評論
打印
Business
商業
Dividends and buy-backs
股息和回購
Chop chop
加油加油
Companies are slashing payouts to their owners
公司大幅削減股東的派息
Shareholders the world over have had a rotten 2020.
2020年對全世界的股東而言都很糟糕。
Some might have hoped the collapsing value of their portfolios would at least be in part offset by dividends—the profits firms pay out to owners.
一些股東可能希望他們的投資損失可以通過股息得到部分彌補——股息是指公司支付給所有者的利潤。
Others were counting on companies to buy back their own shares.
其他股東則指望公司回購自己的股票。
As corporate earnings season kicks off, both groups have little to look forward to.
隨著企業財報季拉開帷幕，持有這兩種心態的股東都不抱什么希望了。
Blame poor performance, present and expected.
這都歸咎于現在和預期的行情不佳。
Dividends and buy-backs are a sign of profits and confidence, both in short supply in a pandemic.
股息和回購是利潤和信心的象征，但在疫情形勢下，這兩者都是供不應求的。
Derivatives markets where investors can bet on the size of dividends imply these will fall by at least a quarter in America.
投資者可以押注股息大小的衍生品市場表明美國的股息至少將減少四分之一。
If the crisis of 2007-09 is anything to go by, buybacks (popular mainly among American firms for tax reasons) will be halved.
如果2007-09年的危機可以作為參考的話，回購(因稅收原因主要在美國公司中比較受歡迎)將會減半。
All told, global payouts to share holders are expected to tumble from $2.2trn in 2019 to $1.4trn this year, according to The Economist’s rough estimate.
根據《經濟學人》的粗略估計，全球支付給股東的股息總額預計將從2019年的2.2萬億美元降至今年的1.4萬億美元。
The cuts could go deeper.
削減的幅度可能還會更大。
If the crisis worsens (or regulators step in), banks in America, which have suspended buy-backs, may do the same with dividends, which they have kept.
如果危機進一步惡化(或者監管機構介入)，已經暫停回購股票的美國銀行可能會對已經保留了的股息采取同樣的措施。
Policymakers in Europe, where dividends are higher as a share of profits, are asking all firms to show restraint.
歐洲的政策制定者要求所有的公司要有所克制，那里的股息在利潤中所占的比例更高。
Withheld payouts remain on firms’ balance-sheets, helping to pare down net debt.
企業的資產負債表上仍然保留著扣繳的款項，這有助于減少凈債務。
Once pruned, dividends take time to grow back—
股息一旦削減，就需要一段時間才能恢復增長——
welcome news for those who think shareholders have been rewarded too richly of late.
對于那些認為股東近來獲得的回報過于豐厚的人來說，這是個好消息。
In America companies now return more money to owners than they spend on capital investments, research and development.
在美國，現在公司返還給所有者的錢比他們用于資本投資、研究和開發的錢還要多。
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