沃
伦•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)最近没有太多使用他的“猎象枪”，而是让他子公司的管理者们去寻找“小猎物”。伯克希尔哈撒韦公司(Berkshire Hathaway)的子公司去年总计斥资约23亿美元进行了26宗收购交易。该公司说，这是个创纪录的数字。今年他们延续了这一趋势，在上半年收购了10余家公司。伯克希尔尚未披露今年子公司用于收购的资金数额。
该公司最近很少进行规模较大的数十亿美元的收购交易，巴菲特越来越青睐“补强型”收购，因为此类交易能够增加该公司的收益，并且使其能够利用现金储备。截止6月底，该公司现金储备规模达360亿美元。随着今年上半年净营运现金流增长近36%，该公司使用现金储备的压力增大。
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
巴菲特越来越青睐“补强型”收购，因为此类交易能够增加该公司的收益，并且使其能够利用现金储备。
巴菲特说，他喜欢让子公司的管理者们去寻找机会。
在本月晚些时候将步入83岁的巴菲特有一个著名的领导法则，那就是放手让伯克希尔子公司的管理者们经营他们的公司而不去干涉他们，但是在这些首席执行长们进行收购交易时他的参与会多一些。一些首席执行长每个月会向他提交潜在收购目标的最新情况。
这类交易与“猎象”类交易不同，巴菲特用“猎象”来形容他与伯克希尔副董事长芒格(Charlie Munger)敲定的巨额收购交易。每次“猎象”通常都标志着这家巨型企业集团进入一个新的商业领域。2011年，巴菲特写到，我的“猎象枪”已经上膛，我那“扣动扳机的手指正在发痒。”
尽管当前在规模、行业、收益和价格上满足巴菲特标准的公司不多，但他并未放弃寻找这类公司。巴菲特在最近一次采访中说，进行大型收购交易还是会让他心跳加速的事情。伯克希尔6月份与一家投资公司联手以236亿美元的价格收购了番茄酱制造商亨氏(H.J. Heinz Co.)，其出资额占到一半左右。
毕竟，通过那些规模数十亿美元的交易，伯克希尔得以从上世纪60年代的一家纺织品制造商转型为一家市值达2,880亿美元的控股公司，业务覆盖从跑鞋到铁路等广泛领域。
伯克希尔的子公司不经常披露在每宗收购交易上的支出，但该公司高管说，较大型的交易规模至少达10亿美元。值得注意的一个特例是，该公司旗下MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. 5月份表示，将斥资56亿美元收购内华达州公用事业公司NV Energy Inc.。
由于伯克希尔资产多元化并且财务实力雄厚，巴菲特和他子公司的管理者们经常会遇到打算出售的公司前来接洽。在并购领域，有能力挑选交易是一件很奢侈的事情。在金融危机过后，并购领域一直在努力恢复元气。
他说，我们正在关注数十个行业的领导者，他们知道我中意能够开辟新领域的大型收购交易，但也知道我们青睐能独立扩张的企业。
华尔街银行家和私募股权公司高管说，他们致电伯克希尔比致电其他潜在买家更加频繁，因为该公司旗下的81家运营企业触及了工业的几乎各个领域。
规模较小的收购交易很重要，因为它们可以增加伯克希尔的收入和利润。举例来说，2013年上半年，伯克希尔的子公司McLane Co.收入增至222亿美元，较上年同比增长30%，税前利润增长41%，至2.46亿美元。收入和利润的增长从一定程度上反映出McLane在2012年收购食品服务公司Meadowbrook Meat Co.产生的效益。
亿万富翁投资家巴菲特此前说，他希望通过这类交易增加伯克希尔的利润。伯克希尔旗下公司的高管们说，巴菲特没有指示他们进行收购，但鼓励并支持这样的努力。
农业设备生产商CTB Inc.的首席执行长曼奇内利(Victor Mancinelli)说，他是一位非常棒的参谋。该公司是伯克希尔旗下开展收购活动较多的公司之一，自2002年被伯克希尔收购以来，基本上每年达成一桩交易。
高管们说，自2011年高层管理人士、MidAmerican前首席执行长索科尔(David Sokol)离职以来，巴菲特的放权式管理一直没有明显改变。索科尔在MidAmerican时曾积极进行收购。索科尔辞职之前，有人爆料说，在伯克希尔采纳索科尔的建议收购一家公司之前，索科尔买进了这家公司的股票，不过索科尔说，他离职的决定与买进股票无关。
伯克希尔的众多子公司还利用该企业集团庞大的现金储备投资于工厂和设备的升级改造；巴菲特说，今年这类支出有望超过100亿美元，创公司有史以来的最高纪录。
不过，伯克希尔旗下的公司并非都喜欢进行收购。伯克希尔的高管们说，该公司2010年斥资265亿美元收购的铁路运营商Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC不太可能收购另外一家铁路公司。但据该公司说，它已经为今年的资本支出预拨了43亿美元，高于上年的36亿美元。
巴菲特说，保险行业的收购交易也不会是经常性的，主要是因为对伯克希尔来说具有吸引力的收购目标不多，而且该公司能够以更低的成本打造自己的保险产品。保险业务是伯克希尔的一个支柱。过去一年，伯克希尔的两家子公司Columbia Insurance Co.和National Indemnity Co.收购了几家小公司。
近年来，伯克希尔旗下五家最大的非保险公司中有三家一直在积极地进行收购，它们是工业设备生产商Marmon Group LLC、MidAmerican以及特种化学品生产商Lubrizol Corp.。CTB和工程产品公司MiTek Inc.属经常进行收购的较小子公司之列。MiTek 过去两周达成了两桩交易。
MiTek首席执行长马嫩蒂(Tom Manenti)说，他在寻找交易时，努力遵循像巴菲特一样的标准，包括好的管理层。他说，巴菲特已经证明这是一种成功的策略。
伯克希尔旗下公司的一些高管甚至开始为自己的老板寻找猎物。
化学品生产商Lubrizol首席执行长汉布里克(James Hambrick)说，尽管他的主要任务是为该公司寻找收购目标，但他从未错过任何一个在更大范围内寻找适合巴菲特“猎象枪”的大目标。
ANUPREETA DAS
（本文版权归道琼斯公司所有，未经许可不得翻译或转载。）
