Parsad

About $430M. What did he say about RIMM? Pretty much what Prem stated...that the dollar amount relative to the assets under management is not something that should perturb shareholders. Cheers!

The Winklevosses have invested $1M into their friend's company, SumZero. Cheers! http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/winklevoss-twins-invest-social-network-company-report-025826502--sector.html

No he doesn't really comment on his current holdings. There was a long, hypothetical question about BAC, but it did not gain any traction. He did talk about his mistake in buying Fannie & Freddie Preferreds, and that he felt the equity positions in the funds were worth over $1B based on his estimates of intrinsic value, and that they were of the highest quality the fund has held. Cheers!

It was another great time at the Pabrai Funds AGM. I met alot of wonderful people, and it was great to see many faces from the board here as well. One particular individual...thank you very much for the wonderful comments you made to me at dinner about the message board and a small token favor I did for you in Toronto...it made my day! Mohnish switched up the AGM location this year and it was held at SOKA University of America's Performing Arts Center. A stunning campus on a hill in Alisa Viejo with only 300 students...lucky students! You can see from the pictures exactly how beautiful this place is. The Performing Arts Center was a wonderful venue with a screen of nearly IMAX proportions...again see the picture! Mohnish did about a 35-40 minute presentation and then answered questions for over an hour. Plenty of things were discussed including RIM, macroeconomics, porfolio allocation, intrinsic value of the Pabrai Funds, global investing, philanthropy, using a sounding board (colleague), and of course his mistakes. I can't really do the presentation and Q&A justice, as Mohnish has become very good at translating ideas through analogies and humor. You just had to be there! ;D One question that was not asked, and I'm very surprised that it wasn't, was the comment Mohnish made in his last letter about there being one CEO that was superior to the others in the portfolio. No one asked! By the way, he wouldn't tell me when I had dinner with him the night before the AGM, so it probably would have been in vain anyway. The turnout was a little less this year. Not sure if it was because nothing that significant happened in the last year, or possibly the venue was a bit different...a few people mentioned that they preferred the Huntington Beach AGM because they could spend the weekend there with their families, especially children, and there was much more to do after the AGM, again, being able to hang out with attendees somewhere. Both are stunning venues and neither takes away from the actual presentation and event. Finally, Mohnish and Guy Spiers had done a great presentation for UC Davis, and the hosts presented him with a thank you gift...a caricature of them both. I've attached a photograph of it. Cheers!

Our own NormR is going to be sharing some stories on value investors over the next little while for the Globe & Mail. Here is the introductory article. Cheers! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/strategy-lab/value-investing/stinginess-works-why-im-a-value-investor/article4548173/

Alnesh and I, along with a couple of other people, will be at the Pabrai Funds AGM venue around 3pm. If anyone wants to meet up a little early, we'll see you there. I'm not particularly familiar with this new place (Soka University Performing Arts Center, 1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo, California) so please look for us somewhere near the main entrance or lobby. I will be wearing a "Pabrai Funds" or "Corner Market Capital" polo shirt under my jacket...depends which looks better with the jacket! ;D And I have a goatee, bald head and glasses. Cheers!

The Dakshana 2011 Annual Report is out, and Mohnish does a terrific job discusssing the successes and failures at the foundation. You can read it here: http://www.dakshana.org/AR11.pdf Mohnish also had a bronze bust of Charlie Munger commissioned by the premier bust maker in India. It will be placed at a new building at one of Dakshana's Indian campuses, and the building will be named "Charles T. Munger Hall". Another bust is going to be auctioned off on eBay in October, with the proceeds going to Dakshana. I will put details of the auction on here at a later date. You can see a picture of the bust here, which is very nice: http://www.dakshana.org/bigimage.asp?ID=404&yearid=2012 Cheers!

I don't own Tesla, but I just saw the Tesla four door sedan at their store in the Fashion Island Mall in Newport. It's a beautiful car. They're marketing it like Apple, but the reliability seems to have been on par with AMC so far. Hopefully, he gets the execution right over time. Cheers!

Update by Chanticleer on the audit and Nasdaq information request. Cheers! http://ir.stockpr.com/chanticleerholdings/company-news/detail/343

I'm happy if we get him here in Vancouver, but I'm disappointed that the Canucks are playing hardball with Burrows. The kid has done nothing but overachieve and he's been getting paid as a top-notch journeyman. He's been loyal, hardworking and does anything the coaches ask him to...they should just pay him and resign. Cheers!

+1! Cheers!

Who are we kidding here? Of course you can draw conclusions. One guy specifically owned the last phone and he assumed there was some discernible difference. Jobs was fantastic at creating hype...genius in fact, another PT Barnum...and he backed it up almost every time. That aura about Apple products does exist and permeates the consumer's consciousness as well as anything...including the taste of Coca-cola. Cheers!

LOL! That's why I've never paid any attention to analysts. Half the stuff I would have bought would never have been purchased if I had listened to them. Cheers!

