據《華爾街日報》（Wall Street Journal）報道，沃倫·巴菲特持有的一家住宅房地產代理公司的規模已經達到了全美第二。

報紙稱，Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices已經擁有1,330家辦事處和4.5萬名代理人。

在今年2月給股東的一封信中，巴菲特解釋了自己的企業集團伯克希爾·哈撒韋（Berkshire Hathaway）涉足房地產業務的緣由，他們在2000年收購了能源公司MidAmerican，而HomeServices正是其持有的公司之一。隨后，他開始慢慢打造這家公司。

2017年，HomeServices收購了榮富地產（Long and Foster）、Houlihan Lawrence和Gloria Nilson。而在之前的2012年，伯克希爾·哈撒韋還收購了保誠集團（Prudential）。

伯克希爾·哈撒韋旗下包括GEIGO保險、冰雪皇后（Dairy Queen）和金霸王電池（Duracell）等60家公司，他們在2017年的整體銷售額同比增長了23%。一份年度報告顯示，其房地產代理業務在2017年的利潤為2.2億美元，相比2016年的2.25億美元利潤有所下滑。

巴菲特在給股東的信中寫道：“盡管HomeServices最近收購了一些公司，但他們2018年在美國的房地產代理市場只會占到3%的份額。還有97%的空間。在這個最基礎的業務中，我們會繼續以合理的價格收購代理商。”

上周末，伯克希爾·哈撒韋在奧馬哈召開了一年一度的股東大會。（財富中文網）

譯者：嚴匡正?

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.