1962年11月1日致合伙人信

BUFFETT PARTNERSHIP, LTD.
810 KIEWIT PLAZA
OMAHA 31, NEBRASKA

巴菲特合伙公司
基维特广场810号
内布拉斯加州奥马哈31

November 1, 1962

1962年11月1日

TO MY PARTNERS FOR 1963:

致1963年的合伙人：

Here we go on the annual paper flurry. Two copies of an amended partnership agreement for 1963 are enclosed. The one with the General Provisions attached is to be kept by you and the other single-page agreement should be returned. There are no substantive changes of any sort from last year's agreement. This amendment is merely to allow for a few new partners and in several places to reword in clearer (we hope) language provisions of the present agreement. Practically all of the rewording is in General Provision 5 (paragraph 7 in last year's agreement). Rather than have a separate amending document, we have incorporated the changes into one complete document embodying the entire agreement.

年度文件纷飞季又来了。随信附上两份1963年合伙协议修订版。附有《一般条款》的那份由你留存，另一份单页协议需寄回。与去年的协议相比，内容没有任何实质性变化。这次修订仅是为了接纳几位新合伙人，并在几处地方用更清晰（我们希望如此）的语言重新措辞了现有协议的条款。修改几乎都集中在《一般条款》第5条（去年协议的第7款）。我们没有单独出具修订文件，而是将修改整合进一份完整的协议文件中。

We are also enclosing two commitment letters (one for you--one to be returned) on which you are to indicate your wishes regarding additions or withdrawals at January 1st. We would like to have the agreement and the commitment letter back by December 1st. However, the commitment letter can be amended right up until the end of the year (not after) so if you should have a change of plans and you have already mailed us your commitment letter, all you have to do is get in touch with me, and I will make whatever changes you desire.

我们还附上了两份承诺书（一份你留存，一份寄回），请在上面注明你对1月1日增资或提款的意愿。我们希望合伙协议和承诺书能在12月1日前寄回。不过，承诺书可以在年底前（之后不行）随时修改，所以如果你改变了计划，即使已经寄回承诺书，只需联系我，我会按你的要求做修改。

Any withdrawals will be paid immediately after January 1st. Any additions must reach us by January 10th, and should they be paid in during November, they will take on the status of advance payments and draw interest at the rate of 6% until yearend.

任何提款将在1月1日后立即支付。任何增资必须在1月10日前到达我们账户，如果在11月期间缴入，则视为预缴款，并按6%的年利率计息至年底。

Please be sure the signature on your partnership agreement is notarized. Partners in Omaha may obtain the notarization at our office if they wish. Also, be sure to let us know by an appropriate circle on the commitment letter whether you wish to receive monthly payments in 1963. In order to be sure everyone understands this, let me again state that these monthly payments are in no sense guaranteed earnings or anything of the sort. They represent a convenient form of regular withdrawal, which to the extent we earn better than 6% are payments from earnings, and to the extent we don't, are payments from capital.

请务必确保合伙协议上的签名经过公证。奥马哈的合伙人若愿意，可在我们办公室办理公证。此外，请务必在承诺书上圈选相应选项，告知我们你是否希望在1963年每月收到付款。为确保大家理解，我再次说明，这些月度付款绝不代表担保收益或类似的东西。它们只是一种便利的定期提款形式，在我们收益率超过6%时，来自收益；否则，来自本金。

Complete tax information for your 1962 return will be in your hands by January 20th. If you should need an estimate of your tax position before that time, let me know and I will give you a rough idea. We will also send out a short letter on taxes in late December.

1962年纳税申报所需的完整税务信息将在1月20日前送到你手中。如果你在此之前需要估算自己的税务状况，请告知我，我会给你一个大致的数字。我们还会在12月下旬发出一封关于税务的短信。

Having read this far, you are entitled to a report on how we have done to date in 1962. For the period ending October 31st, the Dow-Jones Industrials showed an overall loss, including dividends received, of approximately 16.8%. We intend to use the same method or valuing our controlling interest in Dempster Mill Manufacturing at this yearend that we did at the end of last year. This involved applying various discounts to the balance sheet items to reflect my opinion as to what could be realized on a very prompt sale. Last year this involved a 40% discount on inventories, a 15% discount on receivables, estimated auction value of fixed assets, etc., which led to an approximate value or $35.00 per share.

