巴菲特致股东的信（1995年）⑤GEICO保险营运

GEICO Corporation

Right after yearend, we completed the purchase of 100% of GEICO, the seventh largest auto insurer in the United States, with about 3.7 million cars insured. I've had a 45-year association with GEICO, and though the story has been told before, it's worth a short recap here.

GEICO保险营运

就在去年底，我们完成对 GEICO 保险 100%股权的收购交易，GEICO 保险是全美第七大的汽车保险公司，约有 370 万辆汽车投保，我个人与 GEICO 保险的关系长达 45 年以上，虽然这段故事已经说过很多遍，我认为还是有必要在这里稍微复述一次。

I attended Columbia University's business school in 1950-51, not because I cared about the degree it offered, but because I wanted to study under Ben Graham, then teaching there. The time I spent in Ben's classes was a personal high, and quickly induced me to learn all I could about my hero. I turned first to Who's Who in America, finding there, among other things, that Ben was Chairman of Government Employees Insurance Company, to me an unknown company in an unfamiliar industry.

我是在 1950-1951 年间就读于哥伦比亚商学院，当时的目的倒不在于取得学位，重点在于本杰明·格雷厄姆当时在那任教，我想跟随他学习，上格雷厄姆的课实在是一种享受，很快的就让我从偶像哪里学习到许多东西，有一回我翻开全美名人录，发现 Ben 是政府雇员保险公司(GEICO 保险)的董事长，对于当时的我而言，那完全是一家陌生行业里的不知名公司。

A librarian next referred me to Best's Fire and Casualty insurance manual, where I learned that GEICO was based in Washington, DC. So on a Saturday in January, 1951, I took the train to Washington and headed for GEICO's downtown headquarters. To my dismay, the building was closed, but I pounded on the door until a custodian appeared. I asked this puzzled fellow if there was anyone in the office I could talk to, and he said he'd seen one man working on the sixth floor.

一位图书馆员介绍我看看《Best's 火灾和意外伤害保险手册》，我发现 GEICO 保险的总部位于华盛顿特区，所以在 1951 年 1 月的某个周六，我搭乘火车前往位于华盛顿的 GEICO 保险总部，令人失望的是总部的大门紧锁，敲门半天才有位警卫前来，我向这位一脸疑惑的警卫先生问到，公司是否有人可以跟我谈一谈，他说六楼有人在加班，你可以去找他试一试。

And thus I met Lorimer Davidson, Assistant to the President, who was later to become CEO. Though my only credentials were that I was a student of Graham's, "Davy" graciously spent four hours or so showering me with both kindness and instruction. No one has ever received a better half-day course in how the insurance industry functions nor in the factors that enable one company to excel over others. As Davy made clear, GEICO's method of selling - direct marketing - gave it an enormous cost advantage over competitors that sold through agents, a form of distribution so ingrained in the business of these insurers that it was impossible for them to give it up. After my session with Davy, I was more excited about GEICO than I have ever been about a stock.

就这样我遇到了当时还是 CEO 助理的洛里莫·戴维森(Lorimer Davidson)，后来他成为 GEICO 保险的 CEO，虽然我唯一的背书只是格雷厄姆的一名学生，戴维森还是很好心的花了四个小时左右的时间，好好地给我上了一课，我想大概没有人能够像我这样，可以幸运地接受如何经营保险业的半天课程，戴维森很坦白地告诉我，GEICO 保险的竞争优势在于直销，这使得 GEICO 相较于通过传统的代理中介销售的竞争同业拥有巨大的成本优势，这种分销形式在这些保险公司的业务中根深蒂固，他们根本不可能放弃它。而在上过戴维森的课之后，GEICO 保险也成为我有生以来觉得最心动的一支股票。

When I finished at Columbia some months later and returned to Omaha to sell securities, I naturally focused almost exclusively on GEICO. My first sales call - on my Aunt Alice, who always supported me 100% - was successful. But I was then a skinny, unpolished 20-year-old who looked about 17, and my pitch usually failed. Undaunted, I wrote a short report late in 1951 about GEICO for "The Security I Like Best" column in The Commercial and Financial Chronicle, a leading financial publication of the time. More important, I bought stock for my own account.

在我从哥伦比亚大学毕业的几个月后，我回到奥马哈做股票经纪人，自然而然的，我把重心全部放在 GEICO保险这只股票之上，我做成的第一笔生意就是把它介绍给最支持我的姑妈 Alice，不过当时的我只是个 20 岁初出茅庐的小伙子，所以我的话总是没有人愿意相信，即便如此，我还是在 1951 年写了一篇关于 GEICO 的文章，并投稿到当时主流金融出版物《商业与金融纪事》最佳个股专栏，当然最重要的是我自己也买了这只股票。

You may think this odd, but I have kept copies of every tax return I filed, starting with the return for 1944. Checking back, I find that I purchased GEICO shares on four occasions during 1951, the last purchase being made on September 26. This pattern of persistence suggests to me that my tendency toward self-intoxication was developed early. I probably came back on that September day from unsuccessfully trying to sell some prospect and decided - despite my already having more than 50% of my net worth in GEICO - to load up further. In any event, I accumulated 350 shares of GEICO during the year, at a cost of $10,282. At yearend, this holding was worth $13,125, more than 65% of my net worth.

