小说字数排行:传奇金融女掮客阿曼达

The dealmaker who has dated a British prince and now brokers multibillion dollar deals for Middle Eastern royalty talks to Roula Khalaf about provoking envy and having her eye on Iraq

赶到斯科特酒店(Scott’s)后，就在点菜前几分钟里，我听到了阿曼达?斯塔维利即将步入婚姻殿堂的消息（她的婚纱由萨拉?伯顿(Sarah Burton)设计，对方曾为剑桥公爵夫人(Duchess of Cambridge)设计了大婚用的婚纱），以及刚在迪拜(Dubai)撮合的几桩交易（她今天早上刚从那儿赶过来），最让人好奇的是，她同时还为也门反对派领导人鞍前马后地出谋划策。

Within a few minutes of arriving at Scott’s, and before we glance at the menu, I’ve heard about Amanda Staveley’s wedding dress (made by Sarah Burton, who designed the Duchess of Cambridge’s dress), her latest dealmaking in Dubai, from where she has arrived this morning, and – most intriguingly – her big parallel pursuit of advising an opposition tribal leader in Yemen.

没错是也门。这位前模特（当过一阵子）、安德鲁王子(Prince Andrew)曾经的女友，如今能搞掂阿拉伯部落酋长各种交易的大能人正全力以赴支持阿拉伯之春运动，期望其大客户哈米德?阿赫马尔酋长（Sheikh Hamid al-Ahmar，也门数一数二的大商人）能在该地区这个最贫穷国家的难以避免的政治改朝换代中成为最终的胜者。

Yes, Yemen. The occasional former model, one-time girlfriend of Prince Andrew and now financial fixer to sheikhs is embracing the Arab spring and hoping that her client, Sheikh Hamid al-Ahmar, a major businessman in Yemen, will emerge as a beneficiary of an eventual, and inevitable, political transition in the region’s poorest country.

在海湾国家，斯塔维利被人熟知的名字是阿曼达，她今年38岁，身材高挑、一头金色短发、身穿一件朴素无华的黑色连衣裙，她的出身与时尚风格似乎与谈论海湾地区的因循守旧不太合拍，更遑论哈米德酋长这样的大客户了，众所周知，对方是一位伊斯兰温和派。毫无疑问，过去10年她在富产石油的海湾国家培养的诸多人脉让银行界（他们削尖脑袋，也想从这财富中分得一杯羹）百思不得其解。他们纳闷的是：这位英国的窈窕淑女是如何与该地区的王室扯上关系的，是如何搞掂成群结队的银行家与投行经理（近年来，他们蜂拥而至海湾地区）眼皮底下的那些交易的？

Staveley, known by everyone in Gulf circles as Amanda, is 38, very tall and slim, with short blonde hair and wearing a simple black dress; her background and style would not seem to fit with the conservatism of the Gulf, let alone clients such as Sheikh Hamid, known for his (moderate) Islamist political views. Indeed, many of the relationships she has developed in the oil-rich Gulf in the past decade have puzzled the crowds of bankers competing for a slice of its wealth. How, they wonder, does this glamorous young British woman make inroads into the region’s royal families and bring them deals that elude the legions of bankers and investment managers who have flocked to the area in recent years?

虽说斯塔维利与从地产到电信的一系列交易都有关系，但她的成名之作是在2008年秋天，当时她把阿布扎比(Abu Dhabi)的谢赫?曼苏尔?本?扎耶德?阿勒纳赫扬(Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan)引入巴克莱银行(Barclays)，曼苏尔同意注资35亿英镑，从而成功避免了政府对巴克莱银行实施纾困。据称斯塔维利从中获利4000万美元——有些人觉得此数字太过离谱，而有人认为严重低估。她则对具体数字不置可否，摆了摆手，意指这个问题不予回答。巴克莱银行的交易就发生在曼城足球队（Manchester City football club，她当时是泰国前总理他信?西那瓦(Thaksin Shinawatra)的代理人）以2.1亿英镑卖给同一个家族之后，虽说另一桩交易——她一直不遗余力地撮合把利物浦队(Liverpool FC)卖给迪拜——最终以一败涂地而告终。

