巴菲特致股东的信（2005年）②并购

Acquisitions

并购

Over the years, our current businesses, in aggregate, should deliver modest growth in operating earnings. But they will not in themselves produce truly satisfactory gains. We will need major acquisitions to get that job done.

未来几年，我们目前的业务总体上应该在经营利润上表现出一定的增长，但仅靠这些业务本身并不能产生出令人满意的回报，要想实现这样的理想目标，我们必须进行一些规模较大的并购。

In this quest, 2005 was encouraging. We agreed to five purchases: two that were completed last year, one that closed after yearend and two others that we expect to close soon. None of the deals involve the issuance of Berkshire shares. That’s a crucial, but often ignored, point: When a management proudly acquires another company for stock, the shareholders of the acquirer are concurrently selling part of their interest in everything they own. I’ve made this kind of deal a few times myself – and, on balance, my actions have cost you money.

已经过去的 2005 年，我们的大规模并购活动令人鼓舞，我们达成了 5 项并购协议，其中 2 项在 2005 年年内完成，1 项在 2006 年年初完成，其余 2项预计也会很快完成。这些并购交易均不涉及到伯克希尔发行新股，这一点非常关键却常常被忽略：当一家公司管理层骄傲地宣布以股票收购另一家公司时，作为收购方公司的股东们不得不为此牺牲自身的一部分股东权益。我也做过几次类似的并购交易，当然，伯克希尔的股东们为我的行动付出了相应的代价。

Here are last year’s purchases:

以下逐一讨论我们去年的并购：

•On June 30 we bought Medical Protective Company (“MedPro”), a 106-year-old medical malpractice insurer based in Fort Wayne. Malpractice insurance is tough to underwrite and has proved to be a graveyard for many insurers. MedPro nevertheless should do well. It will have the attitudinal advantage that all Berkshire insurers share, wherein underwriting discipline trumps all other goals. Additionally, as part of Berkshire, MedPro has financial strength far exceeding that of its competitors, a quality assuring doctors that long-to-settle claims will not end up back on their doorstep because their insurer failed. Finally, the company has a smart and energetic CEO, Tim Kenesey, who instinctively thinks like a Berkshire manager.

• 2005 年 6 月 30 日，我们收购了医疗事故保险公司(Medical Protective Co.，MedPro)，这是一家位于韦恩堡(Fort Wayne)、有着 106 年经营历史的医疗事故保险公司。医疗事故保险是一种十分难以承保的险种，一度成为许多保险公司的梦魇之地。然而，MedPro 却由于以下原因将会经营良好：首先，MedPro 将和伯克希尔下属其他保险公司一样在制度上领先一筹，那就是承保纪律重于其他一切经营目标；其次，作为伯克希尔公司的一个组成部分，MedPro 拥有远远超过其竞争对手的财务实力，这足以向医生们保证，那些需要很长时间的诉讼案件绝不会由于他们所投保的保险公司的破产而无法结案；第三，这家公司有一个聪明能干的 CEO：TimKenesey，他本能地和其他伯克希尔经理人一样遵循同样的思考模式。

•Forest River, our second acquisition, closed on August 31. A couple of months earlier, on June 21, I received a two-page fax telling me – point by point – why Forest River met the acquisition criteria we set forth on page 25 of this report. I had not before heard of the company, a recreational vehicle manufacturer with $1.6 billion of sales, nor of Pete Liegl, its owner and manager. But the fax made sense, and I immediately asked for more figures. These came the next morning, and that afternoon I made Pete an offer. On June 28, we shook hands on a deal.

• 我们的第二起并购是森林之河房车公司(Forest River)，已经于 2005 年 8 月 31 日完成。在此之前的 7 月 21日，我收到一份只有 2 页纸的传真，上面逐一说明了森林之河完全符合我们曾经在年报上披露的收购标准。在此之前，我从未听说过这位年销售额 16 亿美元的周末旅游房车制造商及其所有人兼总经理 Pete Liegl。但这份传真却让我十分动心，于是我马上要求对方提供更多的相关数据。第二天早上我就拿到了这些数据，当天上午我就向Pete Liegl 提出了收购要约。7 月 28 日，我们俩握手成交。

Pete is a remarkable entrepreneur. Some years back, he sold his business, then far smaller than today, to an LBO operator who promptly began telling him how to run the place. Before long, Pete left, and the business soon sunk into bankruptcy. Pete then repurchased it. You can be sure that I won’t be telling Pete how to manage his operation.