你可能会觉得很奇怪，不过打从 1944 年开始报税到现在，我都保留每年个人报税的资料，回头看时，我发现在 1951 年我总共分四次买进 GEICO 保险股份，最后一次是在 9 月 26 日，这样的做法让我觉得自己很早就有自我沉醉的倾向，印象中我那时是在向别人推销这批股票不成之后，决定自己买下，尽管在当时我已将个人 50%以上的身家全都押在这支股票之上，而在加码之后，我总共持有 350 股的 GEICO 保险股份，成本为 10,282 美元，到了年底，这些股票的市值成为 13,125 美元，超过我个人资产的 65%。

You can see why GEICO was my first business love. Furthermore, just to complete this stroll down memory lane, I should add that I earned most of the funds I used to buy GEICO shares by delivering The Washington Post, the chief product of a company that much later made it possible for Berkshire to turn $10 million into $500 million.

所以大家可以看出 GEICO 保险公司可以说是我投资生涯的初恋，还有一点也相当具有纪念价值的，我买下GEICO 保险大部分的资金是来自于我派送《华盛顿邮报》的收入。后来在伯克希尔，又凭借投资华盛顿邮报这家公司，将 1,000 万美元变成 5 亿美元。

Alas, I sold my entire GEICO position in 1952 for $15,259, primarily to switch into Western Insurance Securities. This act of infidelity can partially be excused by the fact that Western was selling for slightly more than one times its current earnings, a p/e ratio that for some reason caught my eye. But in the next 20 years, the GEICO stock I sold grew in value to about $1.3 million, which taught me a lesson about the inadvisability of selling a stake in an identifiably-wonderful company.

可惜的是，在 1952 年我以 15,259 美元的价钱将全部的 GEICO 保险股份出清，然后将所得资金投入到西方保险证券公司之上，这项变心的举动，一部分的原因是因为西方保险证券当时的股价相当吸引人，市盈率只有一倍左右，然而在往后的二十年间，当时被我卖的的 GEICO 保险股份的价值却成长到 130 万美元，这给我好好上了一课：卖掉一家明显的好公司是十分不明智的。

In the early 1970's, after Davy retired, the executives running GEICO made some serious errors in estimating their claims costs, a mistake that led the company to underprice its policies - and that almost caused it to go bankrupt. The company was saved only because Jack Byrne came in as CEO in 1976 and took drastic remedial measures.

1970 年代初期，在戴维森退休后不久，继任的管理层犯了一连串严重的错误，他们低估了保险理赔的成本，使得公司对外销售保单的定价过低，此举导致公司几乎面临倒闭的命运，所幸后来由杰克·伯恩(Jack Byrne)在1976 年接掌公司，并采取紧急的补救措施后，才使得公司幸免于难。

Because I believed both in Jack and in GEICO's fundamental competitive strength, Berkshire purchased a large interest in the company during the second half of 1976, and also made smaller purchases later. By yearend 1980, we had put $45.7 million into GEICO and owned 33.3% of its shares. During the next 15 years, we did not make further purchases. Our interest in the company, nonetheless, grew to about 50% because it was a big repurchaser of its own shares.

由于我相信 Jack 以及该公司原本拥有的竞争优势，伯克希尔在 1976 年下半年大量买进 GEICO 保险股份，之后又小幅加码，到了 1980 年底，我们总共投入 4,570 万美元取得该公司 33.3%的股权，然而在往后的 15 年内，我们并没有再增加持股，不过由于该公司不断地回购股份，使得我们的持股比例逐渐增加到 50%左右。

Then, in 1995, we agreed to pay $2.3 billion for the half of the company we didn't own. That is a steep price. But it gives us full ownership of a growing enterprise whose business remains exceptional for precisely the same reasons that prevailed in 1951. In addition, GEICO has two extraordinary managers: Tony Nicely, who runs the insurance side of the operation, and Lou Simpson, who runs investments.

然后到了 1995 年，我们同意以 23 亿美元买下不属于我们的另一半股份。这实在是天价，不过它让我们可以100%拥有一家深具成长潜力的企业，且其竞争优势从 1951 年到现在一直都维持不变，更重要的是，GEICO 保险拥有两位相当优秀的经理人，一位是专门负责保险部门营运的托尼·莱斯利(Tony Nicely)，一位是专门负责投资部门营运的路易·辛普森(Lou Simpson)。

Tony, 52, has been with GEICO for 34 years. There's no one I would rather have managing GEICO's insurance operation. He has brains, energy, integrity and focus. If we're lucky, he'll stay another 34 years.

