特号，关注者百万。

Graft and cronyism in India are like an evil Empire that has struck back.
作为一名哈佛电影系学生，他用把国内不安的现状比喻成星球大战。

His hope is that middle-class and young Indians become Jedi knights to battle the Dark Side.
印度的贪污和任人唯亲风气就像一个邪恶帝国回击着，而他的希望就是，中产阶级和印度青年们化身为绝地武士与黑暗面斗争。

Most of the time, though, Mr Mahindra, aged 58, is a senior statesman—the acceptable face of Indian capitalism, especially since the retirement in 2012 of the admired Ratan Tata from Tata Sons.
尽管年已58的马欣德拉在大多数情况下被视为政界元老—受欢迎的印度资本家面目，尤其是倍受崇敬的Rantan Tata在2012年从塔塔集团退休后。

Mahindra & Mahindra dominates India's market for sport-utility vehicles and is the world's largest tractor firm by volume, selling them in India and abroad—it is sufficiently entrenched in America to sponsor Texan bull-riding tournaments.
马恒达集团主导印度SUV市场，其拖拉机倾销国内外，在销售数量上成为世界最大的拖拉机制造商—在美国有足够能力赞助德克萨斯骑野牛竞标赛。

It is not huge, being the fifth-biggest Indian family group by sales and the 17th largest Indian firm by market capitalisation.
马恒达并不大—按销售额算，排印度第五大家族企业；按市场资金算，仅排第17位。

But it is notable in several ways.
但是该公司在其他方面很著名。

First, it is a rare Indian manufacturing success—and has created its technology at home.
首先，马恒达是印度少有的制造业成功典例—并在国内创造了自己的技术。

Indian conglomerates are often financial quagmires but Mahindra has high returns and little debt, and uses capital efficiently.
印度联合企业常陷入经济困境，但是马恒达收益很高，几乎没有债务，资金也得到有效利用。

In a country where power is dynastic it is the business house closest to being controlled by outside investors: the family and its allies own only 25%.
在这个权力世袭的国家，商业才是最有可能被外来投资者控制的：家族和其合盟者只占25%。

Mr Mahindra is the third generation, and probably the last, to be boss—there is no obvious family successor. Lastly, the group is known for avoiding cronyism.
马欣德拉是第三代领导班子，也许是最后一代——没有一个明显的家族继承者。最后，这个集团在反任人唯亲方面做得很出色。

Mr Mahindra has kept away from industries that require a competence for lobbying, and says he avoids Delhi, India's capital, like the plague.
马欣德拉远离了需要游说能力的企业，他说他避开了首都德里，例如瘟疫。

The magic formula has ordinary ingredients:
神奇公式的因式组成很普通：

luck and judgment.
幸运和判断力。

When India liberalised in 1991 Mahindra was sprawling and flabby like many of its peers—making everything from jeeps to lifts.
1991年印度独立时，马欣德拉像其他许多同龄人一样，漫无目的，性情疲软。

It slimmed fast, perhaps because the family's low stake made it vulnerable to a takeover.
企业经济缩减很快，也许是因为家族占比低，使得企业很容易被收购。

In 1993 it hired PawanGoenka, a veteran of Detroit, who now runs the automotive unit.
1993年，马恒达聘请了底特律老兵PawanGoenka，他现在掌管汽车部门。

Then came a fall in property prices, in 1997-98, which stretched the firm's finances and forced it into some hard choices, says Bharat Doshi, a director.
一位名叫Bharat Doshi的经理叙述说，之后，1997年和1998年，迎来了一次房地产价格的下降，公司经济紧张，被迫做出一些艰难的选择。

Rather than put more cash into a joint venture with Ford, Mahindra backed its own SUV project.
马欣德拉坚持了自己的SUV计划，并没有投入更多的现金在与福特合资的企业中。

By 2002 a model called the Scorpio was born and by 2005 it was a huge hit.
到2002年，一个代号为蝎子的模型诞生了，到2005年，成效显著。

More good decisions have come since then.
从那以后，所做的正确决定越来越多。

New SUV models were launched.
新的SUV模型推出了。

In 2007 Mahindra had a sniff at Jaguar Land Rover, a British carmaker, but backed off.
2007年，马欣德拉拒绝了英国一家汽车制造商捷豹路虎，但是后来又放弃了。

Although JLR has since prospered under Tata's control, the 1 billion of cash it ate up in the first year of its new ownership would have overwhelmed Mahindra, which then had a market capitalisation of only 4 billion.
尽管自此之后JRL在塔塔集团的管理之下蓬勃发展，但是在第一年里，它吞下新买主的10亿美元很有可能对马恒达造成冲击，因为之后其市值仅为40亿美元。

In 2009 Mahindra bought Satyam, an IT-services firm that had been floored by a huge fraud.
2009年，马恒达收购了萨蒂扬。这是一家信息技术咨询与服务供应商，曾遭受惨重欺骗。