Though Staveley has been associated with a slew of transactions, from property to telecoms, her main claim to fame occurred in the autumn of 2008, when she helped rescue Barclays from a government bail-out by bringing Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi to the table with a ￡3.5bn cheque. She was said to have made $40m along the way – a figure some think is a wild exaggeration and others describe as an underestimate. She neither confirms nor denies the amount, brushing off the question with a dismissive hand gesture. The Barclays deal came just after the ￡210m sale of Manchester City football club to the same royal (she was acting on behalf of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra), though another deal to deliver Liverpool FC to Dubai, an acquisition she had assiduously chased, ended in frustrating failure.

这两桩发生在全球金融危机爆发前经济鼎盛时期、轰动一时的海湾国家并购案让斯塔维利名声大噪，在某些方面招来了妒忌，而在有些方面也引发了争议。在阿布扎比这个购买外国资产的传统保守的买主内部，由斯塔维利充当掮客的此类并购（尤其是大举进军英国足球界），引发了不安，因为这与阿联酋这个国家的原有形象格格不入。

The combination of headline-catching transactions at a time of extraordinary financial boom in the Gulf, just before the global financial crisis struck, raised her profile massively, earning her envy in some quarters and controversy in others. Within Abu Dhabi, a traditional conservative purchaser of foreign assets, the type of acquisitions she brokered, particularly the foray into British football, was a source of unease that clashed with the emirate’s image.

斯塔维利说话速度快，故事一个接着一个，有时甚至能在同一句话中转换话题。她有特别的能耐，能使别人产生与她已相识多年的感觉，这种快速热络的本领无疑让她在中东地区如鱼得水，在中东，人与人之间的接触非常重要，谈正事前，经常喝喝茶，多说些恭维话是必不可少的功课。

Staveley talks rapidly, telling one story after another, sometimes switching subjects within the same sentence. She has a way of making you feel as if you’d known her for years, a remarkably quick familiarity that surely serves her well in the Middle East, where the personal touch is key and advisers have to do a lot of tea-drinking and praising before talking business.

我拿不准该点啥开胃菜，但希望她能随意，而她却担心我能否吃饱，所以彼此之间尴尬了一阵——“点这行吗？点那行吗？”——你来我往一番后，最终总算定下来，我要了蔬菜沙拉，她则要了番茄沙拉。我点的主菜是红鲻鱼，她则要了海鲈鱼。她表示自己不喝酒——“哎哟，要不然回头报纸上又要添油加醋地说斯塔维利本周一喝酒了，”她笑着说。她看上去有点犯困，毕竟连夜从迪拜（她如今定居于此）赶来，所以最终她要了健怡可乐(Diet Coke)。

I am not sure about an appetiser but want to make sure that she feels free to order one, while she worries about whether I will be eating enough. So we go through this awkward moment – “Are you sure? Are you sure?” – then settle on the very boring choices of a green salad for me and a tomato salad for her. I choose the red mullet as a main course, while she picks sea bass. She says no to a glass of wine – “Oh God, it ends up in the papers that she’s having a drink on Monday,” she laughs. She’s sleepy, having travelled all night from Dubai, where she now lives, so orders a Diet Coke.

很显然，她是斯科特酒店的常客，谈话当中，时不时提及自己最近刚与好友西蒙?考威尔(Simon Cowell)与菲利浦?格林爵士(Sir Philip Green)来过这儿。我问她十月份即将举行的婚礼的消息，坊间有板有眼地说她2003年曾拒绝了安德鲁王子的求婚。对此，她只说安德鲁王子是位“很体贴人的男朋友”，是她生活中“很不一般的男人”。

She is clearly a regular at Scott’s, dropping casually in the middle of our conversation that she had been there recently with her friends Simon Cowell and Sir Philip Green. I ask her about her upcoming wedding in October, a source of gossip among those convinced that she turned her back on a marriage proposal from Prince Andrew in 2003. She will only say that Andrew was a “very considerate boyfriend” and a “very special man” in her life.

