英国卫报:走向失控的博姿药妆(6)（在线收听）

A near-unknown from the continent had just snapped up a high-street stalwart – and City newsrooms were agog.

一个来自欧洲大陆的几乎不为人知的人刚刚抢购了一个商业街中坚品牌——城市的新闻编辑室对此兴奋不已。

The guy even sounded exotic. He came from Italy, but had moved to Monaco, the principality famous for not levying income tax.

这家伙甚至听起来很有异国情调。他从意大利来到摩纳哥，这个公国以不征收所得税而闻名。

He collected yachts and Italian old masters.

他收集游艇和意大利早期绘画大师的作品。

Separated from his wife, he had got together with girlfriend Ornella Barra after buying her family’s business – then made her head of his wholesale operations.

与妻子分居后，他与女友奥内拉·巴拉相识，买下了她的家族企业，然后让她担任他的批发业务主管。

With his white hair and rimless glasses,

佩西纳白发苍苍，戴着无框眼镜，

Pessina looked less like a typical FTSE bureaucrat and more like a continental football manager, here to save the ailing local side.

他看起来不像典型的富时官僚，而更像欧洲大陆的足球经理，他来这里是为了拯救境况不佳的当地球队。

“He confesses to living a peripatetic lifestyle, jetting between his home in Monaco,

《每日电讯报》2007年报道，“他承认自己过着一种四处游荡的生活，经常乘飞机往返于摩纳哥的家中，

where he has to spend at least 90 nights a year to qualify for its low-tax regime,

他每年至少要在那里住90个晚上，才有资格享受那里的低税收制度，

and his offices in Italy and in London,” reported the Telegraph in 2007.

以及他在意大利和伦敦的办公室。”

“The two mobiles and a BlackBerry laid in front of him are clearly more important than any office.”

“摆在他面前的两部手机和一部黑莓手机显然比任何办公室都重要。”

After all, offices are not necessary when hunting for deals – and Pessina has a genius for making deals.

毕竟，在寻找交易时，办公室不是必要的，而佩西纳有做交易的天赋。

By 2005, when he invited Boots executives for merger talks on his yacht off Sardinia, he had already bought more than 500 firms.

到2005年，当他在撒丁岛附近的游艇上邀请博姿公司的高管参加并购谈判时，他已经收购了500多家公司。

Yet the press gave little consideration to the precise nature of this latest deal – and how that might change a business delivering a vital public service.

然而，媒体几乎没有考虑这宗最新交易的确切性质，以及这将如何改变一家提供重要公共服务的企业。

One man who was worried about Britain’s new king of medicine was Bill Scott.

一个担心英国新的药物之王的人是比尔·斯科特。

Until March 2015, Scott had been Scotland’s chief pharmaceutical officer for 22 years, leading policy-making on pharmacy.

在2015年3月之前，斯科特担任苏格兰首席制药官22年，领导制药政策制定。

It was from that vantage point that he watched the takeover.

他就是从那个有利的位置见证了这次接管。

“The feeling was that it would fundamentally change the ethos of Boots,” Scott told me.

斯科特告诉我：“我感觉这将从根本上改变博姿药妆的风格。”

He and his colleagues had always regarded the company as “ethical” – because it was “very much driven by pharmacists themselves”.

他和他的同事一直认为该公司是“有道德的”——因为它“在很大程度上是由药剂师自己推动的”。

Now, with the money men in charge, it seemed the future was less certain.

现在，有了财阀掌控公司，未来似乎不那么确定了。