沃尔特·施洛斯谈债务

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（来源：Charlie伴你投资）

前言：在施洛斯的演讲或访谈资料中，有一个关键词出现的次数非常多，它就是“debt”，这个词对于理解施洛斯的投资哲学非常重要。他追求的是不亏损，要求股票有下行保护或安全边际，而低债务是提供保护的方式之一。

以下内容节选自施洛斯相关英文资料，为了便于理解，均标注了年份。

1989: OID（杰出投资者文摘）

If you buy a debt-free stock with a $15 book selling at $10, it can go down to $8. It's not great, but it's not terrible either. On the other hand, if things turn around, that stock can sell at $25 if it develops its earnings.

But most companies now have debt - partly so they won't be taken over. It isn't quite as easy as it would have been just buying a working capital stock with no debt. And when you buy a company that has some debt, things can get worse, they can borrow more money when business gets bad.

Steel companies would be a good example of what happens. When a terrible industry turns down, a huge amount of debt can lead to bankruptcies like LTV and others. The leverage can destroy the companies in a downturn - whereas if they had very little leverage, they would be more likely to survive it.

1996: Why We Invest the Way We Do

We want to buy cheap stocks based on a small premium over book value, usually a depressed market price, a record that goes back at least 20 years, even though, the company may be somewhat different then than now, and one that doesn’t have much debt. We don’t likea lot of debt and we don’t think most value investors care for it either. Price is the key factor in the purchase of a stock compared to what we think the company is worth.

2008: The Superinvestor-outlook profit

First of all, I like to look at the balance sheet and I don’t like debt because it can really get a company into trouble. I prefer to buy basic businesses with strong balance sheets. I try to protect myself from permanent loss of capital by investing in stocks that are depressed. My son, Edwin, and I look at computer screens to see which companies look reasonably priced, and then we send for the annual report.

I am largely interested in companies that are into manufacturing products, be it shoes or automobiles, rather than a television (broadcast) company or a radio company. As long as the company manufactures a product that is okay, I am game. In manufacturing companies too there are challenges. For example, auto-mobile companies in America today run high costs because wages are higher here than say China. So you need to assess such things but largely we prefer products to services.

I like to buy companies with very little debt so it has a margin of safety. If you’ve noticed, a great many companies today are in trouble because they’ve taken on too much debt.

2008 ：Video Interview Transcript

Q: What processes did you follow to minimize mistakes? I know mistakes are unavoidable. What steps do you follow to minimize any mistakes?

WS: I don't like to lose money. And therefore, I try to buy stocks which I think is somewhat protected on the downside, and then the upside is going to take care of itself. So the main thing I think is to look for companies which don't have a lot of debts. I like to get their annual reports, you can see a little bit about, from the proxy statements, and the annual report, how much stocks the directors own, who owns a fair amount of stock and also the history of the company and I felt the idea of buying a company with a large amount of debt even though it could work out well because of the leverage, I don't like it.

So I look for companies that are selling at new lows, and when you buy a stock at a new low, it usually has problems, so I don't like debts. Debt gets people a lot of trouble, as you know, as you read about MBIA, and these other companies that lend money and then find out they are really in trouble.

So I like buying companies which have a rather simple capital, they don't have a lot of debts, management owns a fair amount of stock, they have a history about them too, you look at a company and see how long it has been in business, and what kind of businesses are they in. I was never very good at judging people's character as such if you go to talk to a management, they may be charming people, they may be very nice, but you don't know anything about them, so I found it really is better for me to look at the numbers than to try to look at the people themselves.

Particularly if they don't have a lot of debts. If they don't have a lot of debts, usually that's fairly safe that once in a while a company after you own it, decides to buy another company and issues a lot of debt. But if you look at the background of a company, if you see their history, and that's where Value Line is somewhat helpful, because they usually have 10 or 15 years back, so you can see where the company was, where it is today. I don't know if I have answered your questions, but the idea is I don't like to lose money. 

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But I don't really like losing money and that's one of the reasons that I tend to not like debts.

I tend to like stocks that are selling below book value. I also like stocks with very little debt.

Debt can get a lot of people into trouble, all you have to see is these ATM machines, where people run into huge amounts of debts, they can't pay it, they go bankrupt. I have been very concerned about borrowing money. And I think that's one of the things that people forget that debt creates a lot of problems and therefore you try to avoid debts as much as you can.

I like to buy stocks selling below book value. It gives me a certain amount of protection, I also like stocks that don't have much debt, that gives me a certain amount of protection...

I try to buy companies which have simple capitalization, they have stocks and they have debts, and you want very little debts and then you look back over the last 20 years you see what the company has done, and then get their annual report, one of the things I really don't want to do is to get into a company that's got, the management, I would not say crooked, but it's just not ethnical, you try to stay away from people that are out may be to take advantage of you.

声明：非投资建议