不久前，在她柏宁(Park Lane)的寓所内，我曾见过她的未婚夫迈赫达?德葛多西（Mehrdad Ghodoussi，这位英俊的伊朗人与她一起工作），对方对也门局势的热切关注给我留下了很深的印象。“我性情比较暴燥，迈赫达则非常沉稳、性情柔和，对事从不斤斤计较，”她说，并告诉我她的那些客户非常呵护她，总是叮咛她对未来的老公要“严加看管”。

I had met her fiancé, Mehrdad Ghodoussi, a handsome Iranian who works with her, a few weeks earlier at her Park Lane townhouse and was struck by his passionate interest in Yemen. “I’m more explosive and he’s very calm, very laid back, nothing’s too much of a problem,” she says. She tells me that her clients are very protective of her and were insistent on doing due diligence about her future husband.

斯塔维利是约克郡农场主的女儿——她的家族财富可以追溯至16世纪，当时的红衣主教沃尔西(Cardinal Wolsey)把里彭(Ripon)附近的一块地拱手相送——在剑桥大学读书期间，斯塔维利曾经当过一阵子模特，23岁那年，在纽马科特(Newmarket)开了家餐厅。我俩细细品味沙拉（我注意到自己吃得比她快）时，我问她是如何成功当上那些富有中东客户的金融顾问的？她告诉我是始于2000年的网络经济繁荣期，当时她在剑桥科学公园(Cambridge Science Park)成立了Q.ton高科技会议中心，这引起了阿布扎比官员（也包括海湾国家的有些王室）的注意。“他们当时对我们如何从剑桥大学开发并利用商业地产感兴趣，”她说。“我飞往阿联酋，放眼滚滚沙漠，当时油然而生的感觉就是……这个地区将是我的福地。”

The daughter of a Yorkshire landowner – the family wealth dates back to the 16th century, when Cardinal Wolsey handed them a plot near Ripon – Staveley modelled part-time while studying at Cambridge, before opening a restaurant at 23 near Newmarket. How, I ask, as we nibble at our salads (I notice I am eating much faster than her), did she end up as financial adviser to rich Middle Eastern clients? It began, she tells me, during the dotcom boom in 2000 when she started Q.Ton, a high-tech conference centre, at the Cambridge Science Park, which attracted the attention of Abu Dhabi officials, including some of the royals. “They were interested in seeing how we were taking commercial property out of Cambridge University and how we could capitalise on it,” she says. “I flew to the United Arab Emirates and I looked out at all the desert and I just felt ... that this is just a place that was going to be important to me.”

在宽带和IT服务公司欧洲电信（EuroTelecom，它曾买下Q.Ton 49%的股份) 于2001年破产后，斯塔维利进军因特网的举动戛然而止。“这是个非常严峻的考验，因为我20多岁就当上了这家上市公司（欧洲电信）的董事……我当时非常年轻。”

Her foray into the dotcom world ended after EuroTelecom, an IT services and broadband telephone supplier that had bought a 49 per cent stake in Q.Ton, collapsed in 2001. “It was a great baptism of fire because I went on the board of a publicly listed company [EuroTelecom] in my mid-twenties ... I was very young.”

然而到了2005 年，她在迪拜成立了私人股本公司PCP Capital Partners，公司行事低调，甚至没有自己的网址。她告诉我公司的开门生意是一位非阿拉伯的有钱主顾——日本伊藤忠商事株式会社(Itochu Corporation of Japan)，对方正寻求在英国购置资产。

But by 2005, she had set up Dubai-based private equity company PCP Capital Partners, which keeps such a low profile it doesn’t even have a website. She tells me the company started with a non-Arab paying client, Itochu Corporation of Japan, which was seeking to buy assets in the UK.

