巴菲特致股东的信原文精读Day311：

原文：From a risk standpoint, it is far safer to have earnings from ten diverse and uncorrelated utility operations that cover interest charges by, say, a 2:1 ratio than it is to have far greater coverage provided by a single utility. A catastrophic event can render a single utility insolvent — witness what Katrina did to the local electric utility in New Orleans — no matter how conservative its debt policy. A geographical disaster — say, an earthquake in a Western state — can’t have the same effect on MidAmerican. And even a worrier like Charlie can’t think of an event that would systemically decrease utility earnings in any major way. Because of MidAmerican’s ever-widening diversity of regulated earnings, it will always utilize major amounts of debt.（2005）

释义：1.“standpoint”意为“立场”；

2.“render”意为“提供”；“insolvent”意为“破产”；

3.“utilize”意为“利用”。

精译：从风险的角度来看，来自十项各不相关的公用事业，假设其利息保障倍数为2:1，那么就会比利息保障倍数更高的单一公用事业要安全得多。巨灾可能导致单一公用事业破产，无论其债务政策有多么保守。卡特里娜飓风对新奥尔良当地电力公用事业的冲击就是明证。但一场天灾，比如美国西部某州的地震，不会对中美能源产生同样的冲击。即使像芒格这样的杞人忧天者，也无法想象任何重大事件会系统性地降低中美能源的收益。由于中美能源受监管的收益来源日益多样化，它将始终维持大量债务。（2005年）

心得：利息保障倍数是企业生产经营所获得的息税前利润与利息费用之比，它是衡量企业长期偿债能力的指标。利息保障倍数越大，说明企业支付利息费用的能力越强。然而，最好的风险分散并不是单一事业利息保障倍数的最大化，而是多项事业的组合经营。

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