巴菲特致股东的信（2009年）⑤公用事业业务

Regulated Utility Business

公用事业业务

Berkshire has an 89.5% interest in MidAmerican Energy Holdings, which owns a wide variety of utility operations. The largest of these are (1) Yorkshire Electricity and Northern Electric, whose 3.8 million end users make it the U.K.’s third largest distributor of electricity; (2) MidAmerican Energy, which serves 725,000 electric customers, primarily in Iowa; (3) Pacific Power and Rocky Mountain Power, serving about 1.7 million electric customers in six western states; and (4) Kern River and Northern Natural pipelines, which carry about 8% of the natural gas consumed in the U.S.

伯克希尔公司拥有中美能源控股公司 89.5%的股份，后者在公用事业方面业务广泛，其中主要包括：(1)约克郡电力与北方电力公司(Yorkshire Electricity,Northern Electric)，拥有 380 万电力用户，为英国第三大的电力分销商；(2)中美能源(MidAmerican Energy)，在爱荷华州拥有 72.5 万电力用户；(3)太平洋电力与洛基山电力公司(Pacific Power,Rocky Mountain Power)，在美西 6 州拥有 170 万电力用户；(4)科恩河与北方天然管道公司(Kern River,Northern Natural pipelines)，供应全美 8%的天然气消耗量。

MidAmerican has two terrific managers, Dave Sokol and Greg Abel. In addition, my long-time friend, Walter Scott, along with his family, has a major ownership position in the company. Walter brings extraordinary business savvy to any operation. Ten years of working with Dave, Greg and Walter have reinforced my original belief: Berkshire couldn’t have better partners. They are truly a dream team.

中美能源控股有两位了不起的管理者 Dave Sokol 和 Greg Abel。另外，我的老友 WalterScott 及其家族也持有该公司部分股权。Walter 为任何业务带来非凡的商业头脑。同 Dave、Greg 和 Walter 的十年合作让我深信，我们再找不到比他们更好的搭档了，他们是真正的梦之队。

Somewhat incongruously, MidAmerican also owns the second largest real estate brokerage firm in the U.S., HomeServices of America. This company operates through 21 locally-branded firms that have 16,000 agents. Though last year was again a terrible year for home sales, HomeServices earned a modest sum. It also acquired a firm in Chicago and will add other quality brokerage operations when they are available at sensible prices. A decade from now, HomeServices is likely to be much larger.

有些让人不协调的是，中美能源还拥有全美第二大房地产经纪商美国家庭服务公司 HomeServices。这家公司有 21 个地方品牌和 1.6 万个代理商。尽管去年对于房屋销售而言仍是恐怖之年，但该公司取得了还算不错的业绩。另外，公司并购了芝加哥一家经纪公司，并且我们还将在合理价格水平上寻求收购其他高质量的经纪公司。

Here are some key figures on MidAmerican’s operations:

中美能源一些主要运营数据：

Our regulated electric utilities, offering monopoly service in most cases, operate in a symbiotic manner with the customers in their service areas, with those users depending on us to provide first-class service and invest for their future needs. Permitting and construction periods for generation and major transmission facilities stretch way out, so it is incumbent on us to be far-sighted. We, in turn, look to our utilities’ regulators (acting on behalf of our customers) to allow us an appropriate return on the huge amounts of capital we must deploy to meet future needs. We shouldn’t expect our regulators to live up to their end of the bargain unless we live up to ours.

我们受监管的电力公司在多数情况下提供垄断性服务，与客户在多方面形成共生关系，客户依赖我们为其提供一流的服务和未来的投资。发电输电项目的审批和建设周期漫长，所以我们必须长远考虑。反过来，为满足未来的能源需求我们必须向其投入巨额资本，我们希望代表我们客户利益的监管机构，允许我们从中获得适当的回报。我们必须自力更生，而非寄希望于我们的监管机构履行承诺。

Dave and Greg make sure we do just that. National research companies consistently rank our Iowa and Western utilities at or near the top of their industry. Similarly, among the 43 U.S. pipelines ranked by a firm named Mastio, our Kern River and Northern Natural properties tied for second place.

大卫和格雷格确保我们正为此而努力。国家研究机构一致认为我们的爱荷华和西部电力在行业中名列前茅。同样，根据 Mastio 公司对 43 家企业的排名，我们的科恩河与北部天然气位列第二。

Moreover, we continue to pour huge sums of money into our operations so as to not only prepare for the future but also make these operations more environmentally friendly. Since we purchased MidAmerican ten years ago, it has never paid a dividend. We have instead used earnings to improve and expand our properties in each of the territories we serve. As one dramatic example, in the last three years our Iowa and Western utilities have earned $2.5 billion, while in this same period spending $3 billion on wind generation facilities.