读到这里，你有权了解我们1962年至今的表现如何。截至10月31日，道琼斯工业平均指数含股息在内总体下跌约16.8%。我们打算在年底时，采用与去年底相同的方法，对我们控股的邓普斯特磨坊制造公司进行估值。该方法是对资产负债表各项目施加不同折扣，以反映我对快速变现价值的判断。去年，我们对存货打折40%、应收款打折15%、固定资产按拍卖估值等，得出每股约35美元的价值。

The successful conversion of substantial portions of the assets of Dempster to cash, at virtually 100 cents on the dollar, has been the high point of 1962. For example, inventory of $4.2 million at last yearend will probably be about $1.9 million this yearend, reducing the discount on this item by about $920,000 (40% of $2.3 million reduction). I will give this story my full journalistic treatment in my annual letter. Suffice to say at this point that applying the same discounts described above will probably result in a yearend value of at least $50.00 per share. The extent of the asset conversion job can perhaps best be illustrated in a sentence by pointing out that whereas we had $166,000 of cash and $2,315,000 of liabilities at November 30, 1961 (Dempster fiscal yearend), we expect this year to have about $1 million in cash and investments (of the type the Partnership buys) against total liabilities of $250,000. Prospects for further improvement in this situation in 1963 appear good, and we expect a substantially expanded investment portfolio in Dempster next year.

邓普斯特大部分资产以几乎100%的变现率成功转换为现金，这是1962年的高光之处。例如，去年底存货为420万美元，今年底可能约为190万美元，从而使该项目的折扣额减少约92万美元（230万美元减幅的40%）。我将在年度信中详细讲述这段经历。此刻只需说，按照上述同样的折扣方法，年底每股价值很可能至少为50美元。资产转换工作的成效或许用一句话最能说明：1961年11月30日（邓普斯特财务年末）我们仅有16.6万美元现金，负债231.5万美元；而我们预计今年将拥有约100万美元现金和投资（合伙企业购买的类型），而总负债仅为25万美元。1963年该状况进一步改善的前景良好，我们预计邓普斯特明年的投资组合将大幅扩张。

Valuing Dempster at $50 per share, our overall gain (before any payments to partners) to October 31st for the Partnership has been 5.5%. This 22.3 percentage-points advantage over the Dow, if maintained until the end of the year, will be among the largest we have ever had. About 60% of this advantage was accomplished by the portfolio other than Dempster, and 40% was the result of increased value at Dempster.

按每股50美元计算邓普斯特的价值，我们合伙企业截至10月31日（在向合伙人支付任何款项前）的整体收益为5.5%。如果这一优势能维持到年底，这22.3个百分点的相对道指优势将是我们有史以来最大的之一。这一优势中约60%来自邓普斯特以外的投资组合，40%来自邓普斯特的价值提升。

I want all partners and prospective partners to realize the results described above are distinctly abnormal and will recur infrequently, if at all. This performance is mainly the result of having a large portion of our money in controlled assets and workout situations rather than general market situations at a time when the Dow declined substantially. If the Dow had advanced materially in 1962, we could have looked very bad on a relative basis, and our success to date in 1962 certainly does not reflect any ability on my part to guess the market (I never try), but merely reflects the fact that the high prices of generals partially forced me into other categories or investment. If the Dow had continued to soar, we would have been low man on the totem pole. We fully expect to have years when our method of operation will not even match the results of the Dow, although obviously I don't expect this on any long-term basis or I would throw in the towel and buy the Dow.

我希望所有合伙人和潜在合伙人都认识到，上述业绩极不寻常，即使再次出现，频率也会极低。这一表现主要得益于在市场大幅下跌时，我们将大部分资金配置在控股资产和套利类投资上，而非一般市场投资。如果1962年道指大幅上涨，我们的相对表现可能非常糟糕，而我们今年迄今的成功绝不反映我预测市场的能力（我从来不尝试），仅仅是因为普通股价格高企部分迫使我转向其他投资类别。如果道指持续飙升，我们可能会在排行榜上垫底。我们完全预期，在某些年份，我们的操作方法甚至可能跑不赢道指，尽管从长期角度我显然不期望如此，否则我会认输并买入道指。

I’ll cut this sermon short with the conclusion that I certainly do not want anyone to think that the pattern of the last few years is likely to be repeated; I expect future performance to reflect much smaller advantages on average over the Dow.

我长话短说，结论是：我当然不希望任何人认为过去几年的模式可能重演；我预计未来的业绩平均领先道指的幅度将小得多。

Each letter ends with the request that you let me know about anything that isn't clear. Please be sure that you do this. We are all geared up with secretarial help, a new typewriter, etc., and we want to be sure that this letter and agreement are understood by all.

每封信结尾我都请求大家，如有任何不清楚之处，请告知。请务必这样做。我们已配备好秘书人手、新打字机等，我们希望确保这封信和协议能被所有人理解。

Cordially,
Warren E. Buffett

此致
沃伦·E·巴菲特

WEB:bf

P/S: There are no prizes for being the last ones to get in the agreement and commitment letter, so please get to it as soon as possible. Remember the commitment letter can be amended by a postcard or a phone call--we are just trying to get the bulk of the work out of the way well before December 31st so we can concentrate on getting the audit, tax information, etc., out pronto at yearend.

附言：最后寄回协议和承诺书的人没有奖品，所以请尽快行动。请记住，承诺书可以通过明信片或电话修改——我们只是想抢在12月31日前完成大部分文书工作，以便年底能专注于审计、税务信息等事项，尽快发出。