巴菲特的企业成为美国第二大房地产中介

据《华尔街日报》（Wall Street Journal）报道，沃伦·巴菲特持有的一家住宅房地产代理公司的规模已经达到了全美第二。

报纸称，Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices已经拥有1,330家办事处和4.5万名代理人。

在今年2月给股东的一封信中，巴菲特解释了自己的企业集团伯克希尔·哈撒韦（Berkshire Hathaway）涉足房地产业务的缘由，他们在2000年收购了能源公司MidAmerican，而HomeServices正是其持有的公司之一。随后，他开始慢慢打造这家公司。

2017年，HomeServices收购了荣富地产（Long and Foster）、Houlihan Lawrence和Gloria Nilson。而在之前的2012年，伯克希尔·哈撒韦还收购了保诚集团（Prudential）。

伯克希尔·哈撒韦旗下包括GEIGO保险、冰雪皇后（Dairy Queen）和金霸王电池（Duracell）等60家公司，他们在2017年的整体销售额同比增长了23%。一份年度报告显示，其房地产代理业务在2017年的利润为2.2亿美元，相比2016年的2.25亿美元利润有所下滑。

巴菲特在给股东的信中写道：“尽管HomeServices最近收购了一些公司，但他们2018年在美国的房地产代理市场只会占到3%的份额。还有97%的空间。在这个最基础的业务中，我们会继续以合理的价格收购代理商。”

上周末，伯克希尔·哈撒韦在奥马哈召开了一年一度的股东大会。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正 

A Warren Buffett-owned residential real-estate brokerage firm is now the second largest in the United States, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices name has been franchised to 1,330 offices and more than 45,000 agents, the newspaper reports.

In a letter to shareholders in February, Buffett explained how his conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, got into the real estate business by default in 2000 when Berkshire bought the energy company MidAmerican, which owned HomeServices. He then slowly built up the company.

In 2017, HomeServices acquired Long and Foster, Houlihan Lawrence, and Gloria Nilson. The acquisitions were preceded by Berkshire Hathaway buying Prudential in 2012.

Overall, sales at Berkshire Hathaway—which includes 60 businesses like GEIGO, Dairy Queen and Duracell—grew 23% in 2017 from the prior year. Berkshire Hathaway’s real-estate brokerage division reported $220 million in profits in 2017, according to an annual report, down from $225 million in 2016.

“Despite its recent acquisitions, HomeServices is on track to do only about 3% of the country’s homebrokerage business in 2018,” Buffett said in the letter to shareholders. “That leaves 97% to go. Given sensible prices, we will keep adding brokers in this most fundamental of businesses.”

Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting will be this weekend in Omaha.