巴菲特致股东的信（2024年）⑧伯克希尔加大日本投资

Berkshire Increases its Japanese Investments

伯克希尔加大日本投资

A small but important exception to our U.S.-based focus is our growing investment in Japan.

我们以美国为主的投资方针有一个小而重要的例外：我们在日本不断增长的投资。

It’s been almost six years since Berkshire began purchasing shares in five Japanese companies that very successfully operate in a manner somewhat similar to Berkshire itself. The five are (alphabetically) ITOCHU, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo. Each of these large enterprises, in turn, owns interests in a vast array of businesses, many based in Japan but others that operate throughout the world.

伯克希尔开始买入五家日本公司的股票已近六年。这五家公司的经营方式在某种程度上与伯克希尔颇为相似，而且都非常成功。按英文字母排列，分别是：伊藤忠 (ITOCHU)、丸红 (Marubeni)、三菱 (Mitsubishi)、三井 (Mitsui) 和住友 (Sumitomo)。这些大型企业各自拥有大量业务的权益，其中许多扎根于日本，也有一些在全球各地运营。

Berkshire made its first purchases involving the five in July 2019. We simply looked at their financial records and were amazed at the low prices of their stocks. As the years have passed, our admiration for these companies has consistently grown. Greg has met many times with them, and I regularly follow their progress. Both of us like their capital deployment, their managements and their attitude in respect to their investors.

伯克希尔于2019年7月首次买入这五家公司的股票。我们只是翻看了它们的财务记录，就对其股票的低廉价格感到惊讶。随着岁月流逝，我们对这些公司的欣赏与日俱增。格雷格已经与他们多次会面，我也定期关注他们的进展。我们两人都喜欢他们的资本配置方式、管理层以及对待投资者的态度。

Each of the five companies increase dividends when appropriate, they repurchase their shares when it is sensible to do so, and their top managers are far less aggressive in their compensation programs than their U.S. counterparts.

这五家公司都会在适当的时候提高股息，在合理的时候回购股票，而且高管们的薪酬方案远没有美国同行那么激进。

Our holdings of the five are for the very long term, and we are committed to supporting their boards of directors. From the start, we also agreed to keep Berkshire’s holdings below 10% of each company’s shares. But, as we approached this limit, the five companies agreed to moderately relax the ceiling. Over time, you will likely see Berkshire’s ownership of all five increase somewhat.

我们对这五家公司的持股着眼于非常长的期限，我们承诺支持他们的董事会。从一开始，我们也同意将伯克希尔在每家公司的持股比例保持在10%以下。但当我们接近这一上限时，五家公司同意适度放宽限制。随着时间推移，你们很可能会看到伯克希尔对这五家公司的持股比例有所提高。

At yearend, Berkshire’s aggregate cost (in dollars) was $13.8 billion and the market value of our holdings totaled $23.5 billion.

截至年底，伯克希尔的累计投资成本（以美元计）为138亿美元，持股总市值为235亿美元。

Meanwhile, Berkshire has consistently – but not pursuant to any formula – increased its yen-denominated borrowings. All are at fixed rates, no “floaters.” Greg and I have no view on future foreign exchange rates and therefore seek a position approximating currency-neutrality. We are required, however, under GAAP rules to regularly recognize in our earnings a calculation of any gains or losses in the yen we have borrowed and, at yearend, had included $2.3 billion of after-tax gains due to dollar strength of which $850 million occurred in 2024.

与此同时，伯克希尔一直在持续——但并非按照任何固定公式——增加日元计价的借款。这些借款全部为固定利率，没有"浮动利率"。格雷格和我对未来汇率走势没有看法，因此力求维持近乎汇率中性的头寸。不过，根据通用会计准则的要求，我们必须定期在收益中确认我们所借日元的汇兑损益。截至年底，受美元走强影响，我们累计录得了23亿美元的税后汇兑收益，其中约8.5亿美元发生在2024年。

I expect that Greg and his eventual successors will be holding this Japanese position for many decades and that Berkshire will find other ways to work productively with the five companies in the future.

我预计格雷格和他未来的继任者将持有这一日本仓位数十年之久，而伯克希尔未来也会找到与这五家公司开展富有成效合作的其他途径。

We like the current math of our yen-balanced strategy as well. As I write this, the annual dividend income expected from the Japanese investments in 2025 will total about $812 million and the interest cost of our yen-denominated debt will be about $135 million.

我们也很满意当前日元平衡策略展现出来的数字。截至撰写本文时，预计2025年日本投资将带来约8.12亿美元的年度股息收入，而我们日元计价债务的利息成本约为1.35亿美元。