《金融时报》：股权投资的独特优势
投资于股票——股权——有一个独特的优势，是其他资产类别所不具备的，据我的经验，这一点很少被人理解，也几乎从未被讨论过。
Investment in stocks and shares – equities – has a unique advantage over other asset classes which in my experience is rarely understood and almost never discussed.
股票能以其他资产类别（如债券和房地产）无法做到的方式实现复利增长。原因很简单：公司会留存一部分利润用于再投资。
Equities can compound in value in a way that investments in other asset classes, such as bonds and real estate, cannot. The reason for this is quite simple: companies retain a portion of the profits they generate to reinvest in the business.
如果你看一下主要指数中的公司，比如标普 500 指数或富时 100 指数，你会发现平均而言，公司会将大约一半的盈利作为股息派发。未派发的盈利则投资于业务中。
If you look at companies in the major indices, such as the S&P 500 or the FTSE 100, you will find that on average companies pay out about half of their earnings in dividends. The earnings that are not paid out are invested in the business.
没有其他资产类别能提供这一点。如果你持有债券，你会收到利息支付，但它不会自动再投资于债券。唯一的例外是所谓的高杠杆公司发行的实物支付债券，这种债券赋予公司一项选择权：如果无法支付现金利息，可以发行更多债券。所以你确实会得到更多债券，但那恰恰是你最不希望利息被投入更多此类垃圾债券的时候。
No other asset class provides this. If you own bonds, you receive an interest payment but it is not automatically reinvested in the bonds. The only exception to this is so-called Payment In Kind bonds issued by highly leveraged companies which provide the option for them to issue more bonds if they are unable to pay the cash coupon. So you get more bonds but only at a moment when the last thing you want is for your interest payment to be invested in more of this junk.
同样，如果你持有房地产，你会收到租金收入，但其中没有任何一部分会为你再投资于房产。
Similarly, if you own real estate, you will receive rental income but none of it will be reinvested in property for you.
这不仅是股票投资的一个独特特征，也可能是你的投资价值实现复利增长的一个宝贵来源。例如，如果你持有标普 500 指数中的普通公司，去年它的净资产收益率是 13%。如果它能留存一半归属于你的盈利，并且随着业务增长继续以当前的回报率进行投资，那么这一半留存收益也应该能赚取 13% 的回报。更有吸引力的是，标普 500 指数中的公司平均按账面价值的三倍交易，所以它们每留存 1 美元盈利，目前就能创造 3 美元市值——当然，这一估值可能会变化。
As well as being a unique feature of equity investment, this can also be a valuable source of compounding in the value of your investments. For example, if you owned the average company in the S&P 500 it earned a return on equity capital employed of 13 per cent last year. If it can retain half the earnings which are attributable to you as an investor and it can continue to invest at its current rate of return as its business grows, that half should also earn 13 per cent. What makes it even more attractive is that on average the companies in the S&P 500 trade on three times book value, so for every dollar of earnings they retain, they currently create $3 of market value although of course this – the valuation – can change.
这不是那个经常挂在嘴边的说法——股票的大部分回报来自股息再投资。再投资的股息必须以市场价值购买股票——目前标普 500 是账面价值的三倍——而每 1 美元留存收益则是按账面价值再投资。为股票价值增长贡献大部分的，是留存收益的再投资，而不是股息。
This is not the same as the frequently uttered mantra that the majority of the return on equities comes from reinvestment of the dividends paid. Dividends which are reinvested have to be used to purchase shares at market value – at three times book value currently in the S&P – whereas each $1 of retained earnings gets reinvested at book value. It is the reinvestment of retained earnings, not dividends, which provide the majority of the growth in the value of equities.
当然，更有吸引力的做法是，不满足于仅仅持有指数、看着公司以平均回报率帮你再投资留存收益，而是只持有那些能够实现高资本回报率的公司，这些公司能成功地把每 1 美元留存收益转化为远高于账面价值倍数的市值。
Of course, what is even more attractive is if instead of simply owning the index and seeing the companies reinvest your retained earnings at an average rate of return, you own only companies which can achieve a high return on capital and which can as a result manage to translate each $1 of retained earnings into a market value which is a much higher multiple of book value.
如果你顺着这个思路推下去，你会得出一个结论：如果一家公司能够以高回报率投资留存收益，那么你最不希望它做的事情就是给你派发股息。沃伦·巴菲特的伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司或许是最好的例证，这家公司半个多世纪以来从未派发过股息。
If you follow this reasoning you would conclude that if a company is able to invest retained earnings at a high rate of return then the last thing you would want it to do is pay you a dividend. This is perhaps best illustrated by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway which has not paid a dividend in over half a century.
当然，这需要谨慎对待。有一个相当有说服力的经济理论叫均值回归，它指出能产生高回报的公司会吸引竞争，而竞争最终会把它们的回报拉低到平均水平，甚至更差。那极少数能逃过这条经济万有引力定律的公司，拥有某种防御能力，能抵御竞争。这就是巴菲特先生推广的那个被频繁引用的“护城河”概念。
Of course this needs to be pursued with care. There is a reasonably sound piece of economic theory called mean reversion which suggests that companies which generate high returns should attract competition which will eventually reduce their returns to the average, or worse. The very small group of companies that manage to avoid this economic law of gravity have some kind of defence which enables them to fend off the competition. This is the oft-quoted concept of the “moat” popularised by Mr Buffett.
在这篇文章中，我纯粹从财务角度描述了股权投资的好处，但公司必须要有增长来源，才能将留存收益再投资；而且，这种增长还必须提供机会，让它可以以良好的回报率进行再投资。有很多公司的例子是，起步时回报率不错，但后来以低得多的回报率投资留存收益，损害了股东价值。要了解这方面的实例，请读我写的关于乐购公司哪里出了问题的那篇文章。
In this article, I have described the benefit of equity investment purely in financial terms, but the company has to have a source of growth to enable it to reinvest retained earnings and furthermore, the growth has to provide an opportunity for it to reinvest at a good rate. There are plenty of examples of companies which start with good rates of return but then invest retained earnings at much lower rates and destroy value for shareholders. For an illustration of this, read my article on what went wrong at Tesco.
特里·史密斯是 Fundsmith LLP 的首席执行官
Terry Smith is chief executive of Fundsmith LLP