英国卫报:走向失控的博姿药妆(8)（在线收听）

Prescription drugs, two packets of Beechams, a Shaper sandwich and some Brecon Carreg water.

处方药，两包美占集团的药物，一个塑身三明治和一些布雷肯克雷格水。

Over a century and a half, Boots had built up a business that serviced the most prosaic aspects of British life.

在一个半世纪的时间里，博姿创办了一家服务于英国人生活中最平淡无奇的方面的公司。

Exciting, dynamic, a licence to print money? Nah.

令人兴奋，充满活力，一张印钞许可证？不是。

But at its core was a stability underwritten by government money, public goodwill and a solid reputation.

但其核心是由政府资金、公众信誉和坚实的声誉担保的稳定性。

Outwardly, 2007 changed nothing. The pharmacists still wore white coats.

从表面上看，2007年没有什么改变。药剂师仍然穿着白大褂。

The sign outside the shop was still the same blue and white cursive logo dating back to 1883.

商店外的标志仍然是1883年以来的蓝白草书标志。

But behind the trusty facade was “the story of how one business model colonises another,”

伦敦玛丽女王大学会计与金融学教授科林·哈斯拉姆表示，

according to Colin Haslam, professor in accounting and finance at Queen Mary University of London.

但在可信的外表背后是“一个商业模式如何征服另一个商业模式的故事，”

The everyday needs and ailments of communities across the UK

英国社区的日常需求和疾病治疗

had been reconfigured as thousands of little revenue streams for a small transnational elite of ultra-wealthy investors,

已经被重新配置为成千上万的小收入流，为一小撮跨国的超级富有的投资者精英们服务，

whose fortunes depended on those streams getting bigger, and fast.

他们的财富越来越多地依赖于那些收入流，而且很快。

To see how that changed our medical services, I asked Haslam to examine the accounts of Boots UK, the main British subsidiary of the continental conglomerate Alliance Boots.

为了了解这种情况如何改变了我们的医疗服务，我请哈斯拉姆检查了博姿英国公司的账目，博姿英国公司是联合博姿在英国的主要子公司。

The investors’ method, as Haslam describes it, was “stretch and extract”: stretch company finances and staff as far as they can go – then extract profits.

正如哈斯拉姆所描述的，投资者的方法是“扩张和榨取”：尽可能扩大公司资金和员工，然后榨取利润。

Stretching began immediately, by loading up the new asset with billions in debt.

扩张立即开始，在新资产猛增的同时，公司背上了数十亿美元的债务。

To buy Alliance Boots, Pessina and KKR had invested 2.5bn pounds of their own money – but they borrowed almost 9bn pounds from Barclays,

为了收购联合博姿，佩西纳和科克罗公司动用了25亿英镑自有资金——但它们从巴克莱银行、

the Royal Bank of Scotland, Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Merrill Lynch among other banks.

苏格兰皇家银行、花旗集团、摩根大通和美林等银行借款近90亿英镑。

The borrowed billions were then shoved onto the balance sheet of Boots UK Ltd –

随后，借来的数十亿美元被推到了博姿英国有限公司的资产负债表上

and those banks jumped to the front of the queue for repayment out of the profits made by the company.

这些银行抢在了排队的最前面，要求从该公司赚取的利润中偿还借款。