It fully merged Satyam with its own IT arm in June, lowering its stake to 26% in the process but helping to boost the value of the combined entity, which has reached 6 billion.
在6月，马恒达完全将萨蒂扬与本公司IT部合并，在这一过程中，持股降低到26%，但是帮助提高了联合体的价值，这一数值达到了60亿美元。

The big worry is that Mahindra will have a Nokia moment, when an apparently unassailable position crumbles.
较大的担忧就是，马恒达可能出现诺基亚时刻，到那时，明显攻不可破的地位也会崩塌。

The Indian SUV unit contributes about 55% of operating profits and cashflow.
印度SUV产业对操作利润和资金流转做出的贡献比占总量的55%。

It has a market share of 41% according to Hitesh Goel of Kotak, a broker.
据Kotak的经纪人Hitesh Goel所说，SUV现已有41%的市场份额。

Its returns on capital are tremendous, partly reflecting a relatively low level of technology investment.
资金的收益极大，这部分反映出技术投资相对较低。

Tractors, also with a 41% market share, contribute one-third of profits—and demand is booming thanks to this year's heavy monsoon rains.
拖拉机也占41%的市场份额，获得的收益占总收益的1/3—需求的增长多亏了今年的滂沱季风雨。

Max Warburton of Sanford C. Bernstein, a research firm, notes that the global SUV craze has created other successful specialists—China has Great Wall, a firm now worth 20 billion.
伯恩斯坦研究公司的麦克斯沃伯顿指出，全球SUV时尚促成了一些其他成功行家—中国的长城企业现值200亿美元。

But Mahindra's strong position in its home market is vulnerable to attack from the global carmaking giants, as they seek to diversify away from the uNPRofitable mass market for conventional cars towards such profitable niches.
但是马恒达强有力的位置只限于国内市场，很容易受到来自全球汽车制造巨头的攻击，就像他们企图在不获利的大众市场来寻求传统汽车的多样化，使之转向为有利可图的商机。

Renault and Ford have launched new SUVs and now everyone and his uncle, cat and dog is leaping in, says HormazdSorabjee, editor of Autocar India.
《印度汽车》编辑HormazdSorabjee这样说：雷诺和福特推出了新的SUV。

In tractors, too, foreign firms are developing the smaller machines that tend to do best in India, says AbhijeetNaik of CLSA, another broker.
另外一位来自CLSA的经纪人AbhijeetNaik也表示：同样的，在拖拉机方面，外国公司也正在发展更小型的拖拉机，试图做到印度最好。

Mahindra is not asleep at the wheel.
马恒达也并没有心不在焉。

It has new SUV models in the pipeline and a rural distribution network that will be hard for rivals to replicate.
它在管道上建立了新的SUV模型，以及一个难以被竞争者复制的农电网。

Still, it makes sense for it to invest in new areas.
并且，如果它投资在新的领域，也很有意义。

In 2011 it bought SsangYong, an ailing South Korean firm, and is nursing it back to health.
2011年，马恒达收购了一家衰落的韩国公司Ssang Yong，逐渐使其恢复正常运营。

Mahindra hopes to use its brand to build a presence in pickup trucks and two-wheelers—efforts which analysts tend to hate, arguing that both product lines are losing money and face formidable competitors.
马恒达希望能用现有的牌子在小型卡车和自行车领域建立一席之地—分析家讨厌这样的努力成果，他们认为这两条生产线都在赔钱并且将面对强大的对手。

Yet taken together these three experimental areas are hardly big bets, consuming only about one-fifth of the group's underlying cashflow.
但是如果仅用掉集团1/5潜在流转资金，来把这三项实验性领域都集中起来，这并不是什么大赌注。

Mahindra spends only 170m a year on research and development—1.9% of its market value.
每年马恒达在研发上只花费1.7亿美元—市值的1.9%。

It has a conservative balance-sheet, with no almost no net debt once you exclude the liabilities in its listed finance arm.
它的资产负债表很稳定，如果你将财政分部的债务除开，马恒达几乎没有净负债。

Sometimes being an admired firm is a trap.
其实有时成为一个受人仰慕的公司是个坑。

Investors get addicted to steady cashflows and become jittery about risky new projects.
投资者一心想稳定资金流转，对于新的风险投资项目会显得过分紧张。

Mahindra could legitimately invest heavily in developing big tractors for the American market, trying to export more SUVs under its own brand or SsangYong's, and broadening its rural presence into new areas such as logistics.
马恒达会对美国市场进行大型拖拉机的大规模正当投资，寄望于能够在自身或者Ssang Yong的品牌下出口更多的SUV，扩大农村市场到新的领域，比如物流。

It could also buy a Western car firm, to acquire better technology—already it is considering a new research centre in Britain.
它还有可能买下另外一个西方的汽车公司，来获取更好的技术—马恒达已经在考虑在英国建一个研究中心。

Mr Mahindra says it is not in our culture to bet the ranch.
马欣德拉说：在我们文化里并不会拿全部家当做赌注。

But it must not be too conservative either.
但是它也不能太保守。

Capitalism only works when the best firms rebel a bit and take some risks.
只有当最好的公司些微有点叛逆意识，并敢冒险时，资本主义才会奏效。