2020年经济学人 公司大幅削减股东的派息（在线收听）

Business

商业

Dividends and buy-backs

股息和回购

Chop chop

加油加油

Companies are slashing payouts to their owners

公司大幅削减股东的派息

Shareholders the world over have had a rotten 2020.

2020年对全世界的股东而言都很糟糕。

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.

一些股东可能希望他们的投资损失可以通过股息得到部分弥补——股息是指公司支付给所有者的利润。

Others were counting on companies to buy back their own shares.

其他股东则指望公司回购自己的股票。

As corporate earnings season kicks off, both groups have little to look forward to.

随着企业财报季拉开帷幕，持有这两种心态的股东都不抱什么希望了。

Blame poor performance, present and expected.

这都归咎于现在和预期的行情不佳。

Dividends and buy-backs are a sign of profits and confidence, both in short supply in a pandemic.

股息和回购是利润和信心的象征，但在疫情形势下，这两者都是供不应求的。

Derivatives markets where investors can bet on the size of dividends imply these will fall by at least a quarter in America.

投资者可以押注股息大小的衍生品市场表明美国的股息至少将减少四分之一。

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年的危机可以作为参考的话，回购(因税收原因主要在美国公司中比较受欢迎)将会减半。

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.

根据《经济学人》的粗略估计，全球支付给股东的股息总额预计将从2019年的2.2万亿美元降至今年的1.4万亿美元。

The cuts could go deeper.

削减的幅度可能还会更大。

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.

如果危机进一步恶化(或者监管机构介入)，已经暂停回购股票的美国银行可能会对已经保留了的股息采取同样的措施。

Policymakers in Europe, where dividends are higher as a share of profits, are asking all firms to show restraint.

欧洲的政策制定者要求所有的公司要有所克制，那里的股息在利润中所占的比例更高。

Withheld payouts remain on firms’ balance-sheets, helping to pare down net debt.

企业的资产负债表上仍然保留着扣缴的款项，这有助于减少净债务。

Once pruned, dividends take time to grow back—

股息一旦削减，就需要一段时间才能恢复增长——

welcome news for those who think shareholders have been rewarded too richly of late.

对于那些认为股东近来获得的回报过于丰厚的人来说，这是个好消息。

In America companies now return more money to owners than they spend on capital investments, research and development.

在美国，现在公司返还给所有者的钱比他们用于资本投资、研究和开发的钱还要多。