原文信息：
- 标题：1962 November Letter to Limited Partners
- 发表时间：1962-11-01
- 翻译：诚明散人
- 整理：诚明散人
BUFFETT PARTNERSHIP, LTD.
810 KIEWIT PLAZA
OMAHA 31, NEBRASKA
November 1, 1962
TO MY PARTNERS FOR
1963: 致我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.
又到了一年一度的文件大潮。随函附上两份已经修订的1963年合伙协议。附有总则的那份由你们保存，另一份单页协议应交还给我们。与去年相比，该协议没有任何实质性的变化。此次修订只是为了增加一些新的合作人，并在一些地方用更清晰的语言（我们希望如此）重新表述现有协议的条款。实际上，所有修改都在总则第5条（去年协议的第7段）中。我们没有单独编写一份修订文件，而是将这些改动纳入了一份包含整个协议的完整文件中。
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.
我们还附上两封投资承诺书（一封给你，一封退还），请你在上面注明你希望在1月1日增加或撤回资金的意愿。我们希望在12月1日之前收回协议和承诺书。不过，承诺书在年底之前（而不是年底之后）都可以修改，因此，如果你的计划有变，而又已经将承诺书寄给了我们，只需与我联系，我就会按照你的意愿进行修改。
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.
任何撤资都将在1月1日后立即支付。任何新增款项必须在1月10日之前到账，如果在11月期间到账，则将被视为预付款，并按6%的利率计息，直至年终。
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.
请确保你合伙协议上的签名已经经过公证。如果奥马哈的合伙人愿意，可以到我们的办公室办理公证。另外，请务必在承诺书上适当的圆圈内注明你是否希望每月收到1963年的“月度支付”。为了确保每个人都明白这一点，请允许我再次声明，这些“月度支付”决不是保证收入或任何类似的事情。它们是一种方便的定期提款形式，如果我们的收益高于6%，它们就是从收益中支付，如果我们的收益低于6%，它们就是从本金中支付。
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.
你将在1月20日之前收到1962年的完整报税信息。如果你在此之前需要对你的纳税情况进行估算，请告诉我，我会给你一个大致的估算。我们还将在12月底寄出一封关于税收的简短信件。
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.
读到了这里，你就有权了解我们1962年迄今为止的工作情况。在截至10月31日的这段时间里，道琼斯工业指数包含分红在内，总体亏损约为16.8%。我们打算在今年年底采用与去年年底相同的方法，对我们在Dempster Mill Manufacturing公司的控股权进行估值。这包括对资产负债表项目使用了各种折扣系数，以反映我们关于通过迅速出售资产可以得到多少现金的看法。去年，我们对存货打了40%的折扣，对应收账款打了15%的折扣，并对固定资产的拍卖价值等进行了估算，从而得出了每股35.00美元的大致价值。
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 1.9 million this yearend, reducing the discount on this item by about 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 166,000 of cash and 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.
我们成功地将Dempster公司的大部分资产转换为现金，几乎一比一转换，这是1962年的最精彩的部分。例如，去年年末存货为420万美元，今年年末可能约为190万美元，这一项已计算的折扣就可以减少约92万美元（230万美元的40%）。我将在年度信中详细全面地报道这一情况。现在我只想说，采用上述同样的折扣可能会使年底的每股价值至少达到50美元。一句话可以概括资产转换的情况——1961年11月30日（Dempster财政年度末），我们有16.6万美元的现金和231.5万美元的负债，而今年我们预计将有约100万美元的现金和投资（与合伙公司购买的类似），负债总额为25万美元。这种情况在1963年很可能会进一步改善，我们预计明年Dempster的投资组合将大幅扩大。
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.
如果以每股50美元的价格对Dempster进行估值，截至10月31日，我们合伙公司的总体收益（在向合伙人支付任何款项之前）为5.5%。与道指相比，这22.3个百分点的优势如果保持到年底，将是我们有史以来最大的优势之一。在这一优势中，约60%是由Dempster以外的投资组合实现的，40%是Dempster价值增加的结果。
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认识到，上述业绩明显异于寻常，即使会出现，也不会经常出现。取得这样的业绩，主要是因为在道指大幅下跌的时候，我们将大部分资金投入到了“Controls”“Workouts”中，而不是“Generals”中。如果道指在1962年大幅上涨，那么相对而言，我们的业绩可能会非常糟糕。我们截至1962年的这个时间取得的成功，当然并不反映我有任何猜测市场的能力（我从不尝试），而只是反映了普通股的高价某种程度上迫使我转向了其他类别的投资。如果道指继续飙升，我们的表现相对可能就会较差。我们完全有理由相信，在未来的某些年份，我们的表现会不如道指，但我显然不希望长期如此，否则我就会放弃合伙公司，转而买入道琼斯指数。
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.
最后，我想说的是，我不希望任何人认为过去几年的收益可以重复；我预计未来我们相比道指的领先优势将会小得多。
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.
每封信的结尾都会请你们告诉我任何不清楚的地方，请务必这样做，我们已经有了秘书和新打字机等等。我们希望大家都能理解这封信和协议。
Cordially,
Warren E. Buffett
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.
附注：最后签署协议书和承诺书的人没有奖品，所以请尽快处理。请记住，承诺书可以通过邮寄或电话修改——我们只是想在12月31日之前尽早完成大部分工作，这样我们就可以在年终时集中精力尽快完成审计、税务信息等工作。