巴菲特致合伙人的信（1981年）①无控制权之盈余

February 26, 1982

1982年2月26日

To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.:

Operating earnings of $39.7 million in 1981 amounted to 15.2% of beginning equity capital (valuing securities at cost) compared to 17.8% in 1980. Our new plan that allows stockholders to designate corporate charitable contributions (detailed later) reduced earnings by about $900,000 in 1981. This program, which we expect to continue subject to annual evaluation of our corporate tax position, had not been initiated in 1980.

致伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司全体股东：

今年的营业利益约为四千万美元，较从去年1980年的四千二百万减少，期初股东权益报酬率(持有股权投资以原始成本计)亦从去年的17.8%滑落至15.2%。我们的新计划是让所有股东皆能指定各自所要捐赠的机关单位，(详如后述)，今年度盈余减少90万美元，往后将视我们公司所得税负状况决定金额。

Non-Controlled Ownership Earnings

In the 1980 annual report we discussed extensively the concept of non-controlled ownership earnings, i.e., Berkshire’s share of the undistributed earnings of companies we don’t control or significantly influence but in which we, nevertheless, have important investments. (We will be glad to make available to new or prospective shareholders copies of that discussion or others from earlier reports to which we refer in this report.) No portion of those undistributed earnings is included in the operating earnings of Berkshire.

无控制权之盈余

去年我们曾详细的讨论无控制权盈余的观念，亦即那些我们无法控制或影响其盈余分配的一些被投资公司(我们很乐意与新股东或潜在股东讨论这项话题)，而这部份的盈余完全未显现在伯克希尔的帐面之上。

However, our belief is that, in aggregate, those undistributed and, therefore, unrecorded earnings will be translated into tangible value for Berkshire shareholders just as surely as if subsidiaries we control had earned, retained - and reported - similar earnings.

然而，我们的信念是，总的来说，那些未分配因而未记录的收益将转化为伯克希尔股东的有形价值，就像我们控制的子公司已经获得、保留并报告的类似收益一样。

We know that this translation of non-controlled ownership earnings into corresponding realized and unrealized capital gains for Berkshire will be extremely irregular as to time of occurrence. While market values track business values quite well over long periods, in any given year the relationship can gyrate capriciously. Market recognition of retained earnings also will be unevenly realized among companies. It will be disappointingly low or negative in cases where earnings are employed non- productively, and far greater than dollar-for-dollar of retained earnings in cases of companies that achieve high returns with their augmented capital. Overall, if a group of non-controlled companies is selected with reasonable skill, the group result should be quite satisfactory.

我们知道，这种将非受控所有权收益转化为伯克希尔相应的已实现和未实现资本收益的做法，在发生的时间上是极不规范的。虽然在很长一段时间内，市场价值可以很好地跟踪企业价值，但在任何一年中，这种关系都可能反复无常地波动。市场对留存收益的认可也会在公司之间不均衡地实现。如果盈余被用于非生产性用途，其留存收益将低得令人失望，甚至为负值;如果企业通过增加资本实现高回报，留存收益将远高于按美元计算的留存收益。总的来说，如果以合理的技巧选择一组非控股公司，该组结果应该是相当令人满意的。

In aggregate, our non-controlled business interests have more favorable underlying economic characteristics than our controlled businesses. That’s understandable; the area of choice has been far wider. Small portions of exceptionally good businesses are usually available in the securities markets at reasonable prices. But such businesses are available for purchase in their entirety only rarely, and then almost always at high prices.

整体而言，我们在无控制权公司的经济竞争力反而比具控制权公司的公司来得佳，这是可以理解的，因为可供选择的范围要大得多。在股票市场上我们可以合理的价格买到部份优秀企业的股权，而若要透过购并谈判的方式买下整家公司，其平均价格可能远高于市价。