Text 4. Read this article and give Russian equivalents to the underlined expressions.

Guinness Share-trading Fraud

The Guinness share-trading fraud was a famous British business scandal of the 1980s. It involved an attempt to manipulate the stock market on a massive scale to inflate theprice of Guinness shares and thereby enhance its chances of a £2.7 billion take-over bid for the Scottish drinks company Distillers. Ernest Saunders, Gerald Ronson, Jack Lyons and Anthony Parnes, the so-called "Guinness four", were charged, paid heavy fines and, with the exception of Lyons, who was suffering from ill-health, served prison sentences later reduced on appeal.

In the UK stock market of 1986, where company takeovers proliferated after the Big Bangof deregulation, few were more ruthless and ambitious than Ernest Saunders. The son of Austrian Jewish parents who fled the Nazis, he had cut his business teeth with Nestlé and became Guinness’ managing director in 1981. He was hired by the company to transform Guinness after years of middling performance into a leading player in the world drinks industry.

Saunders knew that standing still was not an option for Guinness. Even large companies were being swallowed by market raiders. In 1985 he spent £300 million on the Bell’s whisky company, the following year he went for something much bigger - Distillers. Distillers was Scotland’s biggest company and it owned some of the most famous brand names in the world drinks market. In 1985 its profits were £233 million on a turnover of

£1.3 billion. But analysts believed it could do much better. Its problems were made worse by its old-fashioned management style.

In the spring of 1986, Distillers found itself subject to the unwanted takeover intentions of the supermarket group, Argyll, and cast around for a more sympathetic predator. Saunders saw Distillers as a perfect opportunity to expand Guinness and launched his bid for thecompany. His central problem was that Distillers was considerably larger than Guinness and could be purchased only by the offer of shares in Guinness for those in Distillers.

To win Distillers and its top whisky brands Guinness had needed to make sure that its shares were worth more than those of its rival Argyll. It did so by recruiting wealthy investors to by its shares and cover any losses. One of them was Gerald Ronson, the head of the Heron empire and one of Britain’s 100 richest people. He bought around £25 million of Guinness shares and was later paid a ―success fee‖ when the Distillers takeover bid was completed.

Such massive purchases of its stock in the crucial weeks of the battle artificially boostedthe price of Guinness shares. But there was one big problem with that: it was against the law. Under the Companies Act of 1985 it is illegal to manipulate share prices during a takeover bid. A company can’t inflate its share price by buying shares in itself and it can’t ask others to buy shares on its behalf.

Ernest Saunders and three other men involved in this affair were later to stand trial. Saunders was convicted and received a five-year sentence. He was released after 18 months because of being diagnosed as suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

 

 

Task 1. Complete this letter to shareholders. Use appropriate forms of these verbs:

rely on, combine with, consist of, advise on, succeed in, budget for, spend on, account for, compete with, invest in

Dear Shareholder,

I write to inform you that the Board has received information of a takeover bid for your company This_                            an attempt by Thor Engineering to acquire a controlling interest by offering to purchase shares at a price of 650 pence. We have brought in a team of consultants tothe tactics we should use to resist the bid.

Although the offer seems attractive, it does not reflect the true value of the company or take  into  account  our future  prospects, We  have                            a  major programme of expansion. During the next two years we plan to                  new plant and equipment. We have also allocated funds to                                               a new computerised stock control system which will allow us to                                                  our much larger rivals. Furthermore, we plan to                  

a machine tool company in a joint venture in China. We are confident this will allow the company to                               opening up new markets in Asia.

Policies like these              our success to date and contribute to our vision of the future. Therefore, we strongly advise you not to accept Thor Engineering’s offer. You can

   the Board to keep you fully informed of any future developments, but for the present we advise you to take no action in relation to the offer.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

Derek Hammond Chairman

Task 2. Give a free translation of this article using the following expressions:

frenzy over plum properties, to carry out “a takeover contract”, black raiders, black raiding, to receive a go-ahead for a transaction, attractive assets, noncompetitive, to find one’s niche in the market, to make officials and judges more responsible, to buy up the shares of attractive but underrated enterprises, to bring something out into the open, to introduce within civilised limits

Может ли захват быть дружественным?

