valueinvesting101

Does this transaction require majority approval among minority shareholders? That seems to be the case here: proposed transaction will be subject to a non-waivable condition requiring approval by holders of a majority of Atlas common shares not owned or controlled by the Consortium, senior management or their respective affiliates. If yes, then how is Fairfax management screwing the minority?

It seemed like $60 was a threshold for purchasing Oxy shares. Today price was well below $60 and yet very few purchases, may be BRK doesn't want to go above 180 million shares.

John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH) will be raising the equivalent of US$75 million of foreign direct investment by way of a private placement of Sri Lankan Rupee-denominated unlisted convertible debentures to certain controlled affiliates of Canada-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. https://www.timesonline.lk/business/John-Keells-to-raise-75-mln-thro-debentures-to-Canadian-firm/10-1137854

Three of my friends shared similar sized windowless room in the college dorm in one of the topmost institute in Mumbai. Two of them are in the US working with Facebook and EY earning $300K-500K after studying further in the US. Even I have stayed in that small room on an occasion and none of them complained. UCSB facility might not be perfect but it is certainly AMAZING compared that dorm. It is interesting how much can be achieved when we focus attention on important things.

https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/quess-corp-promoters-sells-3-39-stake-worth-rs-450-crore-11628526510033.html Fairfax investment in Thomas Cook and Quess corp is held via Fairbridge Capital. This is not part of Fairfax India but directly owned by Fairfax. May be some this capital will be routed to digit or some other investment in India instead of coming back to Fairfax. Bangalore Airport stake held by AAI is also being sold by GoI. May be it will be purchased by Fairfax instead of Fairfax India.

Buffett had mentioned that he cannot justify cash holding of more than $150bn. That seems to be his ceiling for cash on the balance sheet. As long as the share price is attractive, additional cash flows are going mostly to buyback now due to lack of investment or acquisitions after funding the growth capex. If BRK price goes up higher than his threshold for buyback then maybe Berkshire will payout a dividend even during Buffett's lifetime. Most likely it will be a special/non-regular dividend rather than a fixed number.

Chemplast Sanmar Limited IPO opens on August 10. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/08/05/2275506/0/en/Fairfax-India-Announces-Filing-of-Prospectus-by-Chemplast-Sanmar-Limited.html Fairfax India -> Sanmar Chemicals Group (42.9% equity interest) -> Chemplast Sanmar Limited IPO ( 23.6% indirect equity interest after IPO for Fairfax India) Looks like they will also own stake in the Egyptian operation via Sanmar but CSL being IPOed will not have that. Seems bit complicated and can lead to conflict of interest between listed entity CSL and privately owned Egyptian operation.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway could bag a 60% profit when Paytm goes public https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway-paytm-ipo-profit-digital-payments-india-2021-7

https://www.livemint.com/market/ipo/zomato-tatva-chintan-chemplast-sanmar-get-sebi-nod-to-raise-funds-via-ipo-11625490797220.html Chemplast Sanmar has filed DRHP with SEBI on 2 May. Chemplast Sanmar's IPO, which is backed by Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa, consist of a fresh issue of ₹1500 crore and an offer for sale of ₹2000 crore by its current promoters and shareholders. An offer for sale comprises sale of ₹1850 crore by Sanmar Holdings Ltd, ₹150 crore by Sanmar Engineering Services Ltd

I am wondering about motivation behind doing this interview. I hope Charlie is doing good and wish him great many years ahead!!

Succession was constantly recurring question raised in media about Berkshire for probably last 20-25 years. There were hints in Charlie's 50 year letter and also in elevation of Ajit Jain and Greg Abel to the board and appointee as VC. When formal announcement has been finally been made, there is hardly any impact on the stock price. Stock price had bigger impact from announcement of increased buyback executed during 2nd half of 2020.

As per annual report purchase price for Privi was $55 million in Aug 2016. There was merger and demerger, so this price might be reflecting cost after considering those transactions. Still 3x return in less than 5 years. Incoming cash might be going to Bangalore Airport as Indian Govt. is looking to reduce the stake and Fairfax has right of first refusal. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/government-to-sell-remaining-stake-in-delhi-mumbai-bangalore-hyderabad-airports/articleshow/81492214.cms

Deal seems to be at price ~640/share (INR) whereas current price is 920/share. Privi's price has increased a lot since mid March 2021 from around 640 range. Annual report had disclosed But above details were not mentioned in the annual letter to shareholders.