Warren Buffett hasn't fired his 'elephant gun' much recently, but he has put his managers on the hunt for smaller prey.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s subsidiary operations collectively spent about $2.3 billion on 26 acquisitions last year, which the company says is a record amount. They have continued that streak this year, acquiring more than a dozen companies in the first half of 2013. Berkshire hasn't disclosed the amount spent by its subsidiaries on acquisitions this year.
With bigger, multibillion-dollar deals few and far between of late, Mr. Buffett increasingly favors such 'bolt-on' acquisitions because they increase Berkshire's earnings and enable it to use its cash pile, which stood at $36 billion at the end of June. Net cash flow from operations rose nearly 36% for the first six months of 2013 from a year earlier, putting greater pressure on Berkshire to use its cash rather than hoard it.
In a telephone interview, the Omaha, Neb.-based billionaire investor said he expected these types of deals to be frequent and numerous.
'I like the managers finding opportunities,' Mr. Buffett said.
Mr. Buffett, who turns 83 later this month, is famous for allowing the managers of Berkshire's units to run their businesses without interference, but he is more hands-on when it comes to the CEOs' deal-making. Some Berkshire chiefs send him monthly updates on potential targets.
These deals differ from 'elephants,' which Mr. Buffett identifies as megadeals struck for Berkshire by him and his partner, Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, often marking the gigantic conglomerate's entry into a new business. In 2011, he wrote that his 'elephant gun' is loaded and his 'trigger finger is itchy.'
Despite the current paucity of companies that meet Mr. Buffett's criteria of size, industry, earnings and price, he hasn't called off the hunt. 'A big deal still is what causes my heart to beat faster,' said Mr. Buffett in the recent interview. Berkshire teamed up with an investment firm in June to buy ketchup-maker H.J. Heinz Co. for $23.6 billion, putting up roughly half the amount.
After all, multibillion-dollar deals are what helped transform Berkshire from a textile manufacturer in the 1960s to a holding company with $288 billion in market value, with interests spanning from running shoes to a railroad.
Berkshire subsidiaries don't always disclose how much they spend on individual deals, but the bigger transactions tend to be at least $1 billion, Berkshire executives said. In a notable exception, Berkshire unit MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. said in May it would buy Nevada utility NV Energy Inc. for $5.6 billion.