此外，我们继续向该业务投入巨资，不但着眼未来，而且使这些业务更加环保。自从我们十年前收购中美能源以来，公司从未派发过红利，而是将其再投资以扩大再生产。一个明显的例子是，在过去 3 年中我们的爱荷华和西部电力公司盈利 25 亿美元，但同期在风电设施上的投资是 30 亿美元。

MidAmerican has consistently kept its end of the bargain with society and, to society’s credit, it has reciprocated: With few exceptions, our regulators have promptly allowed us to earn a fair return on the ever-increasing sums of capital we must invest. Going forward, we will do whatever it takes to serve our territories in the manner they expect. We believe that, in turn, we will be allowed the return we deserve on the funds we invest.

中美能源以社会责任为重，注重社会信誉，并因此受益：除个别情况外，监管机构允许我们从不断增加的投资中取得合理的回报，未来我们将尽可能以监管期望的方式满足客户的需求。我们相信，我们能够从这些投资中受益。

In earlier days, Charlie and I shunned capital-intensive businesses such as public utilities. Indeed, the best businesses by far for owners continue to be those that have high returns on capital and that require little incremental investment to grow. We are fortunate to own a number of such businesses, and we would love to buy more. Anticipating, however, that Berkshire will generate ever-increasing amounts of cash, we are today quite willing to enter businesses that regularly require large capital expenditures. We expect only that these businesses have reasonable expectations of earning decent returns on the incremental sums they invest. If our expectations are met – and we believe that they will be – Berkshire’s ever-growing collection of good to great businesses should produce above-average, though certainly not spectacular, returns in the decades ahead.

早期，查理和我曾避开了公用事业等资本密集型企业。截至目前，最好的投资依然是那些资本回报率高，增长所需增量投资少的企业。幸运的是我们拥有许多这样的企业，而且很乐意买入更多。不过，伯克希尔预计将产生越来越多的现金，我们目前非常愿意进入那些经常性需要大量资本支出的业务。我们希望这些企业能够从投资的增量资本中获得合理的回报。如果我们的预期得以实现(我相信会的)，伯克希尔不断增加的从良好到伟大的业务，在未来几十年中虽不能取得惊人的回报，但是应该可以超过平均水平。

Our BNSF operation, it should be noted, has certain important economic characteristics that resemble those of our electric utilities. In both cases we provide fundamental services that are, and will remain, essential to the economic well-being of our customers, the communities we serve, and indeed the nation. Both will require heavy investment that greatly exceeds depreciation allowances for decades to come. Both must also plan far ahead to satisfy demand that is expected to outstrip the needs of the past. Finally, both require wise regulators who will provide certainty about allowable returns so that we can confidently make the huge investments required to maintain, replace and expand the plant.

值得注意的是，我们的 BNSF 铁路公司与我们的电力公共事业公司具有相似的经济特征。在这两个业务中，我们提供的基本服务对客户、社区以及整个国家的经济发展都至关重要，两者都需要大量的投资，在未来几十年将远超折旧额。两者都必须进行前瞻性规划，以满足超过过去的需求。最后，两者都需要明智的监管机构提供许可回报率的确定性，以便我们可以满怀信心地进行维护更新和扩建所需的巨额投资。

We see a “social compact” existing between the public and our railroad business, just as is the case with our utilities. If either side shirks its obligations, both sides will inevitably suffer. Therefore, both parties to the compact should – and we believe will – understand the benefit of behaving in a way that encourages good behavior by the other. It is inconceivable that our country will realize anything close to its full economic potential without its possessing first-class electricity and railroad systems. We will do our part to see that they exist.

我们发现公众与我们的铁路企业之间存在某种"社会契约"，就像我们的公用事业一样。如果一方推卸责任，双方都将不可避免的遭受损失。所以，我们认为契约双方应该互相理解并鼓励对方良好行为的方式相处。如果国家没有一流的电力和铁路系统，就无法实现其全部的经济潜力。我们会尽力确保它们的存在。

In the future, BNSF results will be included in this “regulated utility” section. Aside from the two businesses having similar underlying economic characteristics, both are logical users of substantial amounts of debt that is not guaranteed by Berkshire. Both will retain most of their earnings. Both will earn and invest large sums in good times or bad, though the railroad will display the greater cyclicality. Overall, we expect this regulated sector to deliver significantly increased earnings over time, albeit at the cost of our investing many tens – yes, tens – of billions of dollars of incremental equity capital.

未来，BNSF 铁路公司的业绩可能并入公用事业部分，除了二者具有类似的经济特征外，它们使用的大量债务都不是伯克希尔担保的。两者都将保留它们的大部分收益。无论经济形势好坏，两者都将赚取和投资巨额资金，尽管铁路将表现出更大的周期性。总之，我们预计随着时间的推移，这个受监管的行业将带来显著的收益增长，尽管代价是我们投入数百亿美元的增量资本。