巴菲特致股东的信（1999年）①概述

To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.:

Our gain in net worth during 1999 was $358 million, which increased the per-share book value of both our Class A and Class B stock by 0.5%. Over the last 35 years (that is, since present management took over) per-share book value has grown from $19 to $37,987, a rate of 24.0% compounded annually.*

* All figures used in this report apply to Berkshire's A shares, the successor to the only stock that the company had outstanding before 1996. The B shares have an economic interest equal to 1/30th that of the A.

致伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司所有股东：

本公司 1999 年的账面价值增加 3.58 亿美元，A/B 股每股账面价值增长了 0.5%(标普 21%)，自现任管理层接手的 35 年以来，每股账面价值由当初的 19 美元成长到目前的 37987 美元，年复合成长率约为 24.0%。*

* 本报告中使用的所有数据都适用于伯克希尔的A股，这是公司在1996年之前唯一发行在外的股票。B股的经济权益等于A股的1/30。

The numbers on the facing page show just how poor our 1999 record was. We had the worst absolute performance of my tenure and, compared to the S&P, the worst relative performance as well. Relative results are what concern us: Over time, bad relative numbers will produce unsatisfactory absolute results.

数字显示出我们 1999 年的业绩完全是不理想的，这也是个人历年来表现最差的一年，不管从绝对数字或是与标普 500 指数(+21%)比较皆是如此，当然相对数字是我们比较在意的，只不过时间一久，相对较差的数字其绝对数值肯定也不会好到哪里去。

Even Inspector Clouseau could find last year's guilty party: your Chairman. My performance reminds me of the quarterback whose report card showed four Fs and a D but who nonetheless had an understanding coach. "Son," he drawled, "I think you're spending too much time on that one subject."

即使是顽皮豹克鲁索探长也知道谁是去年真正的犯人：没错！就是我本人，而我个人的表现让我想起一位成绩单上满是 F 跟一个 D 的四分卫，偏偏又遇到一个体谅人的教练轻声说到：孩子，我想你把太多的时间放在单一的科目之上了。”

My "one subject" is capital allocation, and my grade for 1999 most assuredly is a D. What most hurt us during the year was the inferior performance of Berkshire's equity portfolio -- and responsibility for that portfolio, leaving aside the small piece of it run by Lou Simpson of GEICO, is entirely mine. Several of our largest investees badly lagged the market in 1999 because they've had disappointing operating results. We still like these businesses and are content to have major investments in them. But their stumbles damaged our performance last year, and it's no sure thing that they will quickly regain their stride.

我所指的单一科目就是“资金的分配”，而很显然的我在 1999 年所获得的成绩就只有 D，除此之外表现最惨的要算是伯克希尔的股票投资组合了，至于该为这件事负责的，除了少部分的投资是由 GEICO 保险公司的路易·辛普森(Lou Simpson)管理外，其余全部都要归咎于我本人，我们几件大型的投资标的，由于本身 1999 年的经营情况不佳，导致公司股价表现远落后于大盘，不过我们仍然对它们所处的产业情有独钟，同时也愿意继续与它们同在，只是它们的挫败严重影响到我们去年的表现，而且也不确定何时才能够回归正轨。

The fallout from our weak results in 1999 was a more-than-commensurate drop in our stock price. In 1998, to go back a bit, the stock outperformed the business. Last year the business did much better than the stock, a divergence that has continued to the date of this letter. Over time, of course, the performance of the stock must roughly match the performance of the business.

伯克希尔 1999 年积弱不振的表现，更导致公司的股价大幅下滑，相较之下，1998 年的股价反而表现的比本业还好，去年可以说是刚好相反，直到年报发布之日止仍是如此，当然就长期而言，公司股价的表现大致上还是会与本业的表现相当。

Despite our poor showing last year, Charlie Munger, Berkshire's Vice Chairman and my partner, and I expect that the gain in Berkshire's intrinsic value over the next decade will modestly exceed the gain from owning the S&P. We can't guarantee that, of course. But we are willing to back our conviction with our own money. To repeat a fact you've heard before, well over 99% of my net worth resides in Berkshire. Neither my wife nor I have ever sold a share of Berkshire and -- unless our checks stop clearing -- we have no intention of doing so.

尽管去年表现不佳，不过伯克希尔主要的合伙人查理·芒格，跟我本人仍然预期伯克希尔未来十年内在价值的成长率应该可以略微超越标普 500 指数同期的表现，当然这种事没人敢打包票，不过我们依旧愿意以我们所有的身家作为担保，大家应该都知道，我个人的身家有 99%以上都放在伯克希尔，我跟我夫人从来就没有卖过一张伯克希尔的股票，而且除非哪一天真的不够钱花，否则我们永远不会考虑出售任何一张股票。

Please note that I spoke of hoping to beat the S&P "modestly." For Berkshire, truly large superiorities over that index are a thing of the past. They existed then because we could buy both businesses and stocks at far more attractive prices than we can now, and also because we then had a much smaller capital base, a situation that allowed us to consider a much wider range of investment opportunities than are available to us today.

请注意我说的是“略微”超越标普 500，因为对伯克希尔来说，大幅超越标普 500 指数的情况已经成为历史，当初能够有这样的成绩，主要是因为那时不管企业或是股票的价格都相当低廉，而我们的资本规模相对也较小，那使得我们比现在有更多的投资机会可供选择。

Our optimism about Berkshire's performance is also tempered by the expectation -- indeed, in our minds, the virtual certainty -- that the S&P will do far less well in the next decade or two than it has done since 1982. A recent article in Fortune expressed my views as to why this is inevitable, and I'm enclosing a copy with this report.

此外我之所以对伯克希尔未来的表现如此有信心的原因在于，我认为标普 500 在未来 10 年 20 年的表现将远远不如过去十几年的表现，在最近的财富杂志我发表了一篇文章解释这种无可避免的缘由，在年报后面我也附了一份供大家参考。

Our goal is to run our present businesses well -- a task made easy because of the outstanding managers we have in place -- and to acquire additional businesses having economic characteristics and managers comparable to those we already own. We made important progress in this respect during 1999 by acquiring Jordan's Furniture and contracting to buy a major portion of MidAmerican Energy. We will talk more about these companies later in the report but let me emphasize one point here: We bought both for cash, issuing no Berkshire shares. Deals of that kind aren't always possible, but that is the method of acquisition that Charlie and I vastly prefer.

我们的目标是把现有的事业给经营好，这点对于现有优秀的管理层来说是件很简单的事，同时再设法取得具有相同竞争优势与优秀经理人的新事业，去年我们在这方面大有进展，不但买下了乔丹家具(Jordan)，同时还签约买下了中美能源大部分的股权，在报告的后段我还会详加介绍这两家公司，不过有一点我要强调的是，这两项并购案伯克希尔全部皆以现金进行交易，没有发行任何新股，虽然这样的交易方式可遇不可求，但却也是查理跟我比较偏好的。