从各季度#博枫基建股东信# 中摘抄一些时效性不高的文字。使用有道机器翻译。$Brookfield基础设施(BIP)$
【Current Momentum 当前的势头】
The performance of the equity markets has been strong over the past six to 12 months. The S&P 500 is up 7% on a year-to-date basis and 26% from its lows in 2016. Our units have performed exceptionally well posting a total return of 19% thus far in 2017 and 48% compared to this time last year. Investors often ask whether we can continue to sustain our growth. In order to assess this question, we believe investors should primarily focus on the trends in the private market for infrastructure and our ability to execute as indicators for our long-term unit price potential.
过去6至12个月，股票市场表现强劲。标准普尔500指数今年迄今上涨7%，较2016年的低点上涨26%。我们的部门表现非常好，2017年迄今为止的总回报率为19%，与去年同期相比为48%。投资者经常问我们能否继续保持增长。为了评估这个问题，我们认为投资者应该主要关注基础设施私人市场的趋势和我们的执行能力，作为我们长期股价潜力的指标。
Positive Market Dynamics for Infrastructure Investment
【基础设施投资的积极市场动力】
The private market for infrastructure continues to grow and there is substantial liquidity and demand for both infrastructure equity and debt investments. This asset class is attracting significant capital because interest rates remain low and institutional investors need to invest in high-quality, long-term assets that generate attractive yields. We expect more capital to be allocated to the sector as many investors in Asia have only just begun to enter the infrastructure space. Even in Western Europe and North America where investors have reasonable allocations to infrastructure, the percentage weighting is increasing. The influx of capital will support valuations for the foreseeable future.
基础设施私人市场持续增长，对基础设施股权和债务投资都有巨大的流动性和需求。这一资产类别正在吸引大量资金，因为利率仍处于低位，而机构投资者需要投资于能产生诱人收益率的高质量长期资产。由于亚洲的许多投资者刚刚开始进入基础设施领域，我们预计将有更多资金配置到该行业。即使在投资者合理配置基础设施的西欧和北美，投资比重也在增加。资本的流入将在可预见的未来支撑估值。
This dynamic viewed in isolation may raise concerns about our long-term ability to continue to deploy capital on a value basis. However, coupled with this, we are now witnessing a substantial effort by virtually all governments around the world to create projects to attract this capital. In fact, the biggest story for the infrastructure sector in the next few years may be the quantum of new projects that governments finally bring to the private market. Going around the world, some examples include:
孤立地看待这种动态可能会引起人们对我们继续以价值为基础配置资本的长期能力的担忧。然而，与此同时，我们现在看到世界各地几乎所有政府都在作出巨大努力，创建项目以吸引这些资本。事实上，未来几年基础设施领域最大的新闻可能是政府最终将大量新项目引入私人市场。环顾世界，有以下几个例子:
North America – In the U.S., the new administration has since inauguration been promoting a national infrastructure program to facilitate $1 trillion of investment into the country's roads, airports and railways. In Canada, the government has a number of initiatives underway to facilitate private investment in major infrastructure projects and is setting up an Infrastructure Bank/Fund to facilitate bringing projects to market. In both countries, high-profile business leaders have been tapped to assist in the government's thinking on how to achieve its goals in the near term.
北美——在美国，新一届政府自就职以来一直在推动一项国家基础设施计划，以促进1万亿美元的投资投向该国的公路、机场和铁路。在加拿大，政府有一些倡议正在进行中，以促进私人对主要基础设施项目的投资，并正在设立一个基础设施银行/基金，以促进将项目推向市场。在这两个国家，都聘请了知名的商界领袖协助政府思考如何在近期实现其目标。
Latin America – In Brazil, the government is preparing legislation to facilitate smaller infrastructure projects in order to assist cash-strapped states and cities that have been slashing infrastructure budgets. In addition, the federal government recently released the second phase of the Investment Partnership Program designed to expand opportunities for the private sector to invest in infrastructure. This second phase encompasses 55 projects across sectors, totaling R$45 billion.
拉丁美洲-在巴西，政府正在准备立法，以促进规模较小的基础设施项目，以帮助资金紧张、一直在削减基础设施预算的州和城市。此外，联邦政府最近公布了投资伙伴关系计划的第二阶段，旨在扩大私营部门投资基础设施的机会。第二阶段包括55个跨部门项目，总投资450亿雷亚尔。
Europe – The UK government, through its Infrastructure and Projects Authority, released a plan setting out over £500 billion of projects to be financed by the public and private sector.
欧洲——英国政府通过其基础设施和项目管理局发布了一项计划，计划由公共和私营部门资助5000多亿英镑的项目。
Asia Pacific – Australia has been providing major opportunities to the private sector, having brought $50 billion of projects to market in recent years, with this trend continuing, noting the limits of the ability of taxpayers to continue to fund projects. In India, infrastructure development is key to drive economic growth. The government has been actively looking for ways to source private capital and as an example, has launched plans to privatize over 70 road assets.
亚太-澳大利亚一直在为私营部门提供重大机会，近年来已将500亿美元的项目推向市场，这一趋势仍在继续，同时注意到纳税人继续为项目提供资金的能力有限。在印度，基础设施发展是推动经济增长的关键。政府一直在积极寻找私人资本来源的途径，并作为一个例子，启动了将70多个公路资产私有化的计划。
We believe that the private market for infrastructure investments still has significant room to grow. The formation of the asset class is still very much in its early stages and therefore more liquidity will enter the sector as investors increase their allocations. The sector should continue to evolve for the better as the supply of new projects is brought on by governments. This new supply is expected to not only reduce the imbalance between capital and investments but also provide investors like ourselves a wider scope of opportunities.
