Italian distressed debt意大利的不良债务Bargain hunt逢低买盘Structural obstacles make Italian banks’ bad loans hard to sell结构性障碍导致意大利银行的不良贷款很难卖Aug 20th 2016 | From the print edition2016年8月20日|印刷版 意呆利：艾玛这可愁死我了 AFTER years of economic stagnation and questionable lending, bad loans at Italian banks have piled up. The gross value of non-performing loans (NPLs) is around €360 billion ($406 billion), or almost one-fifth of Italian GDP. Hasty repairs and rescues have been arranged for troubled lenders—notably Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the third-biggest, in July. But what can be done about the loan mountain?多年来的经济萧条和越来越多的可疑贷款让意大利银行的不良贷款堆积如山。不良贷款的总值已经达到3600亿欧元（4060亿美元），相当于意大利国民生产总值的五分之一。因此各银行为了走出困境做出了草率的弥补和挽救措施——特别是意大利第三大的西亚那银行在7月份采取的措施。可怎样才能解决掉那堆积如山的贷款呢？ economic stagnation：经济萧条NPLs：不良贷款The IMF has suggested building a robust market in NPLs, thus placing the burden of bad loans with distressed-debt specialists, freeing Italian banks to provide more credit to the real economy. But although the market for bad debts has started to pick up in Italy, with volumes increasing steadily to reach €22 billion so far this year, structural obstacles mean such markets may be less successful than in other European countries.国际货币基金组织主张建立一个强健的市场来抑制不良贷款，因此为了减轻银行的负担，应该将不良债权的负担交给相关债务专家，让银行可以为实体经济提供更多信贷。可尽管意大利已经开始对充斥着不良债务的市场采取措施，但到目前为止今年的不良贷款还是增加了220亿欧元，结构性障碍的存在意味着意大利市场很难向欧洲其他市场一样取得成功。distressed-debt：不良债权Distressed-debt investors tend to buy loans in bulk, and hence prefer loans with easily recoverable, tangible collateral. The NPLs of stricken British, Irish and Spanish banks in recent years were largely mortgages: being backed by property, they could be valued from current real-estate prices. British and Irish courts are also pretty efficient at dealing with claims on collateral. Many Italian NPLs, by contrast, are uncollateralised loans to small businesses or consumers. Even when collateral has been pledged, Italian courts are much slower than those elsewhere to recover it.拥有不良债权的投资者常常大量购买贷款，因此他们更喜欢可以抵押可收回的有形抵押品的贷款。近年来受不良债务困扰的英国银行，爱尔兰银行和西班牙银行主要也都是抵押贷款：因为对抵押物有所有权，他们可以根据当前的房地产价格对这些抵押物进行估值。英国和爱尔兰的法院在处理有关抵押品索赔方面也相当高效。相比之下，意大利的许多不良贷款都是由于银行无抵押贷款给小企业和消费者造成的。甚至当抵押品被抵押的时候，意大利法院都比其他国家要处理得慢。 in bulk：大量real－estate：不动产的collateral：抵押品，担保品pledge：保证，抵押Most significant, Spain and Ireland set up “bad banks” a few years ago that used pots of public money to buy NPLs from banks’ balance-sheets and then sold them gradually, creating enough transaction volume for a vibrant market to form. Newly tightened European rules, however, prevent Italy from doing likewise.最值得注意的是，西班牙和爱尔兰在几年前就已经建立了“坏账银行”，“坏账银行”利用大量公共资金从银行的资产负债表中购买不良债权，然后再慢慢卖掉，为形成活跃的市场创造足够的交易量。然而欧洲新发布的严苛条规则不允许意大利这么做。Of course, Italian NPLs can still be attractive investments if the prices are low enough. But the gap between banks’ and investors’ valuations is troublesome. Banks have not tended to mark down their loans to any lower than around 40% of their original book value, whereas investors may be willing to pay only 20%. This makes Italian banks even less keen to sell, as it would force them to take a large hit to their already thin capital buffers when selling the duff loans.当然，如果价格够低的话，意大利的不良债权还是有吸引力的，但是银行的估价与投资者的估价间的差距是个大问题。