Казалось бы, собственность в России поделили ещѐ в 90-е годы, но страсти вокруг

«лакомых кусков» не утихли. Что происходит в стране? Кто, как и зачем поглощает предприятия? Нужно ли бороться с рейдерами и как это делать?

ТЕРМИНОЛОГИЯ «слияния и поглощения», или M&A (mergers and acquisitions), пришла в наш бизнес-лексикон с Запада. В широком смысле под ней понимается объединение одной, более крупной компании, с другой, более мелкой. При слиянии владельцы приобретѐнной компании обычно сохраняют свои права на акции и долю уставного капитала в новом предприятии. При поглощении права на большинство акций получают новые владельцы, а прежние полностью теряют контроль над предприятием. Поглощения можно разделить на дружественные и недружественные. Дружественное поглощение — скупка контрольного пакета акций при поддержке топ-менеджмента компании; последующая реструктуризация предприятия и повышение его эффективности.

Недружественное поглощение — получение контроля над предприятием вопреки желанию части еѐ собственников и топ-менеджмента компании. Рейдерами обычно называют тех, кто выполняет заказ на поглощение. Водораздел между «плохими» и

«хорошими», или «черными» и «белыми» рейдерами проходит так же, как и в других

отраслях, где наряду с цивилизованными и легальными структурами действуют мошенники.

В странах с развитой экономикой поглощения подразделяются на дружественные, недружественные и незаконные. В российском праве такой классификации не существует. Наше корпоративное право молодое, и, конечно же, в нѐм отсутствуют многие нормы. В результате, недружественные поглощения предприятий у нас путают с насильственным и незаконным приобретением чужого бизнеса. Однако часто оказывается, что подобные недружественные поглощения действительно происходят с прямым нарушением закона. Так возникло понятие «черного рейдерства».

По мнению многих российских бизнесменов, законно вести бизнес в современных условиях не всегда получается. Из-за несовершенства законодательства получение разрешения на сделку зависит от конкретных чиновников, которые зачастую руководствуются личными финансовыми интересами. Но ведь это не значит, что нужно бороться со всеми, кто пытается объединить ряд предприятий в единую корпорацию. Практика слияний и поглощений предприятий существует во всѐм мире. На этом сколотили состояние многие известные компании, но при этом они увеличивали обороты, повышали эффективность производства, платили налоги и оздоравливали экономику своих стран.

Можно привести целый ряд примеров и из современной истории России. Хорошо известный с советских времѐн часовой завод «Слава», расположенный в центре Москвы, практически доживал свои дни — производство часов сократилось в 30 раз. В условиях рынка недвижимость стала более привлекательным активом, чем сам завод, продукция которого оказалась неконкурентоспособной по сравнению с дешѐвым импортом. Новый собственник предприятия банк «Глобэкс» в 2005 году объявил о планах построить на месте «Славы» крупнейший в Москве торгово- офисный комплекс, но при этом решил не закрывать завод. Напротив, чтобы справиться с кризисом на предприятии, банк привлѐк команду новых менеджеров и перебазировал производство из центра поближе к МКАД. Сегодня завод нашѐл свою нишу на рынке, постепенно наращивает производство — таким образом, всемирно известный отечественный часовой брэнд сохранѐн. Такое «белое» поглощение приносит выгоду и предприятию и всей российской экономике.

В течение последних лет Комитет Госдумы по собственности занимался изучением проблемы корпоративных отношений в России, изучал практику корпоративных конфликтов, разбирал истории захватов предприятий. На парламентских слушаниях Комитет по собственности представил концепцию совершенствования корпоративного права. Одно из направлений концепции — разработка законопроектов, которые будут препятствовать захватам предприятий и корпоративному шантажу.