Because of Berkshire's diverse holdings and its financial heft, Mr. Buffett and his managers frequently get approached by companies wanting to sell. The ability to pick and choose deals is a relative luxury in the mergers-and-acquisitions business, which has struggled to regain its health after the financial crisis.
'We're on the radar screen of people in dozens of industries,' he said. 'They know I'm interested in sizable acquisitions that break new ground, but also that our businesses are interested in expanding on their own.'
Wall Street bankers and private-equity executives say they call Berkshire more often than other potential buyers because the company's 81 operating businesses touch nearly every industrial sector.
The smaller transactions are important because they augment Berkshire's revenue and profit. In 2013's first half, for example, revenue at Berkshire subsidiary McLane Co. rose to $22.2 billion, up 30% from a year earlier, while earnings climbed 41%, to $246 million, before taxes. The increases partly reflect McLane's 2012 acquisition of Meadowbrook Meat Co., a food-services company.
The billionaire investor has previously said he hopes to increase Berkshire's earnings through such deals. Berkshire CEOs say Mr. Buffett hasn't instructed them to do deals but is encouraging and supportive of those efforts.
'He just is a terrific sounding board,' said Victor Mancinelli, the chief of farming-equipment maker CTB Inc., one of the busier deal makers in the Berkshire family, having done roughly one deal a year since Berkshire bought it in 2002.
Executives say Mr. Buffett's hands-off approach hasn't changed noticeably since the 2011 departure of David Sokol, a top manager and former chief of MidAmerican, where he was an active deal maker. Mr. Sokol quit after revelations he had bought shares of a company that Berkshire later acquired at his suggestion, although he said his decision to leave had nothing to do with the purchase.
Berkshire subsidiaries also use the conglomerate's enormous cash reserves to invest in improvements to plant and equipment; this year, such expenditures are on track to exceed $10 billion, a record for the company, Mr. Buffett said.
And not every Berkshire business is an acquirer. Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC, the railroad operator Berkshire bought for $26.5 billion in 2010, is unlikely to buy another railroad, Berkshire executives said. But it has earmarked $4.3 billion for capital expenses this year, up from $3.6 billion spent last year, according to the company.
Deals in the insurance sector, a pillar of Berkshire's business, will also be infrequent, mainly because there are only a few targets attractive to Berkshire, and the company can build its own insurance products at lower cost, Mr. Buffett said. Berkshire subsidiaries Columbia Insurance Co. and National Indemnity Co. have snapped up small businesses in the past year.
In recent years, three of Berkshire's five biggest noninsurance businesses have been busy acquirers─industrial-equipment maker Marmon Group LLC, MidAmerican, and specialty-chemicals maker Lubrizol Corp. CTB and engineering-products company MiTek Inc., which struck two deals in the past two weeks, are among the smaller units that make acquisitions regularly.
Tom Manenti, MiTek's CEO, said he strives to apply the same criteria as Mr. Buffett when searching for deals, including good management. 'Warren has proven that to be a successful strategy,' he said.
Some Berkshire CEOs are even looking for game for their boss.
James Hambrick, the CEO of Lubrizol, said that, while his priority is to look for targets for the chemicals maker, 'I never miss an opportunity to look more broadly' for targets suited to Mr. Buffett's big gun.
ANUPREETA DAS
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s subsidiary operations collectively spent about $2.3 billion on 26 acquisitions last year, which the company says is a record amount. They have continued that streak this year, acquiring more than a dozen companies in the first half of 2013. Berkshire hasn't disclosed the amount spent by its subsidiaries on acquisitions this year.
With bigger, multibillion-dollar deals few and far between of late, Mr. Buffett increasingly favors such 'bolt-on' acquisitions because they increase Berkshire's earnings and enable it to use its cash pile, which stood at $36 billion at the end of June. Net cash flow from operations rose nearly 36% for the first six months of 2013 from a year earlier, putting greater pressure on Berkshire to use its cash rather than hoard it.
In a telephone interview, the Omaha, Neb.-based billionaire investor said he expected these types of deals to be frequent and numerous.
'I like the managers finding opportunities,' Mr. Buffett said.
Mr. Buffett, who turns 83 later this month, is famous for allowing the managers of Berkshire's units to run their businesses without interference, but he is more hands-on when it comes to the CEOs' deal-making. Some Berkshire chiefs send him monthly updates on potential targets.