Fairfax India Announces Sale of its Equity Interest in Privi Speciality Chemicals Limited https://www.fairfaxindia.ca/news/press-releases/press-release-details/2021/Fairfax-India-Announces-Sale-of-its-Equity-Interest-in-Privi-Speciality-Chemicals-Limited/default.aspx Seem to be selling at 31% discount to the current market price. 17% above carrying value on 31 December 2020.

Looks like Sanmar Chemical is also planning IPO. https://www.livemint.com/market/ipo/chemplast-sanmar-gets-ready-for-ipo-launch-11617644343783.html https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/chemicals-major-sanmar-plans-to-raise-equity-to-repay-restructure-debt-121030800307_1.html Not clear about valuation but with Sanmar and BIAL IPO, Fairfax India's largest private holding should get public valuation and hence added transparency for Fairfax India valuation.

https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/aai-to-offload-residual-stake-in-bangalore-and-hyderabad-airports-121031500024_1.html AAI to offload residual stake in Bangalore Airport. Fairfax is likely to be a buyer. It will interesting to see the valuation and if third party buyer. OMERS could buy it directly from AAI too.

How do young kids get income to contribute to IRA? Is gift from parents considered income? Can they get income for doing household work? I guess some kids must be generating income from entertainment industry.

Another buyback of 180K shares for $126 million in 2020. Valuations at $53.35 billion. From latest AR for 2020.

Fairfax India book value growth since 1 Jan 2015 has been 8.7% in USD while Indian rupee depreciating by around 2.45% compared to USD. I can see that stock is currently trading below book value so actual shareholders returns can be higher. Majority of the value of Fairfax India is derived from Bangalore Airport stake. Large percentage of the returns from the airport are capped at 16% in INR. What will be the capped return on this investment in USD? Will those return be enough to outperform indexes?

Found this interesting tidbit from the annual report page K-29: Berkshire had approximately 1,600 record holders of its Class A common stock and 18,900 record holders of its Class B common stock at February 16, 2021. Record owners included nominees holding at least 351,000 shares of Class A common stock and 1,332,000,000 shares of Class B common stock on behalf of beneficial-but-not-of-record owners. So total number of shareholders is around 21K, much lower than typical meeting attendance :o. I guess that covers about 82% of the outstanding shares. That is 0.006% of the US population. Number of Shareholders AR2019 => 1750 (Class A) & 19,200 (Class B) Number of Shareholders AR2018 => 2000 (Class A) & 19,500 (Class B) Number of Shareholders AR2017 => 2100 (Class A) & 19,800 (Class B) Total shareholders are shrinking with Class A shrinking much faster. I guess there are shareholders selling boring Berkshire for exciting other investments in the market. I guess WEB has idea of the upcoming selling and hence patient/slower with buybacks. I feel odds of Berkshire share price compounding at 9-12% are very high in next 10-20 years.

Buybacks are better than partial spinoffs especially when company holds excess cash. Lot of listed companies languish in performance so hardly an argument for motivation. Humans do respond to information (market quote) as evident from rising media coverage and price of GME, Bitcoin...Do human generate returns (alpha) from this information?

BHE doesn't pay dividend to the holding company. I think Berkshire invests regularly in it. BNSF has guaranteed ROE from regulator and hence Berkshire would likely to invest more capital in it rather than take out. Rather both of these businesses were outlined as places to invest incremental cash generated by other businesses. Berkshire has always operated by buying undervalued companies generating free cash flow (sometimes growing) and then investing those cash flows into other businesses. Over last 20 years they have pivoted to buy whole companies rather than common stock investments. How would break up be better than current decentralized structure which enables capital allocation across different businesses? Berkshire is bet on capital allocated better internally within company over capital allocation in security market. Current structure allows tax efficient allocation over active management.

HDFC Bank Limited (HDB)

Anchorage Infrastructure Investments Holdings seems very likely. Valuation around $1.2-1.4 billion.

I think valuation for CSBBank (P/B=2.03) is stretched compared to other private sector banks in India such as Axis Bank(P/B=1.67). It might be due to low float of CSBBank leading to mispricing. I thought break up of IIFL was pre-cursor to merger of IIFL Finance with CSBBank but it seems valuations are NOT conducive for deal. Pure NBFC will be challenged going forward compared to merged CSBBank + IIFL finance. May be deal will happen in 2021 when COVID impact is clear.