Pete是一个杰出的企业家，几年之前，他的企业远远比现在小，那时他把企业卖给了一家杠杆收购机构(LBO)，他们接手后马上对他指手画脚，不久 PeteLiegl 就离开了公司。此后不久，公司就陷入破产，PeteLiegl 重新买回了这家公司。你可以放心，我绝不会干涉PeteLiegl 的任何经营行为。

Forest River has 60 plants, 5,400 employees and has consistently gained share in the RV business, while also expanding into other areas such as boats. Pete is 61 – and definitely in an acceleration mode. Read the piece from RV Business that accompanies this report, and you’ll see why Pete and Berkshire are made for each other.

森林之河拥有 60 家工厂和 5,400 名雇员，在休闲房车制造业中持续保持相当的市场份额，同时还将向船舶制造等其他业务拓展。PeteLiegl 现年 61 岁，绝对处于加速前进的状态。请你好好读读年报中所附的刊登在《RVBusiness》上的一篇文章，你就会明白为什么 Pete 会和伯克希尔喜结良缘。

•On November 12, 2005, an article ran in The Wall Street Journal dealing with Berkshire’s unusual acquisition and managerial practices. In it Pete declared, “It was easier to sell my business than to renew my driver’s license.”

• 2005 年 11 月 12 日，华尔街日报上刊登了一篇讨论伯克希尔与众不同的并购和管理运作的文章。文中 Pete宣称："向巴菲特出售我的公司比更新我的驾照还容易。"

In New York, Cathy Baron Tamraz read the article, and it struck a chord. On November 21, she sent me a letter that began, “As president of Business Wire, I’d like to introduce you to my company, as I believe it fits the profile of Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary companies as detailed in a recent Wall Street Journal article.”

纽约的凯西·巴伦·塔姆拉兹(Cathy Baron Tamraz)读了这篇文章之后，触动了心弦。11 月 21 日，她给我写来一封信，开头这样写道："作为美国商业咨询公司(Business Wire)的 CEO，我想向你介绍我的公司，因为我认为我的公司符合最近一篇刊登在华尔街日报上的文章中详细说明的伯克希尔下属子公司的特征。"

By the time I finished Cathy’s two-page letter, I felt Business Wire and Berkshire were a fit. I particularly liked her penultimate paragraph: “We run a tight ship and keep unnecessary spending under wraps. No secretaries or management layers here. Yet we’ll invest big dollars to gain a technological advantage and move the business forward.”

一看完 Cathy 的来信，我马上觉得 Business Wire 与伯克希尔是一对佳偶，我特别喜欢她来信中的倒数第二段："我们严格控制成本，并且限制一切不必要的支出。我们公司没有秘书，也没有管理分层。但我们却会大量投资以取得技术领先和推动业务发展。"

I promptly gave Cathy a call, and before long Berkshire had reached agreement with Business Wire’s controlling shareholder, Lorry Lokey, who founded the company in 1961 (and who had just made Cathy CEO). I love success stories like Lorry’s. Today 78, he has built a company that disseminates information in 150 countries for 25,000 clients. His story, like those of many entrepreneurs who have selected Berkshire as a home for their life’s work, is an example of what can happen when a good idea, a talented individual and hard work converge.

我马上给 Cathy 打了一个电话，伯克希尔与 Business Wire 的控股股东 Lorry Lokey 很快达成了收购协议。Lorry Lokey 于 1961 年创建了这家公司，刚刚聘请 Cathy 为 CEO。我非常欣赏像 LorryLokey 这样的商业成功传奇故事，今年 78 岁高龄的他已经把公司打造成一家把信息传送到 150 个国家的 25,000 个客户的优秀企业，与许多其他同样选择将伯克希尔作为他们一生打造的企业的最终归宿的企业家一样，他的商业成功传奇故事是一个好的创意、一个商业天才、一种勤奋刻苦工作的态度完美结合的成功典范。

•In December we agreed to buy 81% of Applied Underwriters, a company that offers a combination of payroll services and workers’ compensation insurance to small businesses. A majority of Applied’s customers are located in California.

• 2005 年 12 月我们达成协议，收购 Applied Underwriters(AUW)保险公司 81%的股权。这是一家向小型企业提供薪水支付服务和工伤赔偿保险业务的公司，其大部分客户在加州。

In 1998, though, when the company had 12 employees, it acquired an Omaha-based operation with 24 employees that offered a somewhat-similar service. Sid Ferenc and Steve Menzies, who have built Applied’s remarkable business, concluded that Omaha had many advantages as an operational base – a brilliant insight, I might add – and today 400 of the company’s 479 employees are located here.

