巴菲特致股东的信（1997年）⑦报告收益来源

Sources of Reported Earnings

The table that follows shows the main sources of Berkshire's reported earnings. In this presentation, purchase-accounting adjustments are not assigned to the specific businesses to which they apply, but are instead aggregated and shown separately. This procedure lets you view the earnings of our businesses as they would have been reported had we not purchased them. For the reasons discussed on pages 69 and 70, this form of presentation seems to us to be more useful to investors and managers than one utilizing generally-accepted accounting principles (GAAP), which require purchase-premiums to be charged off business-by-business. The total earnings we show in the table are, of course, identical to the GAAP total in our audited financial statements.

报告收益来源

下表显示伯克希尔报告收益的主要来源，在这张表中商誉的摊销数与购买法会计调整数会从个别被投资公司分离出来，单独加总列示，之所以这样做是为了让旗下各事业的收益状况，不因我们的投资而有所影响，过去我一再地强调我们认为这样的表达方式，较之一般公认会计原则要求以个别企业基础做调整，不管是对投资者或是管理者来说，更有帮助，当然最后损益加总的数字仍然会与经会计师查核的数字一致。

(1) From date of acquisition, December 23, 1996.
(2) Includes Star Furniture from July 1, 1997.
(3) Excludes interest expense of Finance Businesses.

(1)飞安公司从 1996 年 12 月 23 日取得之时算起
(2)家具业务包含明星家具 1997 年 7 月 1 日以后的收益
(3)利息费用扣除金融业务利息支出。

Overall, our operating businesses continue to perform exceptionally well, far outdoing their industry norms. We are particularly pleased that profits improved at Helzberg's after a disappointing 1996. Jeff Comment, Helzberg's CEO, took decisive steps early in 1997 that enabled the company to gain real momentum by the crucial Christmas season. In the early part of this year, as well, sales remained strong.

总的来说，我们旗下的运营业务的表现远优于一般的同业，尤其是 Helzberg 钻石在渡过令人失望的 1996 年之后，盈利状况大幅提升，Helzberg 公司的总裁 Jeff Comment 在 1997 年初断然地采取各项措施，带领整个公司在重要的圣诞旺季大有斩获，而截至今年上半年为止，销售状况依旧强劲。

Casual observers may not appreciate just how extraordinary the performance of many of our businesses has been: If the earnings history of, say, Buffalo News or Scott Fetzer is compared to the records of their publicly-owned peers, their performance might seem to have been unexceptional. But most public companies retain two-thirds or more of their earnings to fund their corporate growth. In contrast, those Berkshire subsidiaries have paid 100% of their earnings to us, their parent company, to fund our growth.

一般人可能没有意识到我们众多旗下业务的表现是多么的杰出，虽然相较于其他已上市的同业，布法罗新闻报或是斯科特费泽的盈利表现看起来并不突出，不过大家要了解，大部分的上市公司通常会将 2/3 以上的收益保留不分配以帮助企业保持成长，但是伯克希尔大部分的子公司却将所赚取的收益 100%的送回总部，以促进伯克希尔进一步的成长。

In effect, the records of the public companies reflect the cumulative benefits of the earnings they have retained, while the records of our operating subsidiaries get no such boost. Over time, however, the earnings these subsidiaries have distributed have created truly huge amounts of earning power elsewhere in Berkshire. The News, See's and Scott Fetzer have alone paid us $1.8 billion, which we have gainfully employed elsewhere. We owe their managements our gratitude for much more than the earnings that are detailed in the table.

事实上，这些上市公司的收益对于其盈利表现有累积效果，相较之下，我们的子公司却没有这方面的帮助，然而就长期而言，这些子公司上缴的资金对于伯克希尔在其它地方的盈利能力却有极大的贡献，布法罗新闻、喜诗糖果与斯科特费泽三家公司，这几年来上缴的收益总计高达 18 亿美元，而我们也得以好好地运用这些资金，所以我们对于这些经理人的感谢绝不仅止于帐面上所看到的那些收益数字而已。

Additional information about our various businesses is given on pages 36 - 50, where you will also find our segment earnings reported on a GAAP basis. In addition, on pages 55 - 61, we have rearranged Berkshire's financial data into four segments on a non-GAAP basis, a presentation that corresponds to the way Charlie and I think about the company. Our intent is to supply you with the financial information that we would wish you to give us if our positions were reversed.

在年报中你可以找到依照一般公认会计原则编制各个业务部门详细的信息，另外你还可以找到经过重编，依照伯克希尔四大部门的信息，这是查理跟我能够完整呈现伯克希尔现况的模式，我们的目的是希望能够换位思考，提供大家所有，假如我们作为投资者想看到的必要信息。

(1) From date of acquisition, December 23, 1996. (2) Includes Star Furniture from July 1, 1997. (3) Excludes interest expense of Finance Businesses.

(1) From date of acquisition, December 23, 1996.
(2) Includes Star Furniture from July 1, 1997.
(3) Excludes interest expense of Finance Businesses.