从那以后，依靠阿联酋及卡塔尔客户的生意以及比其它投行更为敏捷的治理结构，PCP慢慢发展壮大起来。她解释说自己能够作出更为快速的决定，皆缘于公司没有人浮于事，而且她的全部注意力都放在海湾国家，从不分心于其它地区。

Since then, though, PCP has grown on the back of dealmaking for Emirati and Qatari clients, and a structure that was more nimble than big investment banks. She explains that she can make decisions faster because her company has less bureaucracy and her focus is entirely on the Gulf countries, with her attention never diverted from this.

PCP的业务范围是什么？客户要求的任何事，有时还免费提供服务。“我们提供一条龙解决方案，”斯塔维利说。“无论是基于财富管理、咨询、重组性交易、进行典型并购还是资产管理，我们都会兼顾政治问题。要知道，我们会进行游说、搞研发、管理网站、进行楼市投机、预订挑选各种家具等等。”

What does PCP do? Anything the client needs, sometimes providing services for free. “We provide an A to Z solution,” Staveley says. “Whether it’s on a wealth management basis, advice, structuring transactions, doing the typical M&A, managing assets, we’ll look after certain political issues. We’ll lobby, we will develop, manage on the site, spec apartments, book furniture and choose, you know.”

正如她说，愿意“竭诚为客户服务”，这反映出她希冀取得成功并实现赢利的强烈意愿。“部分原因是由于我自己的家庭背景。我很早就离开了家，在男孩继承一切的家庭里，身为女孩的我实在有点不服气……我父母老对我说，哥哥会继承家里的一切，自己要做的就是嫁个好老公……这就好比孩子老希望听到父母表扬自己‘干得棒’”。当我指出正是这样的经历让她在社交氛围保守的海湾地区得心应手时，她说实际上自己的家庭可能要比海湾地区的社会更为循规蹈矩。

That she is willing to “do anything for a client”, as she puts it, reflects a remarkable drive to succeed and make money. “It’s partly because of my own background. I came away from home early, I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about being a girl in a family where the boy inherits ... My mother and father always told me your brother will inherit and your job is to marry well ... And it was almost like a child wanting [to hear] a parent’s ‘Well done.’” When I observe that this experience must have made her feel at home in the socially conservative Gulf, she says her family might actually have been even more conformist than Gulf society.

虽说她谈及卡塔尔要比阿布扎比来多得多——她最近撮合的一桩交易就是把土地证券集团(Land Securities)位于伦敦西区的开发项目以2.5亿英镑卖给卡塔尔的巴瓦房地产公司”(Barwa Real Estate)——但她说，自己最感激不尽的贵人是曼苏尔酋长。

Though she seems to talk a lot more about Qatar than Abu Dhabi these days – her latest deal was arranging the ￡250m sale of Land Securities’ West End development to Qatar’s Barwa Real Estate – there is one man, she says, that she owes most to: Sheikh Mansour.

那么，她能告诉我曼苏尔酋长的相关情况吗？曼苏尔酋长是阿布扎比统治者的亲弟弟，出手比王室其他成员更快。她回答说没门，对他俩的关系以及撮合的其它交易，她表示无可奉告。

So can she tell me about the sheikh, brother of the ruler of Abu Dhabi, and more brash than most of the members of the royal family? Not a chance, she says. There is nothing she can say about the relationship or other deals she might be arranging.

主菜上来后，话锋转向不太和谐的话题。在英国媒体界，斯塔维利或许因其撮合交易的巨大能量而著称，而在她的第二故乡阿联酋，我却听到了更多贬抑性的言辞。我向她求证以下事情的真伪：巴克莱交易案后，有报道称她与阿布扎比之间发生了激烈争吵，有批评人士说她出力不多，但斩获过丰；2008年迪拜金融危机时，太过自信的酋长国领导人不愿出售旗下资产（而且最不愿意的就是向临近更为富裕的阿布扎比出售），当听到她正在谋求实施财政纾困的传闻时，顿时气得暴跳如雷。

After the main dishes arrive, the conversation takes a less comfortable turn. Staveley may be celebrated in the British media for her dealmaking prowess but I’ve heard more critical talk back in her adopted hometown. I ask her about reports that she had a huge falling out with Abu Dhabi after the Barclays deal (some critics said she made too much money for little effort); that Dubai’s ruler, too proud to sell assets during the emirate’s financial meltdown in 2008, least of all to his richer Abu Dhabi neighbours, was furious about rumours that she had been arranging a bail-out.

