2010年伯克希尔股东会问答：
BECKY QUICK: This question comes from Carson Mitchell in Aberdeen, South Dakota, who asks both of you, "What business has had the best return on capital for Berkshire, and what business of any on earth has had the best return on capital?"
贝基·奎克：这个问题来自南达科他州阿伯丁的卡森·米切尔，他问你们两个:“伯克希尔的资本回报率最高的是什么业务?世界上哪一项业务的资本回报率最高?”
And he adds, "PS, I would have come by rail but there are no seats in the grain rail cars." (Laughter)他补充说，“顺便说一句，我本来想坐火车来的，但火车车厢里没有座位。”(笑声)
WARREN BUFFETT: There's two ways of looking at it.沃伦·巴菲特:我们可以从两个方面来看待这个问题。
If you talk about the capital necessary to run the business, as opposed to what we might have paid for the business — I mean, if we buy a wonderful business — you could run the Coca-Cola Company —assuming you had the bottling systems — you could run it with no capital.如果你谈到经营企业所需的资本，而不是我们可能为企业支付的资金——我的意思是，如果我们收购了一家很棒的企业——你可以经营可口可乐公司——假设你有装瓶系统——你可以不需要资本就经营它。
Now, if you buy it for $100 billion, you can look at that as your capital or you can look at the basic capital. When we look at what's a good business, we're defining it in terms of the capital actually needed in the business.现在，如果你以1000亿美元的价格收购它，你可以把它看作你的资本或者你可以把它看作基本资本。当我们看什么是好的企业时，我们是根据企业实际需要的资本来定义它的。
Whether it's a good investment for us depends on how much we pay for that in the end.对我们来说，这是否是一项好的投资取决于我们最终为此付出了多少。
There are a number of businesses that operate on negative capital. Carol's with Fortune magazine. You know, any of the great magazines operate with negative capital.有许多企业是负资本经营的。卡罗尔是《财富》杂志的。所有伟大的杂志都是负资本经营的。
I mean, the subscribers pay in advance, there are no fixed assets to speak of, and the receivables are not that much, the inventory is nothing.我的意思是，订阅者是提前付款的，没有固定资产可言，应收账款也没有那么多，库存也没有。
So a magazine business — my guess is that People magazine operates, or Sports Illustrated operates, with negative capital, and particularly People makes a lot of money.所以杂志业务，我猜是《人物》杂志或者《体育画报》在负资本的情况下运作，尤其是《人物》杂志赚了很多钱。
So there are certain businesses. Well, we had a company called Blue Chip Stamps where we got the float ahead of time, and operated with really substantial negative capital.所以有一些生意。我们有一家叫Blue Chip Stamps的公司，我们提前上市了，用大量的负资本运营。
But there are a lot of great businesses that need very, very little capital. Apple doesn't need that much capital, you know.但有很多伟大的企业只需要非常非常少的资金。你知道，苹果并不需要那么多资金。
The best ones, of course, are the ones that can get very large while needing no capital.当然，最好的银行是那些不需要资金就能发展到很大规模的银行。
See’s is a wonderful business, needs very little capital, but we can't get people eating ten pounds of boxed chocolates every day.喜诗是一家很棒的企业，只需要很少的资本，但我们不能让人们每天吃10磅盒装巧克力。
CHARLIE MUNGER: Except here.查理·芒格:除了这里。
WARREN BUFFETT: We want to. (Laughs)沃伦•巴菲特:我们想这么做。(笑)
Generally, the great consumer businesses need relatively little capital. The businesses where people pay you in advance, you know, magazine subscriptions being a case, insurance being a case, you know, you're using your customer's capital.一般来说，大型消费企业需要的资金相对较少。人们提前付钱给你的生意，你知道，杂志订阅是一种情况，保险是一种情况，你知道，你在使用你的客户的资本。
And we like those kind of businesses, but of course, so does the rest of the world, so they can become very competitive in buying them.我们喜欢这样的企业，当然，世界上其他国家也喜欢这样的企业，所以他们在收购这些企业时会变得非常有竞争力。
We have a business, for example, that's run wonderfully by Cathy Baron Tamraz, called Business Wire. Business Wire does not require a lot of capital. It has receivables and everything, but it is a service-type business and many of the service-type businesses and consumer-type businesses require little capital.例如，我们有一个业务，Cathy Baron Tamraz经营得很好，叫做business Wire。美国商业资讯不需要很多资金。它有应收账款等等，但它是一个服务类型的企业，许多服务类型的企业和消费者类型的企业需要很少的资金。
And when they get to be successful, you know, they can really be something.当他们成功的时候，你知道，他们真的很了不起。
查理？
CHARLIE MUNGER: I've got nothing to add, but at any rate, the formula never changes.查理·芒格:我没有什么要补充的，但无论如何，公式永远不会改变。
WARREN BUFFETT: If you could own one business in the world, what would it be, Charlie? (Laughter)沃伦·巴菲特:如果你能在世界上拥有一家企业，你会选择哪家，查理?(笑声)
I hope we already own them, myself.我希望我们已经拥有它们了。
CHARLIE MUNGER: You and I got in trouble by addressing such a subject many decades ago.查理·芒格:几十年前，你和我因为谈论这个话题而惹上了麻烦。
WARREN BUFFETT: That's right. (Laughs)沃伦•巴菲特:没错。(笑)
CHARLIE MUNGER: And I don't think I'll come back to it.查理·芒格:我想我不会再讲这个了。
WARREN BUFFETT: OK. (Laughter) Number 13 —沃伦·巴菲特:好的。(笑声)13号
CHARLIE MUNGER: If you name some business that has incredible pricing power, you're talking about a business that's a monopoly or a near monopoly.查理·芒格:如果你说出一些具有难以置信的定价权的企业，你谈论的是一个垄断或近乎垄断的企业。
沃伦•巴菲特:当然。
CHARLIE MUNGER: And I don't think it's very smart for us to sit up here naming our most admired business or something, that other people regard as a monopoly.芒格:我不认为我们坐在这里说出我们最钦佩的业务或其他被其他人视为垄断的东西是很聪明的。
WARREN BUFFETT: OK. We'll move right along. (Laughter)
从定义上看，资本回报率最高的公司能以最少的净资产获取最高的回报，也就是ROE最高。
更极端的情况是企业在采用负资产经营，比如巴菲特提到的杂志订阅、保险业务，客户在获取产品或服务前就已经付了款。苹果公司在新款手机发布时，也会采取类似的策略，部分消费者要提前付款，然后等待数月才能拿到手机。健身房、美容店、儿童游乐场鼓励消费者充值也是为了获取无息的浮存金。在这段对话中，芒格说曾经因为谈论某个话题而惹上麻烦，这个例子很可能指的微软，他曾经在微软的反垄断案件中为该公司作证，不过也不排除是烟草行业。芒格透露了一个重要的投资方向：寻找具有定价权的企业，这往往是一个垄断的生意。资本回报率最高的生意具备三个特征：垄断、定价权、轻资产。A股里的茅台同时具备这三个光环，投资者对于茅台唯一的分歧是：什么价格去买合适？声明: 本文不构成投资建议
![]()
延伸阅读：
戳![]()
关注，右上角菜单栏● ● ●键，设为星标
