I appreciate this forum, both the bears and the bulls. How I think about Fairfax:
• Fairfax seems like a fun place to work, people are happy (long tenure), partners are happy (long term partnerships) and my guess customer are happy too. Usually, such places are where amazing things happen!
• I don’t have the scar tissue like some of the other holders from Fairfax, but I do have scars from other holdings. The lessons are similar.
• The management has been clear, they prefer lumpy higher earnings than flat lower earnings and they measure this over the long run. So I think shareholders/potential shareholders must stomach short term fluctuations to get better long term returns.
• The issues of the lost decade has management addressed it? Did they learn from it?
Yes, Prem has mentioned this.
2018 Annual Report:
“After much thought and discussion, it became clear to me that shorting is dangerous, very short term in nature and anathema to long term value investing. As I mentioned to you in last year’s annual report, shorting has cost us, cumulatively, net of our gains on common stock, approximately $2 billion! This will not be repeated! In the future, we may use options with a potential finite loss to hedge our equity exposure, but we will never again indulge anew in shorting with uncapped exposure. Your Chairman continues to learn – slowly!!”
• I see them leaning towards investing along side proven/capable operators/investors like Adam Waterous, Pierre Lassonde, David Sokol, Dan Myerson. Likely one of the reasons why their investing performance has improved recently.
Also they seem to change management/operators if things aren’t working out Ex: Dexterra Group.
• Prem has mentioned they will make use of opportunities to buyback stock if at attractive price. They said that sometime around 2018, we know most of the cash went into growing premiums during the hard market. They seem to be walking the talk!
My hurdle rate is ~10-15%, and I believe at these prices Fairfax will meet that.