听到这样的批评时，斯塔维利显得颇为吃惊，就好象这是她第一次听说此事，她驳斥这些都是纯属扯淡。“因为巴克莱银行的交易案处理得异常顺利，所以就有很多人妒忌，当你做得顺风顺水时，总有很多人想方设法来诋毁你。”

Staveley seems visibly shocked by the criticism, as if she is hearing it for the first time, and dismisses it as ridiculous gossip. “A lot of people were very jealous because it [the Barclays transaction] did exceptionally well, and when you do very, very well, a lot of people will try and knock you off your perch.”

在迪拜与阿布扎比，自己与过去一样受人欢迎，她继续说道，在金融危机中，自己想方设法想把迪拜拥有的股权卖给那些想帮助其渡过危机的海湾国家。“在海湾地区，你得表现得很强势，”她说。

She’s as welcome as ever in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, she goes on, and all she had tried to accomplish during the financial turmoil was to sell Dubai bonds to Gulf states interested in helping the emirate manage the crisis. “You need strong skin,” in the region, she says.

服务员来回问我们要什么甜点，我们于是就点了咖啡，随后我们的话题转回到阿拉伯地区的动荡。我暗示道：对极权主义以及贪腐彻底失去信心后的民意总爆发，肯定会对她的生意有所影响。

As the waiters hover around us offering dessert – we order only coffee – our conversation returns to the Arab uprising. I suggest that the explosion of frustrations with authoritarianism and corruption has surely had an effect on her business.

她回答道，由于自己多年苦心经营的关系网一下子烟消云散，许多银行家都感到十分恐慌。但她自我感觉很幸运，因为当初选对了客户群；她说个人只能顺应该地区的变局，并直言不讳地说自己认识卡扎菲(Muammer Gaddafi)的儿子赛义夫?伊斯拉姆(Seif al-Islam)，对方负责的黎波里 (Tripoli)政权近几年的外汇资产买卖。但与其它西方银行不同的是，她从未与利比亚投资局(Libyan Investment Authority)合作过，随着利比亚投资局的海外资产遭到冻结，其众多糟糕的海外投资真相也大白于天下。

Many bankers have been terrified, she says, as relationships they’ve had for years have disappeared. But she considers herself lucky to have chosen the right clients; she says you can only “embrace” the change in the region. She makes no secret that she knew Libya’s Seif al-Islam, son of Muammer Gaddafi, who was closely involved in Tripoli’s foreign asset purchases in recent years. Unlike many western banks, however, she never worked with the Libya Investment Authority, whose badly judged dealmaking has been exposed since its assets were frozen this year.

那阿联酋与卡塔尔的情况如何呢？这两个国家都富得流油，不容易爆发革命，如今仍在寻求进行海外投资，但阿布扎比镇压了持不同政见者，一旦出现反对王族统治的迹象，卡塔尔当局也会毫不犹豫地出手镇压。我的建议是：眼下海湾国家的策略是大举派发社会财富，并希冀国民能对现有政权保持满意。

What about the UAE and Qatar? Both are too rich for revolution and still looking for deals abroad, but Abu Dhabi has cracked down on dissent and Qatar no doubt would if any sign of opposition to the ruling family emerges. For now, I suggest, the strategy of Gulf governments has been to lavish social handouts and hope that people remain satisfied.

斯塔维利出言谨慎，回答问题时避免有啥冒犯。“在我如今生活的阿联酋，自己所看到的国民既非特别受压迫，也非忍饥挨饿，”她说道，并补充说，“不管是民主国家的领导人，还是君主专制国家的君主，所有的领导人都应该被问责，这是好事。”

Staveley is careful not to offend anyone with her response. “I’m not living in a society where I see people particularly suppressed or hungry,” she says of the UAE, then adds, “It’s good that the leaders, all leaders, should be held to account; all leaders, whether it’s a democratic society or one where there’s an absolute monarchy.”