These deals differ from 'elephants,' which Mr. Buffett identifies as megadeals struck for Berkshire by him and his partner, Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, often marking the gigantic conglomerate's entry into a new business. In 2011, he wrote that his 'elephant gun' is loaded and his 'trigger finger is itchy.'
Despite the current paucity of companies that meet Mr. Buffett's criteria of size, industry, earnings and price, he hasn't called off the hunt. 'A big deal still is what causes my heart to beat faster,' said Mr. Buffett in the recent interview. Berkshire teamed up with an investment firm in June to buy ketchup-maker H.J. Heinz Co. for $23.6 billion, putting up roughly half the amount.
After all, multibillion-dollar deals are what helped transform Berkshire from a textile manufacturer in the 1960s to a holding company with $288 billion in market value, with interests spanning from running shoes to a railroad.
Berkshire subsidiaries don't always disclose how much they spend on individual deals, but the bigger transactions tend to be at least $1 billion, Berkshire executives said. In a notable exception, Berkshire unit MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. said in May it would buy Nevada utility NV Energy Inc. for $5.6 billion.
Because of Berkshire's diverse holdings and its financial heft, Mr. Buffett and his managers frequently get approached by companies wanting to sell. The ability to pick and choose deals is a relative luxury in the mergers-and-acquisitions business, which has struggled to regain its health after the financial crisis.
'We're on the radar screen of people in dozens of industries,' he said. 'They know I'm interested in sizable acquisitions that break new ground, but also that our businesses are interested in expanding on their own.'
Wall Street bankers and private-equity executives say they call Berkshire more often than other potential buyers because the company's 81 operating businesses touch nearly every industrial sector.
The smaller transactions are important because they augment Berkshire's revenue and profit. In 2013's first half, for example, revenue at Berkshire subsidiary McLane Co. rose to $22.2 billion, up 30% from a year earlier, while earnings climbed 41%, to $246 million, before taxes. The increases partly reflect McLane's 2012 acquisition of Meadowbrook Meat Co., a food-services company.
The billionaire investor has previously said he hopes to increase Berkshire's earnings through such deals. Berkshire CEOs say Mr. Buffett hasn't instructed them to do deals but is encouraging and supportive of those efforts.
'He just is a terrific sounding board,' said Victor Mancinelli, the chief of farming-equipment maker CTB Inc., one of the busier deal makers in the Berkshire family, having done roughly one deal a year since Berkshire bought it in 2002.
Executives say Mr. Buffett's hands-off approach hasn't changed noticeably since the 2011 departure of David Sokol, a top manager and former chief of MidAmerican, where he was an active deal maker. Mr. Sokol quit after revelations he had bought shares of a company that Berkshire later acquired at his suggestion, although he said his decision to leave had nothing to do with the purchase.
Berkshire subsidiaries also use the conglomerate's enormous cash reserves to invest in improvements to plant and equipment; this year, such expenditures are on track to exceed $10 billion, a record for the company, Mr. Buffett said.
And not every Berkshire business is an acquirer. Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC, the railroad operator Berkshire bought for $26.5 billion in 2010, is unlikely to buy another railroad, Berkshire executives said. But it has earmarked $4.3 billion for capital expenses this year, up from $3.6 billion spent last year, according to the company.
Deals in the insurance sector, a pillar of Berkshire's business, will also be infrequent, mainly because there are only a few targets attractive to Berkshire, and the company can build its own insurance products at lower cost, Mr. Buffett said. Berkshire subsidiaries Columbia Insurance Co. and National Indemnity Co. have snapped up small businesses in the past year.
In recent years, three of Berkshire's five biggest noninsurance businesses have been busy acquirers─industrial-equipment maker Marmon Group LLC, MidAmerican, and specialty-chemicals maker Lubrizol Corp. CTB and engineering-products company MiTek Inc., which struck two deals in the past two weeks, are among the smaller units that make acquisitions regularly.
Tom Manenti, MiTek's CEO, said he strives to apply the same criteria as Mr. Buffett when searching for deals, including good management. 'Warren has proven that to be a successful strategy,' he said.
Some Berkshire CEOs are even looking for game for their boss.
James Hambrick, the CEO of Lubrizol, said that, while his priority is to look for targets for the chemicals maker, 'I never miss an opportunity to look more broadly' for targets suited to Mr. Buffett's big gun.
ANUPREETA DAS
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