LC

Agree with @Txvestor The more I think about it, the more I don't like this FFH <-> FIH setup as a long term investment vehicle, from the perspective as an outside minority shareholder of FIH. (For Fairfax parent, it's a great "Heads I win, tails I don't lose" situation) Everything based on book value...well the market price becomes irrelevant. And lo and behold, the market returns have indeed been irrelevant. There is no incentive to correct for this. Over the short term that is OK - but over the long term, management should be aligning market value with fair value. And if controlling stakeholders don't care about that, why is this listed as a publicly traded vehicle? I don't think it's for the benefit of public investors. I'm probably jaded from Atlas/Poseidon but this does smell a bit like a "Fair and friendly" setup. And full disclosure: I've got a few shares here as a trade, most recently purchased in the 16s. But its invisible compared to my Fairfax investment which is ~35% of my portfolio.

Hear that? It's Charlie Munger turning over in his grave.

It's not a perfect analogy - but essentially I envision periodic, big price discovery (monetization/liquidation) events (eg Anchorage/BIAL). In the interim you get what Crip is referencing - long periods of underpricing/underperformance because there is no price discovery event. Given the fees paid to parent, the illiquidity of the underlying assets, poor ability to raise cash and close the discount, it's no wonder FIH trades at a discount. I think the Prosus analogy is a decent one as well. Also what will happen if FIH wins IDBI? That will be a huge asset relative to the current market cap, and double so if FIH IPO's Anchorage. Essentially turning FIH into an IDBI holding company. The performance fee seems unjustified in that case.

Essentially this is a closed end fund that trades at a discount to NAV. One day it will liquidate and shareholders will get paid out close to NAV. Your IRR will depend on how closely you buy to that liquidation event. Or you trade it like Viking suggests. IMO this isn't meant to be a long term investment for public minority shareholders, it's meant as a means for the Fairfax mothership to manage assets and investments in India. Reminds me a little of Brookfield and its related publicly traded investment vehicles: better to own the mothership. But I agree with crip's dissatisfaction and also with djokovic's call for buybacks. The public market won't close the discount (why would it?), if management really cared about this trading near fair value they would do it themselves (liquidate non-BIAL holdings and buyback). But IMO that is not really the point of the vehicle.

Fair enough! Thanks @gfp Curious what you think of my main point - i.e. transition from a passive investor with decentralized operations to a more operator-first company, where passive investing might take a backseat?

Can we think of a single Berkshire company that is the definitive #1 leader in the field? Has Berkshire fully owned or developed something like a Google, Tesla, etc.? I can't think of one. Point being: I don't think Warren's version of Berkshire liked being operators or being 100% owners. They bought things that Warren was hoping would not require a lot of management or operational talent - think moaty stuff like railroads or Geico when it had a definitive cost advantage (employee owned). I think he just wanted to sit back and buy 10% stakes in stuff that turned $1.00 into $2.00 Moving from that model to something where operations are #1 and passive investing is #2...it is a big shift.

It gets better and better:

Thank you for your service!

Didn't Warren bring in Ted, and Charlie brought in Todd? After Charlie's passing, perhaps Todd lost the mentor which kept him at Berkshire? Also, you know if I was a money manager for a living, and my boss told me to take an operational role, to go fire thousands of people and ruin their livelihoods, and burn my personal reputation to the ground....all while what I signed up for was sitting in an old leather chair reading print copies of 10-Ks and making buy/sell decisions...I would probably not be happy. Warren seems to have a habit of churning thru people over his investment career. It was never really clear how these two interacted with WB & CM. Were they totally separate? WB says so, but presumably their influence impacted large holdings like Apple. So what exactly was their role, how much influence over the portfolio did they have? Ultimately with both T&T I think there are many, many more questions than we will ever have answers.

Seems like it’s open season on US allies. If I’m Japan, I start firing up that nuclear program. Anyone know of good nuclear / defense plays in Japan?

cubs, this is the best compliment I’ve been paid in a while! You can stay!! but I know (and hope) you took no personal offense…it’s important to have both sides of the argument. Not only do I appreciate you and your opinions, but also your investment commentary. I’ve made good $$ on Davita due in large part to your commentary- way more important than our conflicting musings about politics! and also- fair play @John Hjorth for calling out something you disagree with! Always better to nip a problem in the bud…I wish our collective politicians did the same!

No nothing personal meant by it- moreso that it is easy to criticize something (the royal) you has no experience with. So I feel if someone thinks it’s OK to “poke fun” at Americans being illegally kidnapped and deported by our own government, then they should be prepared for a similarly low-blow response.

I think you need to take analyst reports with a grain of salt. I don't know who/which team builds the wells reports here, and I do know @dealraker has spoken "highly" of them in the past (in quotes as I don't want to put words in his mouth) - but on the other side of the spectrum, I have seen analyst reports as essentially trend followers (see Aecon). Stock is going up? Toss a 30% premium price target and regurgitate the bull case. Stock dropping? Probably will fall another 25% and again let's regurgitate the bear case. IMO it's highly dependent on the individual analyst but even then I would advise caution and spending the hours to do your own homework.

Well if it's no big deal, why don't you throw your info in and we can all see how your post count drops off for a few weeks https://www.ice.gov/webform/ice-tip-form Might need an exception from Cloudflare for posting from Bolivia!

You may be right (low probability but possible) but regardless - who the hell are we to tell them they cannot fight for their own freedom? Not only that, but we go a step further and are actively obstructing their efforts. And we are supposed to be Ukraine's ally? It's disgraceful - and sends a terrible message to our other "allies".

Since some folks could use some education: The American revolutionary war lasted eight years Approximately 1% of the "American" population died Currently the Ukranian war has gone on three years And the lowest estimates put the Ukranian death toll at 0.14% of the population. Highest estimates put it at 0.26% of the pre-war population. But apparently the Ukranian people shouldn't be allowed to fight for their own independence, I guess because big daddy Putin and his little puppet Trump say so.

The lack of historical context on display here is astounding. As we are approaching American Thanksgiving, I am grateful the (then pre-) "American" colonists in 1775 had more sense than some people today. And extra grateful of the French who supported them rather than appease the English crown in the name of "saving lives"!

100% - Another embarrassment on the world stage.

Yes and the metric to track is enterprise adoption. My understanding is the Google/ Gemini ecosystem is the most enterprise-ready of the AI LLMs. Actually, Microsoft/OpenAI screwed the pooch by letting Google get a foothold where they had first mover advantage. They just didn't deliver a seamless, enterprise-ready package.

You guys are hilarious

"How" can anyone (read) past three LINES of Trump's posts! is beyond me. Whoever manages his social media accounts must be mainlining those dutch bro's drinks.

I think the value prop is more about expense reduction vs. topline growth, but I think it's a fools errand to guess how this technology will be ultimately used. In other words, we could all be wrong, or we could all be right, or a mix of both. Also: https://gizmodo.com/yann-lecun-world-models-2000685265

Well of course the flip side is the Democrats publicly taking up the interests of the working poor, while Pelosi becomes the best prop trader in America and Obama reigns down hellfire in the middle east.

Remember, when in doubt always follow the Trump supporter manifesto: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRDAOBxCdSz/

This was pretty funny, thanks for the laugh! :D