英国卫报:走向失控的博姿药妆(5)（在线收听）

And it takes a lot of public money to do so: around 2bn pounds a year for prescriptions alone,

而且这需要大量的公共资金：仅处方一项，每年就有约20亿英镑，

according to independent financial analysis, or a third of Boots’s annual income in the UK.

根据独立财务分析公司的数据，这个数字相当于博姿在英国年收入的三分之一。

Then come the patient-care services paid for by the taxpayer,

然后是由纳税人支付的病人护理服务，

and the contracts Boots is now taking over from the NHS – to host GP surgeries in its stores,

现在，博姿药妆正从英国国家医疗服务系统手中接过合同——在其商店里进行全科医生的手术，

to run pharmacies in hospitals, to manage hearing test centres and specialist clinics monitoring drugs that prevent blood clots.

在医院开设药房，经营听力测试中心和核查预防血栓的药物的专门诊所。

Boots gave Tony work experience in the 1980s while he was training to be a pharmacist.

上世纪80年代，托尼在接受药剂师培训时，博姿药妆给了他工作经验。

Back then, he said, it was a good employer, “a blue-chip, like Marks and Spencer”.

他说，当时它是一个好雇主，“像玛莎百货一样是蓝筹股”。

But by the time he rejoined in 2011, it was under very different owners.

但在他2011年重新加入时，这家公司的所有者已大不相同。

The transformation Tony was about to witness began in spring 2007, when Boots was bought for 11bn pounds.

托尼即将见证的转型始于2007年春天，当时博姿药妆以110亿英镑的价格被收购。

This was the frenzied peak of the greatest financial bubble in history and each day’s papers brought news of more crazy deals.

那是历史上最大的金融泡沫的疯狂顶峰，每天的报纸上都有更多疯狂交易的消息。

Still, this stood out: it was the biggest buyout ever seen in Europe.

不过，这笔交易还是凸显出来：它是欧洲历史上最大的一笔收购交易。

The deal was backed by one of the world’s largest private equity groups, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR),

该交易得到了全球最大私人股本集团之一科尔伯格·克莱维斯·罗伯特公司的支持。

the debt merchants synonymous with the excesses of 1980s Wall Street.

这些债务商人是上世纪80年代华尔街过度行为的代名词。

But it was led by the billionaire Stefano Pessina.

但它是由亿万富翁斯特凡诺·佩西纳领导的。

Barely a few months earlier, in July 2006, he had merged the wholesaling business he had created, Alliance UniChem, with the venerable British name.

就在几个月前，也就是2006年7月，他将自己创建的批发公司单化联盟与这家备受尊敬的英国公司合并。

The result had been Alliance Boots, a Europe-wide pharmacy chain, of which he was a director.

结果就出现了欧洲连锁药店联合博姿，佩西纳担任公司董事。

Now he was buying the entire business, whipping it off the FTSE 100 and into private ownership.

现在，他买下了整个公司，将其从英国股市中剥离出来，转为私人所有。