52 岁的 Tony 在 GEICO 保险任职已有 34 年了，兼具智慧、精力、品格与专注力，他是我心目中经营 GEICO保险部门的不二人选，如果我们够幸运的话，Tony 应该还能再为我们经营 GEICO 保险 34 年以上。

Lou runs investments just as ably. Between 1980 and 1995, the equities under Lou's management returned an average of 22.8% annually vs. 15.7% for the S&P. Lou takes the same conservative, concentrated approach to investments that we do at Berkshire, and it is an enormous plus for us to have him on board. One point that goes beyond Lou's GEICO work: His presence on the scene assures us that Berkshire would have an extraordinary professional immediately available to handle its investments if something were to happen to Charlie and me.

另一方面，Lou 在管理投资同样出色，1980-1995 年的这段期间，GEICO 保险的投资在 Lou 的管理之下，年复合投资回报率高达 22.8%，同期间标普指数只有 15.7%，Lou 在 GEICO 保险所采取谨慎保守、专注集中的投资方式与伯克希尔一致，有他在，对伯克希尔来说绝对有相当大的优势，而他的存在同时也使得伯克希尔可以确保查理跟我本人万一要是有任何突发状况时，能够有一位杰出的专业人士可以立即接手我们的工作。

GEICO, of course, must continue both to attract good policyholders and keep them happy. It must also reserve and price properly. But the ultimate key to the company's success is its rock-bottom operating costs, which virtually no competitor can match. In 1995, moreover, Tony and his management team pushed underwriting and loss adjustment expenses down further to 23.6% of premiums, nearly one percentage point below 1994's ratio. In business, I look for economic castles protected by unbreachable "moats." Thanks to Tony and his management team, GEICO's moat widened in 1995.

当然，GEICO 保险必须如同过往一般，持续地吸引优良的投保人前来，并让他们满意，当然定价与提列准备必须适当，但是该公司能够成功的最重要关键，还在于其超低的运营成本，这实在是其它竞争同业远远比不上的，1995 年在 Tony 与其领导的管理层的努力之下，该公司的承保和损失调整费用进一步压低到保费收入的23.6%(费用率)，比起 1994 年又低了一个百分点，在商业的世界，我致力于寻找拥有无可侵犯护城河保护的经济城堡，感谢 Tony 跟他的经营团队，GEICO 保险周围的护城河又更加宽了许多。

Finally, let me bring you up to date on Davy. He's now 93 and remains my friend and teacher. He continues to pay close attention to GEICO and has always been there when the company's CEOs - Jack Byrne, Bill Snyder and Tony - have needed him. Our acquisition of 100% of GEICO caused Davy to incur a large tax. Characteristically, he still warmly supported the transaction.

最后让我向各位报告一下戴维森的近况，高龄 93 岁的他，对我而言亦师亦友，到现在他还是一样关心GEICO 保险的情况，而当公司现任的主管 Jack Byrne、Bill Snnder 与 Tony 有任何需要他的地方，他都会随时挺身相助，虽然这次的并购案将使得戴维森必须承担大笔的税负，但他还是一样支持这项交易。

Davy has been one of my heroes for the 45 years I've known him, and he's never let me down. You should understand that Berkshire would not be where it is today if Davy had not been so generous with his time on a cold Saturday in 1951. I've often thanked him privately, but it is fitting that I use this report to thank him on behalf of Berkshire's shareholders.

自从我认识戴维森的 45 年以来，他一直就是我崇拜的偶像之一，而他确实也从未让我失望过，大家必须了解如果没有戴维森在 1951 年那个寒冷的周六慷慨解说，伯克希尔就绝对不可能会有今天的成就，多年来私底下，我已不知感谢他多少次了，但是今天在这里我觉得应该借着今年的年报代替伯克希尔所有的股东向他致上深深的感谢之意。

GEICO Corporation Right after yearend, we completed the purchase of 100% of GEICO, the seventh largest auto insurer in the United States, with about 3.7 million cars insured. I've had a 45-year association with GEICO, and though the story has been told before, it's worth a short recap here.

Tony, 52, has been with GEICO for 34 years. There's no one I would rather have managing GEICO's insurance operation. He has brains, energy, integrity and focus. If we're lucky, he'll stay another 34 years.

GEICO Corporation

Right after yearend, we completed the purchase of 100% of GEICO, the seventh largest auto insurer in the United States, with about 3.7 million cars insured. I've had a 45-year association with GEICO, and though the story has been told before, it's worth a short recap here.