1998 年，这家只有 12 名员工的小公司并购了一家基地位于奥马哈的有 24 名员工、经营类似业务的公司。AUW 保险杰出业务的创始人 Sid Ferenc 和 Steve Menzies 经过分析得出结论，奥马哈作为经营基地拥有很多优势——我想说这真是远见卓识，如今这家公司的 479 名员工中有 400 人在此安家落户。

Less than a year ago, Applied entered into a large reinsurance contract with Ajit Jain, the extraordinary manager of National Indemnity’s reinsurance division. Ajit was impressed by Sid and Steve, and they liked Berkshire’s method of operation. So we decided to join forces. We are pleased that Sid and Steve retain 19% of Applied. They started on a shoestring only 12 years ago, and it will be fun to see what they can accomplish with Berkshire’s backing.

不到一年之前，AUW 保险与国民保险再保险部门的杰出经理人阿吉特·贾恩达成了一项大额再保险合同。阿吉特·贾恩对 Sid Ferenc 和 Steve Menzies 留下很深的印象，而他们俩对伯克希尔的经营之道也赞叹不已，我们双方决定合作。我们很高兴地看到，Sid Ferenc 和 Steve Menzies 在收购后继续保持 19%的股份，12 年前他们刚起家时只有很小一笔资本，现在获得如此的成就，想一想有伯克希尔强大的资本支撑，之后他们还会取得多么巨大的成就，我简直乐不可支。

• Last spring, MidAmerican Energy, our 80.5% owned subsidiary, agreed to buy PacifiCorp, a major electric utility serving six Western states. An acquisition of this sort requires many regulatory approvals, but we’ve now obtained these and expect to close this transaction soon. Berkshire will then buy $3.4 billion of MidAmerican’s common stock, which MidAmerican will supplement with $1.7 billion of borrowing to complete the purchase. You can’t expect to earn outsized profits in regulated utilities, but the industry offers owners the opportunity to deploy large sums at fair returns – and therefore, it makes good sense for Berkshire. A few years back, I said that we hoped to make some very large purchases in the utility field. Note the plural – we’ll be looking for more.

• 2005 年春天，我们控股 80.5%的中美能源达成协议，收购一家为西部 6 个州提供电力服务的太平洋电力公司PacifiCorp。这类并购案需要获得许多监管部门的批准，目前我们已经得到批准，预计交易很快就会完成。伯克希尔将为此购买 34 亿美元的中美能源普通股，中美能源用这笔资金加上 17 亿美元的贷款来完成收购交易(51 亿)。投资政府监管的公用事业，你不能指望获得特别高的盈利，但这种行业却能为巨额资金提供合理收益的盈利机会，因此对资金规模庞大的伯克希尔来说，这种投资是十分有利的。早在几年之前，我曾说我们希望能够在公用事业方面进行一些规模巨大的投资。请注意我说的是一些，我们将寻找更多的这种投资机会。

In addition to buying these new operations, we continue to make “bolt-on” acquisitions. Some aren’t so small: Shaw, our carpet operation, spent about $550 million last year on two purchases that furthered its vertical integration and should improve its profit margin in the future. XTRA and Clayton Homes also made value-enhancing acquisitions.

除了收购新的业务之外，我们继续在进行补强并购(bolt-on)，其中一些并购规模不可小看——我们下属的地毯企业 Shaw 工业 2005 年投资 5 亿美元进行两起业务链垂直整合的并购，这将进一步提升其毛利率。XTRA 和Clayton Homes 也进行了价值提升的并购。

Unlike many business buyers, Berkshire has no “exit strategy.” We buy to keep. We do, though, have an entrance strategy, looking for businesses in this country or abroad that meet our six criteria and are available at a price that will produce a reasonable return. If you have a business that fits, give me a call. Like a hopeful teenage girl, I’ll be waiting by the phone.

与其他并购方不同，伯克希尔根本没有"退出策略"，我们买入只是为了长期持有。不过我们的确有一个进入策略，在美国及国际上寻找符合我们的 6 个标准且价格合理、能够提供合理回报的目标企业，如果你有合适的企业，请给我来电。就像一个充满爱情憧憬的小女生，我会在电话旁等候梦中男孩的电话。