Однако, чтобы законы работали эффективно, необходимо ужесточить ответственность чиновников и судей, вовлеченных в действия рейдеров, сделать более открытой информацию в этой сфере. Достоянием гласности должны становиться и имена бизнесменов, осуществляющих неблаговидные действия, и имена судей, принимающих неоправданные судебные решения. Само бизнес- сообщество должно сформировать устойчивое отрицательное отношение к людям и фирмам, замешанным в таких историях.

Когда указанные проблемы будут решены, рейдерство изменит своѐ содержание и превратится в законную деятельность по скупке акций привлекательных, но недооценѐнных предприятий, пусть и вопреки воле их менеджеров. Этот процесс

необходим  для  нормального  функционирования  рыночной  экономики,  и  с  ним бороться не надо — его только надо ввести в цивилизованные рамки.

 

 

Text 5. Read this article and give Russian equivalents to the underlined expressions:

Nestle Buys out Russia's Holy Water

Nestle Waters Groups controls 16.3 per cent of the worldwide bottled market, and reported sales of?5 billion last year. The company sells 72 brands of bottled water using various distribution channels in 130 countries.

The Swiss-based food and beverages concern Nestle has bought the trademark and the bottling plant that produces popular Russian mineral water Saint Springs (Svyatoi Istochnik). Nestle Waters Group, which includes such renowned world brands as Perrier, San Pellegrino and Vittel, is set to become the leader in Russia’s bottled water market, and official supplier to the State Duma.

Nestle Waters Group, Nestle’s subsidiary in the bottled water market, has paid an estimated $50 million for the Saint Springs brand and a bottling plant in the Kostroma Region. Neither party disclosed the financial details of the deal, but media outlets cited unofficial information alleging what the Swiss paid.

The Swiss have become owners of a company with a peculiar history. Saint Springs was founded by Californian entrepreneur John King, who became interested in a proposal by the archbishop of the Kostroma diocese Alexander Androsov to set up production of ecologically clean drinking water in Russia. King, who had been involved exclusively in the plastic production business, founded an offshore firm called Saint Springs Water and registered it as the owner of the brand. The Kostroma diocese, for its part, established the JSC Rodniki, which was later closed, and in 1999 the JSC Serebryanniy Istochnik (Silver Spring) was founded. This enterprise then became the producer of Saint Springs water.

Thus, King worked a sort of agreement with the diocese under which the church received fixed royalties in exchange for the right to set up a bottling plant over the spring in Kostroma. Saint Springs bottles bear the signature of Archbishop Alexander, under a statement saying that all proceeds go towards restoring Orthodox churches. It remains to be seen how the Orthodox businessmen and their partner, the plastics tycoon, will split Nestle’s money.

However, it seems obvious that the diocese, which set up production taking advantage of tax privileges, can only benefit from the deal – the bottling plant located 350 kilometres northeast of Moscow is Russia’s largest drinking water enterprise.

The Swiss, from their standpoint, have not miscalculated either. As the company’s representative Galina Potyagayeva told Gazeta.Ru, Saint Sp rin g’s share of the Moscowmarket in 2001 amounted to 17 per cent.

By buying up Saint Springs, Nestle has secured 10-12 per cent of the Russian bottledwater market, which already includes Vittel, Perrier and San Pellegrino, and thus outstrips its main rival on that market, the Coca-Cola Company (Bon Aqua), which in 2001 accounted for 5 per cent of the market. Analysts expect the domestic bottled water market to grow by 20 per cent annually.

By purchasing Saint Springs, Nestle has also become the main bottled water supplier to the State Duma. This is the brand State Duma deputies consume in great quantities at

parliamentary hearings and plenary sessions and consequently Saint Springs enjoys a lot of free TV advertising.

Although, an official at the Duma’s press-service hinted that certain patriotic parliamentarians might refuse to drink water produced by the Swiss, but then again the previous owner of the brand was not exactly Russian either.

Finally, by buying Saint Springs, Nestle in one fell swoop has caught up with competitor PepsiCo. PepsiCo produces Aqua Minerale, consumed regularly by government members at their sessions.

 

 

Video class