I'll play devils advocate. In 2014 and 2015 I can understand BAC going above tbv, but among 30 analysts BAC will earn about 90 cents a share in 2013. Mr. Market places primacy on earnings and not the balance sheet. I don't see how BAC can hit tbv (Sanjeev) by Christmas which would imply about 14x earnings. Not true. Market perceptions always change. Why is Fairfax around book, but BAC isn't? As litigation and loan loss overhang disappears, markets will value BAC closer to TBV and then BV. I suspect you will see some settlements in the next couple of months and continued positive improvements in 3rd Q and 4th Q financials. BAC needs to settle some issues so that dividends and buybacks are definitely approved in the next round of stress tests. 2012 was the last year of strengthening the balance sheet for BAC and losing weight after the heart attack. 2013 and forward will be building back the muscle mass and continued efficiencies. I'm ready for board criticism on my doubts for BAC as i know it is very popular on this board. No one liked this thing at $5, so why would they like it anymore now after significant improvement. Markets always jump in after all the heavy lifting is complete...not before. I couldn't see any reasonable reason why it would not hit TBV by Christmas, but I cannot control market sentiment. I still think it will get close...$12-12.50. If it doesn't do it by year-end, barring any significant broad market correction, it will hit it sometime next year...onwards and upwards! Cheers!

Chanticleer is not in the same league of Geico, Washington post or Netjet in terms of business moat and Mr. Pruitt is not in the same league of the CEOs of the mentioned companies, in my humble opinion. I wasn't saying even remotely that this was the case. I was arguing your comment regarding Buffett: Buffett's first principle is "never loss". This should be applied to stock investment as well as business endeavors. Cheers!

Actually Moore, I think the circumstances change dramatically when you manage other people's money as well. Probably far greater difficulties arise from that than actual portfolio size...especially if you have short lockups or no lockups. Managing your own portfolio, you can easily take bigger swings at ideas, because you know only you will redeem the capital. You suffer volatility for a couple of years, and some of your less-tempered partners will pull their capital because they get worried. Just a whole different game managing other people's money. Cheers!

Love it! Going to buy one. ;D Truth...I'm glad they increased the screen size...4.5" would have been even better. I like this design better than the previous phone. The display looks even better, but I'm not sure how much that will help with only a 4" screen...will have to see how my eyes feel when reading off of it. I'll test the Samsungs versus the iPhone 5 when I switch. I really do like the bigger screens on the Samsungs though, but it's going to be a pain in the ass for someone less technically savvy like me to switch phones. Cheers!

Those shares were acquired around August 2001 from Service Corp, and McElvaine Investment Trust was also part of the group acquiring shares. Cheers!

No, I don't think it's anything serious, but Nasdaq is being firm. You just listed on there and now your financials can't be relied upon because the audit for a subsidiary was not done. They've got to learn from this. Cheers!

Good interview with Bill Smead, manager of the Smead Value Fund. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-10/contrarian-manager-wins-by-buying-newspapers-avoiding-china.html

Another article in the New York Observer. Thanks to Shai for sending me the link! Cheers! http://observer.com/2012/09/how-hedge-fund-marketing-rules-could-root-out-bad-actors-really/

Looks like Nasdaq has halted trading in Chanticleer until they provide additional information on the 8-K released yesterday. Mike probably should put together a proper audit committee going forward. Stuff like this doesn't look good. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nasdaq-halts-chanticleer-holdings-inc-201104342.html

No plans to even consider selling until it hits book value...two years away. Cheers!

I agree...a lost decade is difficult to make-up on the road to wealth-building. But if Buffett didn't look at the big picture and put away fears of interim losses, he would never have bought The Washington Post, Netjets or Geico, let alone invested in property-casualty insurance businesses. Cheers!

Businesses that Mr. Pruitt has involved come to the market to raise capital periodically, but the operations continue to accumulate substantial losses. “These conditions raise substantial doubt about Chanticleer Holdings, Inc. and Subsidiaries’ ability to continue as a going concern.” The auditor of the company concluded in 10K of 2011. Hi Fuluvu, Any auditor worth his salt would require a "going concern" disclosure in the notes in the audited financials when a business is stretched for cash and is burning through existing assets. In 2011, Chanticleer was still in the process of raising capital to continue to build out its restaurants. It went through a successful $11M raise in 2012, and you will probably not see such a disclosure in 2012. Auditors put them in, as they can be held liable for not disclosing such issues to shareholders. Chanticleer has enough cash for 2012 and 2013. I have not had a difficult time putting my trust in Mike, even though I always wondered how the heck he was going to keep the company afloat after the credit crisis and the deal collapsed. He managed to do so by selling off certain assets; raising capital publically and privately; putting up his own assets as collateral through loans to the company; and finally taking virtually any consulting gig he could get to keep cash flowing through the doors to make payroll and keep the company solvent. Often that meant taking an executive role with small startups where success may be elusive. But he did it. He always found a way to keep the company's head above water. You can't teach that! While the longer term returns to shareholders have not been terribly desireable after the credit crisis, I cannot fault the man's ethics, credibility or honesty. Mike works very hard, and he's had particularly little to show for it until the last year and a half after consummating the HOA deal, getting an HOA board seat, and then finally raising the capital necessary to get the company cash flow positive on a regular basis. We've happily bought more shares in the company and will remain long-term shareholders. Cheers!