Parsad

And buy some expensive abstract art for the lobby! I've also installed 24 monitors in my office for trading! ;D Actually, I took one of the smallest offices...24 monitors wouldn't fit. The nicest offices are going to be subleased to cut overhead. Cheers! Personally, I'll know that you made it big when your private pictures start being leaked on the internet :-) Congrats Sanjeev, know that you have a bunch of people pulling for you that you can reach out to whenever and for whatever, and trust me, in life as in business, this intangible is priceless. For everything else use your corporate AMEX card now that you're the boss :-) Congrats again buddy. Much appreciated and I couldn't agree more! Corporate cards were all cut up except for one...I don't use it. New fiscal policy for the company was created and given out. We've gotten leaner, but will get even more so. Treat shareholder's money as fiduciaries...not personal piggy banks! Corporate culture is finally headed in the right direction. Cheers!

As the company develops, the name will develop, but the "Premier" name stays. Cheers! Premier Holdings Premier Corner Permierdyne Premier Hathaway ;) Nice ring to it. Premier Holdings was taken...checked it already a few weeks ago! ;D Cheers!

And buy some expensive abstract art for the lobby! I've also installed 24 monitors in my office for trading! ;D Actually, I took one of the smallest offices...24 monitors wouldn't fit. The nicest offices are going to be subleased to cut overhead. Cheers!

As the company develops, the name will develop, but the "Premier" name stays. Cheers!

LOL! Essentially. The funds go into a law firm trust account. They issue the certificate and it is delivered to your broker, or wherever you desire the certificate to be delivered. Mohnish just did one for $110M...I don't think there were any real issues. We are going to be doing one for $10M...I'm pretty sure we can avoid any problems. Cheers! I see. Pabrai didn't do well in 2008. A 66% mark to market loss. While it is quite fine in his fund, it may not work out well as a reinsurance company. Regulators could push for capital raise at that point. How are you going to handle that problem with this new reinsurance vehicle? You'll see. The risk isn't on our balance sheet. Cheers!

Accredited, but as LC said, you will be able to buy shares in the open market...maybe not at the same price as the private placement though. Cheers!

Public company will be investing directly in Bermuda vehicle. MPIC Funds will be the largest shareholder in the public company. All acquisitions of private enterprises will occur through the public company, while MPIC will continue to manage assets as it does. At some point, Corner Market Capital (MPIC's general partner) will be roled into the company like Hamblin-Watsa was in Fairfax, and it will become another cash flow machine for the pubco. Already a public company. Press release will go out in the next couple of days. Will move to a larger listing in the New Year. Cheers! Will this reinsurance company also invest in publicly traded stocks, or only buying out private companies? In other words, will it run similar to Berkshire's model? Yes, but a wee bit smaller! ;D Cheers!

LOL! Essentially. The funds go into a law firm trust account. They issue the certificate and it is delivered to your broker, or wherever you desire the certificate to be delivered. Mohnish just did one for $110M...I don't think there were any real issues. We are going to be doing one for $10M...I'm pretty sure we can avoid any problems. Cheers!

I try to always be as polite as I can… but that post was a very poor one! To endorse it is just as poorly done. The fact is always the same: long term investments might bear wonderful fruits in the long run, but a lot of patience might be required. Because in the short run, instead, they might look like a drag on performance. Therefore, if you think you have a great entrepreneur, who will maximize value in the long run, you want to put him in the conditions to proceed undisturbed. Cheers, Gio Why was it poor to endorse that post? I don't think he could have made the difference between management and ownership any clearer. Sardar works for the shareholders...his duty is to do his job, not feel "safe". If the shareholders or owners want to toss him on his rear or keep him, that is completely up to them. It's not up to Sardar to entrench himself, but to vote his shares the way he wants...that's it! The fact is that the shareholders kept getting the wool pulled over their eyes and agreed to many of the features that helped entrench him. They finally said enough is enough on the compensation package, and so Sardar had to find a way around it. Did he not feel "safe" enough, is that why he had to buy back the fund business after selling it to the company? Of course not! It had nothing to do with it. He just wanted to remove the cap from his compensation, and no one was going to stop him...not even the shareholders! Can you believe that? Cheers!

