巴菲特給股東的信 1978年 Part2

Sources of Earnings

盈餘報告

To give you a better picture of just where Berkshire’s earnings are
produced, we show below a table which requires a little explanation.
Berkshire owns close to 58% of Blue Chip which, in addition to 100%
ownership of several businesses, owns 80% of Wesco Financial Corporation.
Thus, Berkshire’s equity in Wesco’s earnings is about 46%. In aggregate,
businesses that we control have about 7,000 full-time employees and
generate revenues of over $500 million.

為了讓各位對Berkshire的盈餘來源有所了解，讓我稍微解釋一下下面這張表，
Berkshire約持有藍籌郵票58%的股權，而後者除了持有一些企業100%的股權外，
還另外擁有Wesco金融公司80%的股權，也因此Berkshire等於間接持有Wesco約
46%的股權，總的來說，我們旗下事業約有7,000名全職的員工，年營收達到5億美
元。

The table shows the overall earnings of each major operating category
on a pre-tax basis (several of the businesses have low tax rates because of
significant amounts of tax-exempt interest and dividend income), as well as
the share of those earnings belonging to Berkshire both on a pre-tax and
after-tax basis. Significant capital gains or losses attributable to any of the
businesses are not shown in the operating earnings figure, but are
aggregated on the “Realized Securities Gain” line at the bottom of the table.
Because of various accounting and tax intricacies, the figures in the table
should not be treated as holy writ, but rather viewed as close approximations
of the 1977 and 1978 earnings contributions of our constituent businesses.

下表顯示各個主要營運單位的稅前盈餘(有幾家公司適用的稅率較低主要的原因是免
稅的利息及股息收入)，以下是Berkshire按持股比例可分得的稅前及稅後盈餘，各事
業的資本利得或損失則不包含在營業利益之內，而是加總列在已實現證券利得項下，
由於複雜的會計及稅務規定，大家不必將這些數字看得很神聖，最好是單純地把他們
當作是旗下事業在1977年及1978年對於母公司所貢獻的盈餘。

Net Earnings

Earnings Before Income Taxes After Tax

------------------------------------- ------------------

Total Berkshire Share Berkshire Share

------------------ ------------------ ------------------

(in thousands of dollars) 1978 1977 1978 1977 1978 1977

------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------

Total - all entities ......... $66,180 $57,089 $54,350 $42,234 $39,242 $30,393

====== ======= ======= ====== ====== ======

Earnings from operations:

Insurance Group:

Underwriting ............ $ 3,001 $ 5,802 $ 3,000 $ 5,802 $ 1,560 $ 3,017

Net investment income 19,705 12,804 19,691 12,804 16,400 11,360

Berkshire-Waumbec textiles 2,916 (620) 2,916 (620) 1,342 (322)

Associated Retail

Stores, Inc. ............ 2,757 2,775 2,757 2,775 1,176 1,429

See’s Candies .............. 12,482 12,840 7,013 6,598 3,049 2,974

Buffalo Evening News ...... (2,913) 751 (1,637) 389 (738) 158

Blue Chip Stamps - Parent . 2,133 1,091 1,198 566 1,382 892

Illinois National Bank

and Trust Company ...... 4,822 3,800 4,710 3,706 4,262 3,288

Wesco Financial

Corporation - Parent .... 1,771 2,006 777 813 665 419

Mutual Savings and

Loan Association ........ 10,556 6,779 4,638 2,747 3,042 1,946

Interest on Debt ........... (5,566) (5,302) (4,546) (4,255) (2,349) (2,129)

Other ...................... 720 165 438 102 261 48

-------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------

Total Earnings from

Operations ............ $52,384 $42,891 $40,955 $31,427 $30,052 $23,080

Realized Securities Gain ..... 13,796 14,198 13,395 10,807 9,190 7,313

-------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------

Total Earnings ......... $66,180 $57,089 $54,350 $42,234 $39,242 $30,393

====== ====== ====== ====== ====== ====

Blue Chip and Wesco are public companies with reporting requirements
of their own. Later in this report we are reproducing the narrative reports of
the principal executives of both companies, describing their 1978
operations. Some of the figures they utilize will not match to the penny the
ones we use in this report, again because of accounting and tax complexities.
But their comments should be helpful to you in understanding the underlying
economic characteristics of these important partly-owned businesses. A
copy of the full annual report of either company will be mailed to any
shareholder of Berkshire upon request to Mr. Robert H. Bird for Blue Chips
Stamps, 5801 South Eastern Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90040, or to
Mrs. Bette Deckard for Wesco Financial Corporation, 315 East Colorado
Boulevard, Pasadena, California 91109.

藍籌郵票及Wesco都是公開發行公司，各自都必須對外公開報告，在年報的後段附有
這兩家公司主要經理人關於公司1978年現況的書面報告，他們運用的部份數字可能
無法與我們的報告絲毫不差，這又是因為會計與稅務一些細節規定所致，但我認為他
們的見解將有助於各位了解這些旗下重要事業的經營現況，若有需要Berkshire的股
東可向Mr. Robert(地址：加州洛杉磯5801 South Eastern Avenue)索取藍籌郵票的
年報或向Mrs. Bette(地址：加州Pasadena 315 East Colorado Boulevard)索取Wesco
的年報。