巴菲特致股东的信（2007年）⑧金融和金融产品业务

Finance and Finance Products

金融和金融产品业务

Our major operation in this category is Clayton Homes, the largest U.S. manufacturer and marketer of manufactured homes. Clayton’s market share hit a record 31% last year. But industry volume continues to shrink: Last year, manufactured home sales were 96,000, down from 131,000 in 2003, the year we bought Clayton. (At the time, it should be remembered, some commentators criticized its directors for selling at a cyclical bottom.)

我们这部分主要业务是克莱顿公司(Clayton Homes)，全美最大的预制房屋建造商和销售商。去年 Clayton的市场份额达到创记录的 31％。但是行业规模在继续萎缩：去年预制房屋的销售数量是 9.6 万套，低于 2003 年我们买下 Clayton 时的 13.1 万套。(需要记得的是，当时还有一些评论员批评 Clayton 高管，在行业周期的底部出售了公司)。

Though Clayton earns money from both manufacturing and retailing its homes, most of its earnings come from an $11 billion loan portfolio, covering 300,000 borrowers. That’s why we include Clayton’s operation in this finance section. Despite the many problems that surfaced during 2007 in real estate finance, the Clayton portfolio is performing well. Delinquencies, foreclosures and losses during the year were at rates similar to those we experienced in our previous years of ownership.

虽然 Clayton 从制造和销售预制房屋中获利，但是它的主要收益来自其 110 亿美元的贷款组合，覆盖了超过30 万个借款人。这就是为什么我们将 Clayton 归到金融业务部分。尽管在 2007 年房地产金融领域遭遇了很多问题，但克莱顿公司的贷款组合却运作良好。这一年里，行业中逾期还款、丧失抵押品赎回权以及贷款损失的比例与我们前几年经历的情况相仿。(移动房屋贷款类似汽车贷款，不属于不动产，利率非常高甚至有 13%)

Clayton’s loan portfolio is financed by Berkshire. For this funding, we charge Clayton one percentage point over Berkshire’s borrowing cost – a fee that amounted to $85 million last year. Clayton’s 2007 pre-tax earnings of $526 million are after its paying this fee. The flip side of this transaction is that Berkshire recorded $85 million as income, which is included in “other” in the following table.

Clayton 贷款组合的资金一直由伯克希尔提供。对于这笔资金，我们在伯克希尔借款成本上，加收 1％信用成本后借给 Clayton。去年该费用是 8500 万美元。扣除该项费用后，Clayton 在 2007 年的税前收益是 5.26 亿美元。这项交易的另一面是伯克希尔记入 8500 万美元的收入，记录在下表中"其他"项下。

The leasing operations tabulated are XTRA, which rents trailers, and CORT, which rents furniture. Utilization of trailers was down considerably in 2007 and that led to a drop in earnings at XTRA. That company also borrowed $400 million last year and distributed the proceeds to Berkshire. The resulting higher interest it is now paying further reduced XTRA’s earnings.

上表中，租赁业务包括经营拖车租赁业务的 XTRA 公司，以及经营家具租赁的 CORT 家具。2007 年，由于拖车利用率的明显下降，导致 XTRA 公司的收益下降。公司去年还通过伯克希尔借款 4 亿美元，利息支出的增加也降低了 XTRA 公司的收益。

Clayton, XTRA and CORT are all good businesses, very ably run by Kevin Clayton, Bill Franz and Paul Arnold. Each has made tuck-in acquisitions during Berkshire’s ownership. More will come.

在 Kevin Clayton，Bill Franz 和 Paul Arnold 的良好经营下，Clayton 公司、XTRA 公司和 CORT 家具都是很好的公司。在归入伯克希尔旗下后，每家公司都进行了一系列的收购，以后会更多。