发布时间 : 星期日 文章074《经济学家》读译参考之七十四：乐为心声-澳洲电信私有化面临监管难题pidouwenku更新完毕开始阅读
TEXT 74
Mood music 乐为心声（陈继龙 编译）
Nov 9th 2006 | SYDNEY
From The Economist print edition
THE embattled chief executive of Telstra, Sol Trujillo, helped pay his way through college in America by playing the trumpet in his family's Mariachi band. But his past 16 months as the head of Australia's biggest telecoms firm have seen him reaching for the violin. His sorrowful refrain[1] has become as familiar to fund managers in Sydney as it is to policy wonks in Canberra. Mr Trujillo bemoans an overbearing government which is both his firm's main shareholder and its regulator.
如今腹背受敌的Telstra首席执行官索尔·特鲁西略过去曾依靠在由自己家人组建的街头乐队中吹小号才勉强在美国读完了大学。但作为澳大利亚最大电信公司的负责人，他在过去的16个月中已经逐渐成为一个“小提琴手”。悉尼的基金投资者和堪培拉迂腐的决策人士都已对他那悲伤的曲子耳熟能详。让Trujillo悲叹的是，这个既是他公司核心股东又对其实施监管的政府竟如此傲慢专横。
（1）In recent months, Mr Trujillo has grappled with the government over board nominations; his A$8.7m ($6.7m) pay packet; and, most seriously, a thicket of regulations designed to ensure that the former monopoly continues to provide rural telephone services across a vast country with the world's sixth-largest landmass but only the 52nd-largest population. Even the flashy launch of Telstra's advanced third-generation mobile-phone network, completed months ahead of schedule, struck an awkwardly discordant note. As Mr Trujillo strutted his stuff[2] on stage, a sprinkler malfunctioned, dousing[3] his audience in foul-smelling water. 近几个月来，特鲁西略一直在同政府抗争，矛盾主要集中在董事会任命、他本人870万澳元（约合670万美元）的年薪以及政府所制定的一系列监管方案上面。最重要的就是那些监管方案，其目的是确保这个曾经垄断一时的公司能够继续在这个大陆面积位居世界第六但人口仅位居世界第52位的国家为农村提供电话服务。Telstra的第三代先进移动电话网络比原计划提前了数月就投入使用，场面甚为隆重，可即便如此，这还是引起了一些人的不悦。这就好比当特鲁西略在舞台上大显身手之时，（头顶的）喷水装置出了故障，洒出来的脏水把他的观众给浇成了落汤鸡。
It is hardly the ideal background for a share offering called T3, the third and final phase of Telstra's partial privatisation, a drawn-out affair which began in 1997. At the T2 offering in 1999, in the midst of the telecoms boom, Telstra shares sold for A$7.40. Now they are trading at A$3.97. Over the same period, the Australian stockmarket has grown by some 93%.
现在根本不是发售T3股票的最佳时期。所谓T3，也就是指始于1997年、持续了很久的Telstra部分股权私有化已进入第三个阶段，同时也是最后阶段。1999年Telstra以每股7.4澳元的发售了T2股票，当时还正值电信业鼎盛时期，现在的交易价为3.97澳元。澳大利亚股市同期则增长了大约93％。
（2）Burned by the T2 offering, many of the 1.6m retail investors who bought shares last time around have shied away, despite a variety of sweeteners to lure them back—not least a 28% dividend on the A$2 first instalment. But as the deadline to apply for shares passed on November 9th, it appeared that wealthier retail investors had offset this weakness in demand, seemingly confident they are being offered decent value for money. Better still, there has also been a positive response from institutional investors in advance of their own offer, which opens on November 15th.
共有160万零售投资者购买了Telstra上次发售的股票，其中许多人都吃了T2股票的苦头，现在都已然是
惊弓之鸟，即便有着许多诱人的利好条件——尤其每股首期2澳元的认购价并享有28％的股利，他们也唯恐躲避不及。不过随着11月9日认购截止期限的到来，资金充裕的零售投资商似乎已经找到解决需求萎缩的办法，并且对获得合理的现款交易价信心十足。更妙的是，计划于11月15日开始认购的各机构投资者也已提前作出积极回应。
It is a timely vote of confidence in Mr Trujillo's five-year transformation plan. （3）A veteran of the telecoms industry who earned his spurs[4] at US West in America and then at Orange, a European mobile operator, Mr Trujillo has set about drastically streamlining a famously unwieldy[5] corporation. With the help of hired guns from his previous firms—three senior executives were drafted in from US West—he is trying to eliminate 80% of Telstra's 1,252 separate computer systems. He has also laid off 12,000 of the firm's 52,000 employees.
