2011年股东大会 · 为何巴菲特与芒格极不愿意发行股份来进行收购 — 文稿

M10:00

大家好，我是来自 New York 的 Glenn Tongue。

Hi, I'm Glenn Tongue from New York.

首先，感谢你们带来这么精彩的一天。

First off, thank you for a terrific day.

我的问题是关于收购的。

My question deals with acquisitions.

在 Lubrizol 这笔交易之前，我们估计 Berkshire 到二零一一年年底的现金余额可能会接近六百亿美元。

Pre-Lubrizol, we estimated Berkshire's year-end 2011 cash balance could approach $60 billion.

我记得你最近评论过一头你觉得太大的 elephant。

I believe you commented recently on an elephant that you thought was too big.

你们对收购的胃口有多大？

What is your acquisition appetite?

多大的规模才算太大？

What size is too big?

最近电话有没有经常响？

Has the phone been ringing lately?

还有，如果真有什么的话，我们这些股东能做些什么来帮忙？

And what, if anything, can we as shareholders do to help?

M20:32

我当年大学毕业时，回答的问题都没这么多，不过你们能帮上任何忙的话，我都很感激，Glenn。

I got through college answering fewer questions than that, but anything you can do to help, I appreciate, Glenn.

你知道，这很难说出一个精确的数字。

You know, it's hard to name a precise figure.

这一个，你知道，规模就大得太过头了，除非我们要动用很多 stock，但就像我说的，我们不会这么做。

This one, you know, was way too big, except unless we used a lot of stock, which, like I say, we wouldn't do.

我们的胃口一直都在。

Our appetite is always there.

我们不会去借很多钱。

We are not going to borrow a lot of money.

我们也不会发行股份，除非也许只是很小一部分，为了促成一笔不这么做就没法完成的交易。

We're not going to issue shares, except perhaps in some minor amount to make a deal that couldn't get made otherwise.

M31:16

但是——

But—

M21:16

而且很显然，我们绝不会为了买另外一家企业，而去卖掉我们手上的一家企业。

And we obviously will never sell a business to buy some other business.

所以你知道，除非我们采取点行动，不然我们的现金余额通常会一个月一个月地往上积累。

So, you know, our cash balances will tend to build month to month unless we do something.

我们也可以，而且也会卖掉一些投资组合里的 securities，不过像 Lubrizol 这样的交易，差不多需要九十亿美元现金。

And we can and will sell some portfolio securities, but doing Lubrizol requires close to $9 billion of cash.

很明显，这种规模的交易我们还可以再做一笔。

And obviously we could do another one of that size.

事实上，我们正在看两三个，不过它们现在还只是有那么点苗头。

In fact, we're looking at a couple, but they're no more than a gleam in the eye.

但它们大概也都需要和 Lubrizol 差不多的资金规模，而且，你知道，我们会很放心地去做，这些交易也会显著提升 Berkshire 的盈利能力。

But they would take sums roughly similar to Lubrizol, and, you know, we would be comfortable doing those, and they would add significantly to Berkshire's earning power.

所以它们值得去做。

So they're worth doing.

但是我们现在做不了那种真的、真的特别大的 elephant，而且我们也不会，你知道，我们不会勉强去撑。

But we couldn't— we can't do a really, really big elephant now, and we won't, you know, we won't stretch.

我们从来都不是真的去冒什么风险，因为我们没这个必要；我们不会拿我们已经有、而且也需要的东西，去换我们没有、也并不需要的东西，哪怕我们多少有点想要它。

We've never really taken any risks because we don't need to, and we will not trade something that we have and need for something that we don't have and don't need, even if we'd kind of like to have it.

Charlie？

Charlie?

M32:43

嗯，这些我当然都同意。

Well, I certainly agree with all that.

我们非常不愿意发行股份，这一点上我们和大多数地方都不一样。

We are very reluctant to issue shares, and in that we're different from most places.

我有个朋友把公司卖给了一个 solicitor's country，他们在一家受控 corporation 里发行了股份，那个 solicitor's executive 还说，这不是很棒吗？

I have a friend that sold out to a solicitor's country, and they issued shares in a controlled corporation, and the solicitor's executive said, isn't this wonderful?

我们等于没花钱就拿到了这门生意。

We're getting this business for nothing.

M23:10

有些人确实就是有那种本事。

Some people really have that.

当然，也有一些公司——我们刚才也提到过六十年代末那一波——会周期性地出现这种情况，而且在互联网那段时期肯定也发生过：那些公司发股票都发不过来，因为本质上，它们是在拿像彩纸一样的东西去换真正的资产。

And of course, there are some companies—and we talked about the wave that took place in the late '60s—but periodically, and certainly it happened during the internet period, where companies just couldn't issue shares fast enough because they basically were trading confetti for real assets.

而且这种商业模式，在过去某些时期里，确实被一些公司成功用过。

And that is a business model that has been applied successfully for some periods of time by certain companies in the past.

它通常最后会以某种惨败收场，不过——嗯，我也不该说通常都会这样——但它总会在某个时点后继无力。

It usually ends in some kind of a fiasco, but—well, I shouldn't say it usually does, but it runs out of gas at some point.

不过，你知道，基本上我们从来就没玩过那种游戏。

Uh, but, you know, essentially we've never been in that game.

我们讨厌发行股票，呃，因为当我们发行股票的时候，本质上就是在把我们手里每一家优秀企业的一部分卖出去，从 GEICO 到 Iscar，随便你点哪一家都是。

We hate issuing shares, uh, and the idea of selling our—when we issue shares, we're divesting ourselves of a portion of every wonderful business we have, from GEICO to Iscar to you name it.

我们不喜欢这么做。

And we don't like doing that.

我们喜欢拥有这些企业。

We like owning those businesses.

我们还想拥有得更多。

We'd like to own more of them.

我们，我们，呃，比如说，我们在 Marmon 上就有一笔交易，我们今年又多买了一部分，再过几年我们会把剩下的也买下来。

We, we, uh, you know, we have a deal, for example, on Marmon where we bought some more of it this year, and we will buy the rest of it in a few more years.

这让我们感觉很好。

And we feel good about that.

我们为它付了一个公道的价格，但我们得到的是一家我们了解的企业，是一支我们喜欢的管理层，而这也正是我们希望在 Berkshire 继续做的事情。

We pay a fair price for it, but we get a business we know, a management we like, and that's really what we'd like to continue doing at Berkshire.

事实上，我们也会继续这么做。

In fact, we will continue doing it.

Andrew？

Andrew?