巴菲特致股东的信（2018年）⑥盖可保险与托尼·奈斯利

GEICO and Tony Nicely

盖可保险与托尼·奈斯利

That title says it all: The company and the man are inseparable.

这个标题说明了一切：公司和这个人密不可分。

Tony joined GEICO in 1961 at the age of 18; I met him in the mid-1970s. At that time, GEICO, after a four- decade record of both rapid growth and outstanding underwriting results, suddenly found itself near bankruptcy. A recently-installed management had grossly underestimated GEICO’s loss costs and consequently underpriced its product. It would take many months until those loss-generating policies on GEICO’s books – there were no less than 2.3 million of them – would expire and could then be repriced. The company’s net worth in the meantime was rapidly approaching zero.

托尼 (Tony) 1961年加入盖可保险 (GEICO)，当时他才18岁；我在20世纪70年代中期认识了他。那时，GEICO在经历了四十年的快速增长和出色承保业绩之后，突然发现自己濒临破产。当时新上任的管理层严重低估了GEICO的损失成本，因而对产品定价过低。GEICO账面上那些持续产生亏损的保单——数量不少于230万份——还要好几个月才能到期并重新定价。与此同时，公司的净资产正迅速趋近于零。

In 1976, Jack Byrne was brought in as CEO to rescue GEICO. Soon after his arrival, I met him, concluded that he was the perfect man for the job, and began to aggressively buy GEICO shares. Within a few months, Berkshire bought about 1⁄3 of the company, a portion that later grew to roughly 1⁄2 without our spending a dime. That stunning accretion occurred because GEICO, after recovering its health, consistently repurchased its shares. All told, this half- interest in GEICO cost Berkshire $47 million, about what you might pay today for a trophy apartment in New York.

1976年，杰克·伯恩 (Jack Byrne) 受命担任CEO来拯救GEICO。他上任后不久我就见到了他，认定他就是这个职位的完美人选，于是开始大举买入GEICO的股票。几个月内，伯克希尔买下了该公司约三分之一的股份，后来这个比例在我们没有再花一分钱的情况下增长到了大约二分之一。这种惊人的增长之所以发生，是因为GEICO在恢复健康之后一直在回购股票。算下来，我们持有的这半壁江山总共花了伯克希尔4700万美元，大约相当于你今天在纽约买一套顶级公寓的价格。

Let’s now fast-forward 17 years to 1993, when Tony Nicely was promoted to CEO. At that point, GEICO’s reputation and profitability had been restored – but not its growth. Indeed, at yearend 1992 the company had only 1.9 million auto policies on its books, far less than its pre-crisis high. In sales volume among U.S. auto insurers, GEICO then ranked an undistinguished seventh.

现在让我们快进17年到1993年，托尼·奈斯利 (Tony Nicely) 被提拔为CEO。那时，GEICO的声誉和盈利能力已经恢复——但增长还没有。事实上，到1992年底，公司账面上只有190万份汽车保单，远低于危机前的最高水平。按美国汽车保险公司的销售额排名，GEICO当时不起眼地排在第七位。

Late in 1995, after Tony had re-energized GEICO, Berkshire made an offer to buy the remaining 50% of the company for $2.3 billion, about 50 times what we had paid for the first half (and people say I never pay up!). Our offer was successful and brought Berkshire a wonderful, but underdeveloped, company and an equally wonderful CEO, who would move GEICO forward beyond my dreams.

1995年底，在托尼让GEICO重新焕发活力之后，伯克希尔提出以23亿美元收购公司剩余50%的股份——大约是我们购买前一半所付价格的50倍（还有人说我从不出高价呢！）。我们的出价成功了，为伯克希尔带来了一家出色但尚未充分开发的公司，以及一位同样出色的CEO——他带领GEICO前进的程度超出了我的想象。

GEICO is now America’s Number Two auto insurer, with sales 1,200% greater than it recorded in 1995. Underwriting profits have totaled $15.5 billion (pre-tax) since our purchase, and float available for investment has grown from $2.5 billion to $22.1 billion.

GEICO现在是美国第二大汽车保险公司，销售额比1995年增长了12倍。自收购以来，累计税前承保利润达155亿美元，可供投资的浮存金从25亿美元增长到221亿美元。

By my estimate, Tony’s management of GEICO has increased Berkshire’s intrinsic value by more than $50 billion. On top of that, he is a model for everything a manager should be, helping his 40,000 associates to identify and polish abilities they didn’t realize they possessed.

据我估计，托尼对GEICO的管理使伯克希尔的内在价值增加了500多亿美元。更重要的是，作为管理者他堪称典范，帮助他手下4万名员工发现并打磨了他们自己都不知道拥有的能力。

Last year, Tony decided to retire as CEO, and on June 30th he turned that position over to Bill Roberts, his long-time partner. I’ve known and watched Bill operate for several decades, and once again Tony made the right move. Tony remains Chairman and will be helpful to GEICO for the rest of his life. He’s incapable of doing less.

去年，托尼决定从CEO职位上退下来，6月30日他把职位移交给了长期搭档比尔·罗伯茨 (Bill Roberts)。我认识比尔并看着他工作了几十年，托尼再一次做出了正确的选择。托尼仍担任董事长，他余生都会尽心尽力地帮助GEICO。他做不到少出力。

All Berkshire shareholders owe Tony their thanks. I head the list.

伯克希尔的所有股东都应该感谢托尼。我排在名单的第一个。