【正文】 作 者： Lefan Gong 原 文： China: Managing Risks In Chinese Mamp。A transactions. Matters that require careful attention in Chinese Mamp。s central government sets the policy and pace of opening up the industrial sectors and publishes and updates the Foreign Investment Catalogue every few years. Prospective buyers should immediately familiarize themselves with this guidance. In addition to identifying prohibitions and restrictions on investment in certain sectors, the Catalogue lists those sectors where foreign investment is encouraged, which could mean tax holidays and preferential treatment for foreign investors. If the transaction parties can manage to interpret the industrial terms fairly liberally and have the applicable approval authorities agree to such interpretations, the effort may yield significant benefits when the pany files its tax returns. In addition to the restrictions imposed by the central government, attention should be paid to possible regulatory constraints at the localgovernment level. For instance, the Shanghai government requires licenses for handling publicsecurity projects that cannot be issued to WFOEs. Although it is reasonable to assume that a share acquisition transaction would allow the target pany to keep its licenses and permits after the closing of the deal, the chance of surprises increases when different government agencies are involved in the process. Thus, it is critical to determine at an early stage whether the required licenses and permits can be renewed or exchanged for new ones after the target pany converts to a foreigninvested enterprise. As a rule of thumb, the share purchase (or equity interest transfer) agreement would normally time the closing a couple of days after all the necessary approvals, new licenses, and permits have been obtained (assuming that all other closing conditions have been satisfied). In addition, prospective buyers should not be entirely surprised if due diligence indicates that the target pany has been engaging in some of its business activities without proper licenses or permits. In this case, the buyer will need to assess the risk exposure and decide whether it should forgo the transaction, insist that the seller cure the deficiencies prior to closing, or structure the transactions as an asset purchase and apply separately for the required licenses. Navigating Approval Processes China39。s assets might have been pledged for another39。s history are likely to be kept secret until a corruption scandal erupts— usually when a local official loses his job or gets investigated. In such cases, it frequently turns out that the seller does not have clean hands. To understand the pany and assess the risks, the buyer should fully engage its local teams (including private investigators, if needed) to gather local intelligence and sniff out hidden issues to the greatest extent possible. If the shadow of doubt cannot be eliminated, then it may be necessary to consider alternative courses of action. Purchase Price and Closing Matters To deal with uncertainties over valuation and mitigate the risks associated with the acquired pany, acquirers should carefully craft a purchase agreement with an acceptable payment arrangement (for the purchase price) that is workable under PRC law. Unlike Mamp。 第一件事情 就是，買方 可能 想 要看看目標(biāo)公司 是否 在被外國投資者收購 后 ，可以繼續(xù)以同樣的方式 而不是受到越來越多的監(jiān)管限制的情況下執(zhí)行其業(yè)務(wù)操作和運(yùn)行 。 通過國家發(fā)展和改革委員會(huì)和 商務(wù)部，中國的中央政府設(shè)置了 下發(fā)了 開放 工業(yè)部門政策及 每隔數(shù)年 就更新出版外商投資產(chǎn)業(yè)指導(dǎo)目錄 。 除了中央政府的限制，應(yīng)注意在當(dāng)?shù)卣畬用婵赡艿谋O(jiān)管約束 。作為一個(gè)經(jīng)驗(yàn)法則，股份購買（或股權(quán)轉(zhuǎn)讓 ）協(xié)議通常在取得所有必要的批準(zhǔn) ，新的營業(yè)執(zhí)照， 許可證 后截止時(shí)間的兩天內(nèi)簽訂 （假設(shè)所有其他交易條件已得到滿足） 。公開資料和政府的記錄，如果存在的話，可能不足，或者不可靠的。例如，一家公司的資產(chǎn)可能已經(jīng)承諾為他人的銀行借貸，而同樣的資產(chǎn)可能被 不同的公司用于 （注冊）出資多次。許多國有企業(yè)，有時(shí)甚至是私人擁有的公司，可能會(huì) 使用或聲稱 標(biāo)記 “自己”的土地 是 “劃撥土地”， 而這些土地是由政府提供額定成本（或不花錢的 ），但不能出售，轉(zhuǎn)讓，抵押或者以其他方式處置 的標(biāo)記。 稅務(wù)盡職調(diào)查應(yīng)該是任何 一個(gè)買方對于 一個(gè)中國公司評(píng)估 的不可分割 部分。一些中國公司保留兩個(gè)或多個(gè)帳套，以輕描淡寫稅 務(wù)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。買方也應(yīng)該牢記的另一個(gè)重要的方面中國稅收法律一般不存在對稅務(wù)負(fù)債時(shí)效限制。另一個(gè)經(jīng)常遇到的問題是目標(biāo)公司 在 收購后可能會(huì) 裁減多少勞動(dòng)力。 最后，對中國公司的潛在買家的最困難的頑疾之一是遺留問題， 是繼承原國有企業(yè)，還是創(chuàng)造“改革和結(jié)構(gòu)調(diào)整” （即私有化）的過程。了解公司及評(píng)估風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，買方應(yīng) 充分參與當(dāng)?shù)貓F(tuán)隊(duì)（包括私人調(diào)查員，如果需要的話） 盡最大可能 收集當(dāng)?shù)厍閳?bào)和嗅出隱藏的問題 。中華人民共和國法律規(guī)定，外國投資者必須 對被收購目標(biāo)的新營業(yè)執(zhí) 照簽發(fā)的 3個(gè)月 內(nèi)付款。雖然在某些特殊情況下，銀行愿意以配合交易雙方，這樣的情況很可能涉及到 高額費(fèi)用的評(píng)估。）例如，買方可以同意 在公司倒閉 數(shù)年后 作出額外付款 ，如果收入達(dá)到指定的目標(biāo)，且 沒有 出現(xiàn) 嚴(yán)重違反賣方陳述及保證的狀況。例如，買方可以改為 同意支付 給賣方的咨詢費(fèi)用，如果確 定的負(fù)債 在公司倒閉后的 兩年內(nèi) 沒 有 觸發(fā)。首先，這樣的回購須經(jīng) 再次批準(zhǔn) ， 當(dāng)股東需要改變影響，也不能保證審批機(jī)關(guān)批準(zhǔn)再次回購，尤其是在中華人民共和國法律沒有明確對 這樣的情況進(jìn)行如何處理 的指導(dǎo) 的情況下 。然而，隨著中國強(qiáng)勁的經(jīng)濟(jì) 發(fā)展趨勢 持續(xù) 吸引資金，在不斷改變的法律和監(jiān)管環(huán)境下將有更多的交易和競爭。