The problem imo is very simple and clear: you are going on and on comparing Biglari to Buffett, he instead seems to suggest “if you are looking for the next Berkshire, look somewhere else!”. Then why milk the whole Buffett philosophy and image, right down to even the look and typeface of his annual report? But not live up to the ethics and shareholder-friendly standards set by him. Who knows, perhaps his "look somewhere else" statement should be taken as a precaution, rather than a goal or objective! Cheers!

The problem imo is very simple and clear: you are going on and on comparing Biglari to Buffett, he instead seems to suggest “if you are looking for the next Berkshire, look somewhere else!”. Biglari knows very well that in business each situation is different, and the right course of action each time is different. Buffett never had to deal with control. Munger referred to Buffett in the early days calling him “the serial acquirer”, but evidently to buy a very large percentage of Berkshire back then was not so expensive as to buy the same percentage of BH today. There is simply no way Biglari could get control over BH buying its equity today. Yet, control is crucial. Anyone who runs a business finds out pretty soon how crucial control actually is! And, as I have always said, I want him to be in charge and to feel safe. The less time he worries about his position and about someone buying a lot of BH and starting questioning his business decisions and actions, the more time he can devote to enhance value. Gio The problem imo is very simple and clear: you are confused on the difference between the owners and the management. You do understand what a shareholder is right? Each share of a class gives equal rights and equal control. IMO anyone trying to gain control of a company without having majority ownership would be basically stealing shareholder rights. The business belongs to the shareholders NOT THE MANAGEMENT. Management is in charge of the company but The shareholders are in charge of Management. Management is not supposed to be so "safe" that the owners (shareholders) cant remove them or are forced to pay to remove management. +1! And "safe" do what? Implement compensation packages, agreements, share classes, trademarks, name changes, etc?! He would be "safe" if he focused solely on the management side, and less about his own security. Cheers!

LOL! Not unlike Buffett, it wasn't GEICO that he managed to control, but Berkshire Hathaway. He retained the name to remind him what an awful purchase it was. Our circumstances are very similar...it wasn't Russell Breweries that we managed to control, but a distressed business where intrinsic value was considerably underwhelming like Berkshire in its original state. We will keep part or all of this company's name in the future to remind us of the same thing. I will give you one anecdote that will illustrate the culture we are trying to create. I've refused a CEO's salary, because I denied our controller a pay raise. Instead, I've told the board that I would like to get paid $500 less than our controller annually, and will not take a pay raise until he gets one. I will give you one further anecdote to illustrate the type of people we are trying to retain and hire. When I became involved with the company's finances a few months ago, our controller had not been paid for 10 weeks...in fact, none of the core employees had been paid for 10 weeks, but they kept on working! We've caught up on all of their salaries after I became involved, and retained those employees. They could not be happier and morale could not be better. I told them I cannot believe they did not leave and promised them they would always be paid every pay period going forward. Cheers!

Hey shalab, Interesting proposition. Why would you want Biglari to give up CEO to be CIO? While I wasn't initially happy about the trademark agreement, I believe it serves his long-term value enhancing plan well. Most investors want results today, but to maximize value can take a while. This allows him to implement and work his plan without disruption from outsiders. Biglari is the reason SNS has become a better brand and why BH is doing what it's doing. I view it similar to the shareholder proposal to have BRK start issuing dividends. Doing so would kill BRK's value enhancing strategy of retaining all earnings and buy operating businesses/ securities. Thx for sharing! FC Biglari has added tremendous value as CEO...CIO would not make any sense. But don't kid yourself about why the trademark agreement was put in place. It has nothing to do with long-term enhancing value and everything with entrenching himself. The greatest investor in history, who knows everything about enhancing value, never had such an agreement...nor would one ever cross his mind. Even Buffett cannot put his ego ahead of his humility, no matter how much it might improve the "Buffett" brand. Cheers!

All of the above! Will be open to Canadian and U.S. accredited investors. There is a secondary option for international investors through a capital raising we will be doing in Hong Kong...I'll explain that at the time. The private placement will get you in at a set price...the same as us and all other existing shareholders. You can buy in the open market as well, but it is unlikely you will get this price, since we and other shareholders will probably buy any stock available at the private placement price. We may increase the private placement size, as I'm being overwhelmed by responses since last night. I've got you guys all in order and the documents will be sent in that order, but it may take me a few days to confirm your email, as I'm tied up on a number of things as you can probably understand. Cheers!