我们认为，基础设施投资的私营市场仍有很大的增长空间。这一资产类别的形成在很大程度上仍处于早期阶段，因此随着投资者增加配置，将有更多流动性进入该行业。随着政府带来的新项目的供应，该行业应继续向更好的方向发展。预计这种新的供应不仅会减少资本和投资之间的不平衡，而且还会为像我们这样的投资者提供更广泛的机会。
Execution Capabilities are Most Important
【执行能力最重要】
The biggest challenge is that capital moves more quickly than government. As such, another question that is often top of mind for our investors is – what are we doing at Brookfield Infrastructure to succeed in this environment? We define "success" as the ability to deliver 10%+ year-over-year per unit FFO growth, without exposing the business to unnecessary operating or financial risk, such as excessive leverage. There are five key elements to executing our strategy in this environment:
最大的挑战是资本比政府移动得更快。因此，我们的投资者经常想到的另一个问题是:BIP要在这种环境下取得成功，我们在做什么? 我们将“成功”定义为每股经营现金流年均增长10%以上的能力，而不使业务面临不必要的运营或财务风险，如过度杠杆。
在这种环境下执行我们的战略有五个关键要素:
Be Patient – We believe that investing capital below our 12-15% return threshold is value destructive in the long run, and that as long as we keep our powder dry, we will ultimately find good investments even in this type of environment. There have been a number of recent transactions evaluated, particularly in OECD countries, where assets were sold at returns well below our target return thresholds. While these were formidable assets that we covet, remaining disciplined with our investment criteria is important to preserve our value proposition.
要有耐心——我们相信，从长远来看，投资回报率低于12-15%门槛的资本是对价值的破坏。只要我们保持资金充足，即使在这种环境下，我们最终也会找到好的投资。
我们最近对一些交易进行了评估，特别是在经合组织国家，这些国家出售资产的回报远低于我们的目标回报阈值。虽然这些都是我们觊觎的强大资产，但严格遵守我们的投资标准对保持我们的价值主张很重要。
Innovate – We recognize that most sellers will hire advisors to package their assets in a manner such that buyers in a sales process can only differentiate themselves by their return expectations. Our investment teams however, focus on situations where we can differentiate ourselves. These strategies often include creative structuring and balance sheet recapitalizations, the application of unique synergies, and the ability to leverage our scalable operating groups to execute on multi-faceted business plans. In many cases, we approach asset owners with ideas that we think can be helpful to them in achieving their goals through a partnership structure.
创新——我们认识到，大多数卖家会聘请顾问来包装他们的资产，使买家在销售过程中只能通过他们的回报预期来区分自己。然而，我们的投资团队专注于我们可以与众不同的情况。这些战略通常包括创造性的结构和资产负债表资本重组，独特的协同作用的应用，以及利用我们可扩展的运营团队执行多方面商业计划的能力。在许多情况下，我们向资产所有者提出我们认为可以帮助他们通过合伙结构实现其目标的想法。
Do the small things well – Investors should expect that we will focus on smaller organic growth and tuck-in acquisitions where we have synergies and other competitive factors to achieve our return targets.
做好小事——投资者应该预料到，我们将专注于规模较小的有机增长和有协同效应和其他竞争因素的收购，以实现我们的回报目标。
Be decisive – It is challenging in a highly liquid market to source opportunities where we can invest on a value basis in high quality assets. While rare, when these unique transactions come our way as was the case recently with our transmission investments in South America, we will act decisively and invest in scale.
要果断——在一个高流动性的市场中，寻找机会，在高质量资产的基础上进行有价值的投资是一项挑战。虽然罕见，但当这些独特的交易出现在我们面前时，就像我们最近在南美洲的输电网投资一样，我们将果断采取行动，进行规模投资。
Execute dispositions well – The other value-add component to our strategy during this period of time is the recycling of capital. Our capital sourcing plan involves three elements; (i) issuing equity, (ii) issuing a modest amount of corporate debt and preferred shares, and (iii) asset sales. We have recently issued both debt and equity at the corporate level, and have also initiated the first of possibly several sales processes. Over the next two years, we will look to sell mature assets to buyers with a low cost of capital. We believe we can sell certain mature assets at 5-9% IRR's to fund new investments at returns of 12%-15% or higher.
妥善执行变现计划——在这段时间内，我们战略的另一个增值部分是资本的循环利用。我们的资金来源计划包括三个要素;(i)发行股票，(ii)发行适量的公司债务和优先股，以及(iii)出售资产。
我们最近在公司层面发行了债券和股票，并启动了可能的几个资产出售流程中的第一个。未来两年，我们将寻求将成熟资产出售给资金成本较低的买家。我们相信，我们可以以5-9%的未来内部收益率出售某些成熟资产，为回报率12%-15%或更高的新投资提供资金。
We believe that Brookfield Infrastructure will continue to generate strong returns if we execute on our full investment cycle strategy, and the general health of the private market for infrastructure remains strong.
我们相信，如果我们执行我们的全投资周期战略，BIP将继续产生强劲的回报，私营基础设施市场的总体健康状况依然强劲。