虽然也门极端贫困，但也不乏富豪，其中一位就是她的大客户哈米德酋长，在这场阿拉伯世界的变局中，或许也门能给她提供最为丰厚的回报。

And Yemen, despite its impoverished state, does have a few rich people, one of the wealthiest being her client Sheikh Hamid, and it may offer one of the Arab uprising’s most lucrative opportunities.

如果阿里?阿卜杜拉?萨利赫(Ali Abdullah Saleh)从此不再回也门（自从6月份在总统府遇袭后，萨利赫如今正在沙特医院接受治疗，海湾以及西方国家的许多官员都希望他如此），那么萨利赫的劲敌哈米德酋长会是这场政治变局的最大受益人。“他非常非常地虔诚，”斯塔维利说。“他沉稳、深谋远虑、受过良好教育、为人谦逊。我今天读到一份也门报纸，说该国需要一位谦逊的领导人——就是他这样的人。”

If Ali Abdallah Saleh, the president who has been undergoing treatment in a Saudi hospital since an attack on his palace in June, never returns to Yemen (and many officials in the Gulf and in the west are hoping he doesn’t), then Sheikh Hamid, an arch rival of Saleh’s, will be a main beneficiary in a political transition. “He’s a very very religious man,” says Staveley. “He’s a very quiet, studied, educated, humble man. I read today a newspaper in Yemen saying we need a humble leader – that is him.”

我告诉斯塔维利：近来一直宿营也门首都萨那(Sana’a)街头，要求萨利赫政权下台的年轻示威者也把哈米德酋长以及他的阿赫马尔家族看成是贪腐的精英统治阶层（他们把整个国家搞得一团糟）的一员。她回应说，实质问题是萨利赫总统的支持者在抹黑她的这位客户（哈米德酋长）。

I tell her that the young Yemeni protesters who have been camped out in the capital Sana’a to call for the fall of the Saleh regime look at Sheikh Hamid and his al-Ahmar family as part of the same corrupt elite who have mismanaged the country. The problem, she says, is that the president’s people are briefing against her client.

即便也门因为政治争锋而陷入瘫痪，经济陷入崩溃的境地，斯塔维利仍在寻求撮合也门电信运营公司Sabafon的并购交易，她的公司与Sabafon签有管理合同。生性喜欢冒险的斯塔维利时刻关注着伊拉克局势，如今伊拉克正努力摆脱多年宗教派系的争斗，但该国的电信业大有前途，“我对伊拉克非常感兴趣，对伊拉克情有独钟。”

Even as Yemen is paralysed by the stand-off, its economy falling into deeper ruin, Staveley is working on deals, looking for acquisitions for Sabafon, a telecoms operator with which her company has a management contract. With a taste for adventure, she has her eyes on Iraq, which is still emerging from years of sectarian strife but where the telecoms sector could be hugely promising. “Very interested in Iraq, love Iraq.”

鲁拉?卡拉夫是《金融时报》中东编辑

Roula Khalaf is the FT’s Middle East editor

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斯科特酒店地址：伦敦W1梅费尔(Mayfair)芒特街(Mount Street)20号

Scott’s

静水：4.50英镑

20 Mount Street, Mayfair, London W1

健怡可乐：3.25英镑

Still water ￡4.50

草本沙拉：6.75英镑

Diet Coke ￡3.25

番茄沙拉：8.50英镑

Herb salad ￡6.75

红鲻鱼：25.00英镑

Tomato salad ￡8.50

海鲈鱼：28英镑

Red mullet ￡25.00

过滤式咖啡：3.25英镑

Sea bass ￡28.00

浓咖啡：3.00英镑

Filter coffee ￡3.25

2人的服务费：4.00 英镑

Espresso ￡3.00

总计（包括服务）：97.03英镑

Cover charge x 2 ￡4.00

译者：常和