Public company will be investing directly in Bermuda vehicle. MPIC Funds will be the largest shareholder in the public company. All acquisitions of private enterprises will occur through the public company, while MPIC will continue to manage assets as it does. At some point, Corner Market Capital (MPIC's general partner) will be roled into the company like Hamblin-Watsa was in Fairfax, and it will become another cash flow machine for the pubco. Already a public company. Press release will go out in the next couple of days. Will move to a larger listing in the New Year. Cheers!

Dear boardmembers and readers of Corner of Berkshire & Fairfax: Over the next few weeks, I will be providing significant information about our new public company vehicle to interested parties. Several years ago, Prem told me over lunch to just start my fund with whatever I could raise. Alnesh and I were fortunate enough to raise four hundred thousand from three unknown, but very trusting partners, and so we slowly but surely started the MPIC Funds! All three partners are still with us, and one of them is our director Andrew Cooke! Now over 8 years later, and ironically at the same time my friend Mohnish Pabrai is launching his own but far larger vehicle, we have a confluence of activity that has lead to this. The targeted distressed company is in turnaround mode where we are restoring cash flows from a portion of its business that was inactive. We have spent several months implementing absent internal controls, that were simply washing the existing cash flows into oblivion, rather than creating any value for shareholders. A complete change in culture, the board and management was required. We are also set to participate as one of the largest investors in a new Bermuda reinsurance vehicle, with at least one board seat, and it will be run by a well-known insurance executive and a very talented actuary. We've been fortunate enough to associate with good people, who complement the deficiencies within our own skillset. At the same time, we are in the process of preparing a private placement for the company to increase investment capital. The first step will be to issue rights to existing shareholders to maintain their ownership. After that, the remaining participation will come from MPIC partners who will be given the first chance to invest directly into this company, and any interest by those that contact me and ask to be put on our information list when we finally disclose all of the details. I've been very vocal about management and corporate behavior in the past. I assure you that this vehicle will be one of the few to live up to the ethical standards of those managers and mentors who we hold in such high regard. Cost efficiencies, return on investment, and a solid balance sheet will be the long-term objectives as we seek out investments and businesses with a margin of safety. We will walk the walk as we have with our funds, and we promise to talk the talk...no surprises in compensation here! And the company will never carry my name! Finally, the MPIC Funds will be the largest investor in the company, and we expect our partners to do very well over the long-term by leveraging captive capital through this enterprise. Our office address will be changing over the next few months, as I will be at the new company's head office virtually every day. I thank you all my friends, partners and board members! Sometimes you are fortunate enough to get to do exactly what you want, and I've been blessed with that luck for the last few years. Details are forthcoming, but these days...as we've often heard others say...I truly tap dance to work! If you are interested in receiving information about the company and private placement when fully drafted, please email me at [email protected]. We hope to have the private placement fully closed by the end of November. Sanjeev Parsad

Article on China's shadow banking system: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/08036554-2f62-11e4-a79c-00144feabdc0.html Cheers!

Nothing new, but always fun to see the size and scope of what he's accomplished. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren-buffett-facts-about-his-wealth-193006548.html

He looks like he's lost a fair amount of weight since I last saw him in April. Good for Mohnish! Interestingly enough, Allan Mecham and Ben Raybould are big cyclists too, and they are planning a trip to NYC to ride with a bunch of people in October! Cycling has regained its 1970's & 1980's popularity. Cheers!

Enjoy! Cheers!

Does that mean Buffett will be in Mayweather's corner next fight with Justin Bieber! Bieber might corrupt Buffett! ;D Cheers!

I know Ericopoly loved the Lego Movie...Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/american-dream-illustrated-with-legos-brookings-200611923.html

Related to their conversion of USG convertible debt to shares: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/berkshire-pay-896-000-fine-164431886.html About 24 minutes of net earnings! ;D Cheers!

Hi AtlCDore, Glad you enjoy the board! Answers to your questions: 1) Yes, you can adjust the number of posts visible through your profiles and settings. 2) I don't believe so. Cheers!

LOL! Alnesh and I are neither young, nor the best! But we won't ever truly f**k up because of that as well. Cheers!