这是对特鲁西略为期五年的转型规划及时投出的一张信任票。特鲁西略在电信业界资格很老，曾先后在美国US West和欧洲移动电话运营商Orange功成名就，现在已着手对一家以难管理著称的刺头公司进行大刀阔斧的精简。在从其以前就职的公司中雇请的“职业杀手”——三名从US West招募来的高级管理人员的帮助下，他正试图将Telstra现有的1252套分立式计算机系统缩减80％，并且已经解雇了52000名员工中的12000人。
Customer service has improved, too. （4）Much to the surprise of Telstra's long-suffering customers, technicians now make calls in the evenings and at weekends, a revolutionary change. Most arrive dressed in cheery fluorescent yellow bibs[6], trumpeting BigPond, the company's market-leading broadband service. Telstra claims it is well positioned to offer customers all kinds of whizzy new services across a range of platforms. “Transformation is well on track,” says Greg Canavan, an analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney. “The big wild card[7] is regulation.”
客户服务也已得到改进。让一直以来苦不堪言的Telstra客户感到非常惊讶的是，公司的技术人员现在晚间或周末也对客户进行电话访问，这可是一个革命性的变化。大多数技术人员到访时都身着荧光闪烁的黄色围裙，令人赏心悦目，上面还赫然印有“Bigpond\字样（这是该公司提供的处于市场领先位置的宽带服务）。Telstra宣称，公司旨在通过一系列平台向客户提供各种新式快捷服务。悉尼Fat Prophet的分析家格雷格?卡纳万说：“转型已经完全步入正轨，现在最大的变数就在于监管。”
Regulation is Mr Trujillo's main gripe with the government. In August Telstra abandoned a flagship project to build a high-speed fibre-optic network in the country's five largest cities after a poisonous regulatory dispute with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Agreement could not be reached on how much the company could charge competitors for access to its new network. Telstra grumbles that it is forced to offer rivals, such as Optus, cheaper access to its networks in cities than in rural areas. This places Telstra at a disadvantage when competing for profitable urban customers.
监管也是特鲁西略与政府之间主要的隔阂之所在。8月，Telstra就监管一事与澳大利亚竞争与消费者委员会进行了争辩，但双方不欢而散，Telstra遂放弃了一项拟在全国最大的5座城市构建高速光纤网络的旗舰计划。双方的分歧在于Telstra公司可向其竞争对手收取多少入网费用。Telstra抱怨说，该委员会要求它向诸如Optus之类的对手收取的城市入网费必须低于农村地区入网费。这使得Telstra在争取有利可图的城市客户方面处于劣势。
Despite the wrangling with regulators, Telstra's shares are trading at their highest in six months. They are still below A$5.02, where they stood when Mr Trujillo took over in July 2005. （5）But Telstra's transformation is clearly starting to impress investors—cause, perhaps, for a modest toot on the trumpet. Telstra尽管与监管部门争执不休，但它的股票交易额6个月以来始终保持最高水平。股价仍比去年1月特鲁西略接管公司时的5.02澳元要低。不过显而易见，Telstra的转型已开始让投资者为之一振——大概就
是因为小号声调听来不卑不亢的缘故吧。
[QUIZ]
英译汉（将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：
[NOTES](LONGMAN)
1. refrain n. part of a song or poem that is repeated, especially at the end of each verse副歌，副句（诗） 2.strut one’s stuff to show one’s skill at doing something, especially dancing or performing大显身手 3. douse v. 浸湿
4. earn/win one’s spurs to show that you deserve to succeed because you have the right skills 通过自己的能力获得，实至名归
5. unwieldy adj. 难以控制的，难处理的 6. bib n.围脖，围裙
7. wild card 1）a playing card that can represent any other card 百搭牌