大公国际下调安邦人寿信用评级

Anbang Insurance Group, the acquisitive Chinese conglomerate that owns New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, has suffered a credit downgrade, with a local rating agency warning that its life insurance unit’s “wealth creation ability has weakened”.

收购意识较强、旗下拥有纽约华尔道夫酒店(Waldorf Astoria hotel)的中国企业安邦保险集团(Anbang Insurance Group)遭遇信用评级下调。中国的一家评级机构警告，其寿险部门“财富创造能力减弱”。

The downgrade of Anbang Life Insurance is the latest setback for the once high-flying group, whose chairman and founder, Wu Xiaohui, disappeared in June and is presumed to be in government detention.

安邦人寿(Anbang Life Insurance)评级下调是这家曾经风光的集团遭遇的最新挫折，该集团的董事长和创始人吴小晖在6月份失联，据信是被政府带走。

At the height of his powers, Mr Wu met Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, to discuss the purchase of a Manhattan office tower owned by Mr Kushner’s family.

在他最得志的时期，吴小晖曾会晤唐纳德?特朗普(Donald Trump)的顾问和女婿贾里德?库什纳(Jared Kushner)，洽谈购买库什纳家族拥有的一栋曼哈顿办公大楼的事宜。

On Thursday, Dagong Global, a Chinese rating agency, downgraded Anbang Life Insurance from triple A to double A plus, saying that “income has fallen substantially [and] the availability of debt financing is reduced”.

周四，中国评级机构——大公国际资信评估有限公司(Dagong Global Credit Rating)将安邦人寿的信用评级从AAA下调至AA+，称“经常性收入大幅下降，债务融资渠道的可获性降低”。

In an apparent reference to Mr Wu’s detention, Dagong said “external support has weakened due to risk incidents involving the controlling shareholder”.

大公指出，“外部支持因控股股东风险事件影响受到削弱”。此言显然是指吴小晖被带走。

Anbang Life posted a net loss in the first half of 2017, Dagong said, without disclosing specific figures.

大公表示安邦人寿在2017年上半年发生净亏损，但没有披露具体数据。

In May, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission accused Anbang Life of “wreaking havoc” on the insurance market through aggressive pricing of short-term investment products. The agency banned Anbang Life from selling new products for three months.

今年5月，中国保险监督管理委员会(CIRC)批评安邦人寿对短期投资产品进行激进的定价，“扰乱市场秩序”。该监管机构禁止安邦人寿申报新产品三个月。

An industry-wide crackdown on so-called “universal insurance” caused premiums from such products to drop more than half in the first half of this year, according to CIRC data. At Anbang, such premiums fell 98 per cent.

根据中国保监会的数据，在全行业开展的整治所谓“万能险”的努力，导致这些产品的保费在今年上半年下降一半以上。在安邦，这类保费暴跌98%。

Universal insurance products, which bear little resemblance to protection-style policies, are popular with investors because of their short maturities and high yields. But analysts warn of risks from the maturity mismatch between insurers’ short-term liabilities to their investors and their investments in illiquid assets such as real estate and private equity.

与保护型保单没有什么相似之处的万能险产品，因为期限短、收益率高而受到投资者欢迎。但分析师们警告，保险公司在他们对投资者的短期负债与他们对非流动性资产（如房地产和私募股权）的投资之间期限错配，带来种种风险。

In an illustration of the risks, Foresea Life Insurance, which also suffered a CIRC ban on new product sales, in May warned of defaults and social unrest if the ban was not lifted. Foresea’s urgent plea to CIRC highlighted the extent to which issuers of universal life policies rely on sales of new products to meet payouts on maturing ones.

表明这些风险的一个事例是，同样被保监会禁止销售新产品的前海人寿(Foresea Life Insurance)在5月警告称，如果不解除禁令，就可能导致违约和社会不安定。前海人寿向保监会发出的紧急呼吁，突显万能险保单的发行人在多大程度上依靠销售新产品来履行到期产品的兑付义务。

In July, China Bond Rating, another local agency, downgraded Foresea from double A minus to A plus.

7月，另一家本土评级机构中债资信评估公司(China Credit Rating)将前海人寿的评级从AA-下调至A+。

Chinese credit rating agencies tend to give higher ratings to the same companies than western counterparts. Investors do, however, discount the domestic ratings — in general, issuers rated below double A minus cannot sell bonds.

与西方同行相比，中国的信用评级机构往往对同一家企业给出较高的评级。然而，投资者往往会对国内评级打折扣；一般来说，低于AA-级的发行人不能发售债券。

The ratings gap between Chinese and foreign agencies is due in part to the greater emphasis that local agencies place on the likelihood of government bailouts.

中外机构之间的评级差距，在一定程度上是因为本土机构更加重视政府纾困的可能性。

Analysts have said they believed the Chinese government would not allow Anbang to collapse, because that could cause panic among its millions of policyholders, posing risks to the financial system.

分析师们表示，他们相信中国政府不会让安邦崩溃，因为那可能导致该公司数以百万计的保单持有人恐慌，进而对金融体系构成风险。

Last month, banking regulators concerned about “systemic risk” ordered lenders to check their exposures to Anbang and other private conglomerates that have engaged in large, debt-financed foreign acquisitions.

上月，对“系统性风险”感到担忧的中国银行业监管机构，要求各银行检查其对安邦和其他一些民营综合企业的风险敞口，这些企业都进行了依靠债务融资的大手笔境外收购。

Anbang Life has Rmb24bn ($3.6bn) in bonds outstanding, of which about a third were sold offshore to foreign investors. Prices were little changed on Thursday.

安邦人寿有240亿元人民币（合36亿美元）的未清偿债券，其中约三分之一是向海外投资者出售的。周四，这些债券的价格没什么变动。

An Anbang spokesman declined to comment.

安邦的一名发言人拒绝置评。