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Finance in the creative sector
创意产业融资
Money for fun
娱乐资金
Shunned by investors, creative firms are looking forward to a new tax break
失去投资者青睐的创意企业正期待新的减税政策
BRITAIN’S politicians lament its loss of industrial prowess and cringe at its gift for banking. One kind of enterprise that cheers them is the creative sector, which has grown twice as fast as the rest of the economy over the past decade. Fashion, entertainment, advertising and digital technology are all strengths. Britain was well represented at this year’s South by Southwest, a music and film festival in Texas—where, on March 11th, it was announced that Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, would join the government as an adviser. George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer and a culture vulture, has taken an interest in the sector since his days in opposition.
英国政客哀叹该国失去了工业霸主的地位，守着得天独厚的银行业畏缩不前。唯一振奋人心的是英国的创意产业——过去十年中增长速度比其余产业快上两倍。时尚，娱乐，广告和数字技术行业都是英国的强项。这点在今年的“西南偏南”（美国德州的一个音乐电影节）上得到了充分体现，3月11日，英国在节日上宣布，将任命维基百科的创始人吉米-威尔士为ZF顾问。附庸风雅的财政部部长乔治-奥斯本在他还是反对党的时候就对创意行业充满了兴趣。
The creative industries are less popular with investors. Banks and venture capitalists tend to regard the sector as riskier—and less motivated by profit—than more humdrum parts of the economy. “The mindset of a creative entrepreneur and your average investor are poles apart,” says Andy Heath of Beggars Group, an independent record label. A report for the government by Stuart Fraser of Warwick Business School found that creative firms are likelier than other businesses to be discouraged from even applying for finance.
不过创意产业在投资者中就不太受欢迎了。银行和风险资本家通常认为，创意行业比“不那么有创意”的行业风险更大，追求利益的积极性也更低。独立唱片品牌Beggars Group的安迪-西斯认为“创意企业家和普通投资者的思维方式简直是天壤之别。”华威商学院的斯图尔特-弗雷泽在给ZF的报告中指出，创意企业甚至连申请融资都比其他企业容易遭到拒绝。
Something of a fightback against the doubting money-men has begun. The sector is increasingly quick to challenge assumptions about its riskiness. Figures unearthed for the Demos think-tank last year by Helen Burrows, a former adviser to Ed Vaizey, the culture minister, showed that the survival rate for creative start-ups is slightly higher than for other young businesses. Survival is not the same as success, of course. But the numbers suggest that creative entrepreneurs are hard-headed about cutting costs during tough times.
对心存疑虑的投资者的某种回击已经开始了。创意行业正愈发快速地动摇公众对其风险的成见。去年，海伦-巴洛斯（曾是文化部部长艾德-维泽的顾问）为狄默斯智库分析的数据显示，新建立的创意公司存活率要比其他新创企业稍高一些。当然，存活不等于成功，不过数据显示创意企业家在艰难时期能冷静理智地降低开销。
The government is trying to help. On April 6th the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) will come into effect. This allows an investor to put up to £100,000 ($157,000) into a small business and claim 50% tax relief. Although it is open to almost all firms, the policy was designed for those which find it hard to raise external finance because investors see them as risky. The music and film sectors are especially excited. But the government expects that technology, including the cluster of internet firms around the Old Street roundabout in London (pictured) will be the main winner. ASCEND, a new seed investment fund specialising in creative businesses, will launch on the same day.
ZF也在试着援助创意产业。种子企业投资计划（SEIS）将从4月6日起生效。该计划将允许投资者向小企业投入最高10万英镑（15万7千美元）资金的同时获得50%的减税。尽管几乎面向所有企业，该政策是为那些因为投资者认为风险高而难以从外部筹措资金的企业专门设计的。音乐和电影产业对此尤为兴奋。不过ZF希望主要的赢家是技术企业，例如遍布伦敦老街环形交叉路口（如图）的互联网公司。专为创意企业准备的新型种子投资基金，ASCEND，也将在同一天推出。
The Treasury usually counsels against fiddly, market-distorting schemes. Civil servants like to say that their ideal budget speech would last ten minutes. Some suspect that Mr Osborne’s announcement in November had a chilling effect on seed investment in the first quarter of this year, as financiers sat on cash until April. But even Nigel Lawson, the chancellor most taken with the Treasury’s doctrine of simplicity, introduced a “business expansion scheme” in 1983 which SEIS resembles. And the hunger for growth means Mr Osborne has to be seen to be doing something beyond macro-economic strategy.
财政部通常会提议反对这种琐碎复杂、扭曲市场的政策。公仆们喜欢说，财政预算讲话最好10分钟讲完。因为投资者们一直把资金搁置到四月份才放出，有人怀疑是奥斯本11月的声明导致今年第一个季度的种子投资状况冷淡。然而，就连最信奉财政部“简朴”信条的奈杰尔-罗森部长也在1983年引进了和SEIS相似的“商业扩张计划”。对经济增长的迫切要求意味着奥斯本不得不表现出在做一些宏观经济策略之外的工作。
It may be that underlying trends will alleviate the problem. Previously safe investments such as equities and sovereign debt are looking risky. Some investors confess that there is social cachet in being able to tell people that they are involved in fun sectors such as music. And technology has driven down entrance costs, and thus financing needs, in much of the creative sector. If the SEIS only amounts to a nudge, that may be all that is required.
也许潜在的经济趋势会缓和这个问题。过去的安全投资，例如股票和国债，现在看起来存在风险。有投资者承认，如果告诉别人自己在从事娱乐行业（例如音乐产业）能得到社会尊重。而且，技术进步很大程度上降低了创意行业的资金门槛，因此也降低了该行业融资的需求。如果说SEIS只能起到一点推动作用，那么，缺的可能正是这一下。
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