巴菲特致股东的信-1991年

Buffett’s Letters To Berkshire Shareholders 1991
巴菲特致股东的信1991年
Our gain in net worth during 1991 was $2.1 billion, or 39.6%. Over the last 27 years (that is, since present management took over) our per-share book value has grown from $19 to $6,437, or at a rate of 23.7% compounded annually.
1991年本公司的净值成长了21亿美元，较去年增加了39.6%，而总计过去27年以来，也就是自从现有经营阶层接手之后，每股净值从19元成长到现在的6,437美元，年复合成长率约为23.7%。
The size of our equity capital -which now totals $7.4 billion - makes it certain that we cannot maintain our past rate ofgain or, for that matter, come close to doing so. As Berkshire grows, the universe of opportunities that can significantly influence the company's performance constantly shrinks. When we were working with capital of $20 million, an idea or business producing $1 million of profit added five percentage points to our return for the year. Now we need a $370 million idea (i.e., one contributing over $550 million of pre-tax profit) to achieve the same result. And there are many more ways to make $1 million than to make $370 million.
现在我们股东权益的资金规模已高达74亿美元，所以可以确定的是，我们可能再也无法像过去那样继续维持高成长，而随着伯克希尔不断地成长，世上所存可以大幅影响本公司表现的机会也就越来越少。当我们操作的资金只有2,000万美元的时候，一项获利100万美元的案子就可以使得我们的年报酬率增加5%，但时至今日，我们却要有3.7亿美元的获利(要是以税前计算的话，更要5.5亿美元)，才能达到相同的效果，而要一口气赚3.7亿美元比起一次赚100万美元的难度可是高的多了。