银行不会把他们的贷款降价到低于原账面价值的40%，但投资者可能只接受原账面价值的20%的这个价格。这使得意大利银行更不愿卖出，因为当他们卖掉不良债权时会使他们原本就薄弱的资本缓冲遭受巨大冲击。 book value：账面价值 Prevented from setting up a bad bank, the Italian government has pinned its hopes on securitisation of NPLs. It has set up a guarantee scheme called GACS for senior tranches of NPL-backed securities. Josh Anderson of PIMCO, an asset manager, reckons that carefully structured transactions could allow NPLs to be transferred from banks’ balance-sheets at something close to current book value.由于被禁止建立“坏账银行”，意大利政府便把希望寄托在不良债券证券化上。他们已经为拥有不良债权抵押证券的主要券次建立了一个担保计划叫“GACS”。太平洋投资管理公司的一位资产经理乔希·安德森认为巧妙地结构性交易可以把不良债权从银行的资产负债表转换到接近当前账面价值。 securitisation：证券化PIMCO：太平洋投资管理公司balance-sheets：资产负债表book value：账面价值However, it is too early to be confident. The GACS scheme has not yet been tested and comes with many strings attached. NPL cashflows may be “too lumpy and unpredictable” to appeal to institutional investors, says David Edmonds of Deloitte, an accounting firm. There are few precedents for securitising NPLs, in Italy or abroad, that provide a useful guide.然而，现在的自信还为时过早。“GACS”计划还没有被测试并带有许多附加条件。德勒（一家会计事务所）的大卫·埃德蒙表示，不良债券的现金流转有其波动性和不可预见性，这或许并不受机构投资者待见。不管是在意大利国内还是国外，不良债权证券化确实鲜有先例，该计划为此提供了可行的指导。 lumpy：波动的precedent：先例Given investors’ reluctance to stump up new capital, transactions that allow banks to thicken their capital cushions through asset sales may provide an alternative. Investors in distressed debt often have private-equity arms too, and have offered to buy businesses from banks to compensate for the capital hit from bad-loan sales. One firm, Apollo Global Management, recently bought the insurance division of Banca Carige, a regional Italian lender. Loan-servicing units, which pursue individual debtors, are especially appealing targets.介于投资者们不愿意为新的资金买单，通过变卖资产使银行加固资本缓冲不失为一个替代的方法。有着不良债权的投资者往往采取私募股权的手段与银行交易来弥补变卖不良贷款带来的资金冲击。阿波罗全球管理公司近日买下了意大利卡里奇银行（一家意大利当地贷款方）的保险部门。追讨独立债务人的贷款服务单位是格外有吸引力的目标。 capital cushions：资本缓冲private－equity：私募股权Novel approaches hold promise for both banks and troubled business borrowers. KKR, a large private-equity firm, launched a platform called Pillarstone last autumn that combines NPL resolution with corporate restructuring. Like a buy-out firm, Pillarstone seeks to take control of overindebted, troubled firms and turn them round with new capital from KKR. The novelty is that it also manages the bank loans of those firms, with the aim of achieving repayment and giving banks part of any extra profits, too.有一个新方法给银行和陷入困境的借款方都带来了希望。KKR集团是一家私募股权公司，该公司于去年秋天推出了一个平台叫“奠基石”，它将不良债权的解决与企业重组结合在了一起。就像收购公司一样，奠基石设法掌控负债过多陷入困境的公司，并用KKR集团的新资金让这些公司起死回生。这个办法的新颖之处在于它同时控制着这些公司的银行贷款，目的是为了偿还银行并付其额外利润。 buy－out：全面收购的HIG Bayside Capital, a distressed-debt specialist, recently announced a €260m fund that goes a step further: it both plans to restructure companies burdened by loans and allows banks to sell those loans at current book value in exchange for a stake in the fund.(读者试译句) This should improve banks’ capital ratios while diversifying their sources of income. More such creative ideas will surely be needed to sort out Italy’s bad debts.期待您的翻译，您可以将翻译留言到文章底部，第二天会有答案解析哦。这可以提高银行的资本比率，同时也使收入来源多样化。解决意大利的死帐问题还需要更多的创新想法。 capital ratios：资本比率
