Parsad

You are probably correct, but I can imagine it being wildly volatile investing with him. He was down some 70% before the big shorts kicked in back in 2009. The huge swings right now certainly indicate that they are volatile once again. It's good he's managing his own money, because that type of frenetic trading would drive partners crazy. Cheers!

Terrific letter! Unfortunately, I doubt it will do anything other than to rally more shareholders to vote against the deal. Cheers!

Yeah, I would agree with that. The (2)'s are probably Wade and Lawrence/team picks...similar to positions that Tom Gaynor/team at MKL would pick. The (1)'s are probably more Prem/Brian/committee specific...big positions...Wade and Lawrence are involved, but hold two of the six/seven votes of the committee. Cheers!

Beautiful photographs Jaygo! Looks like the family had a great time! Days you'll never forget. Cheers!

As of Fairfax's latest update, they are still at 49% ownership of Digit, so naturally there is some political/economic risk that the increased ownership might not go through...more than a formality. At the same time, when Fairfax said something is being approved or processed, it's rare that it doesn't happen...but the risk is still there it might not happen. So don't count your chickens before the eggs have hatched! I think you will see continued buybacks if the stock is relatively cheap...0.9 times book value or less. They've retired about 15% of the float between 2016 and 2022. The TRS swaps they have will also have the effect of retiring another 2M shares...so perhaps a total of 22% of the float might be retired since 2016. Stock buybacks have to be balanced with other opportunities, so I don't think you'll see anything like a Teledyne long-term buyback program, but they will be opportunistic and retire stock when it is cheap relative to other opportunities. Cheers!

Just watched "Belfast", Kenneth Branagh's autobiographical movie on his childhood growing up in Belfast. Beautiful, touching movie! Great performances! Cheers!

That time has most likely come and gone. We'll have to look for other bargains. Cheers!

You also have three times as many people living in each of Beijing and Shanghai compared to New York. Do you remember what pollution was like in Los Angeles in 1970-1980? I do! Los Angeles air quality is better today than it was 50 years ago. With more and more electric cars and efficient heating/cooling sources, China's air quality will slowly improve. It's far harder to immigrate to China than the U.S. Thus the numbers you see. Nothing to do with quality of life or business. Cheers!

We've all been the fool before...you just happened to join the club a little later! It's the one club that no one wants to ever be a part of. Cheers!

Only two times you should buy back stock. Other greater opportunities aren't available or your stock is well discounted. Otherwise return excess capital to shareholders in dividends. If the discount to intrinsic value is greater in the takeouts, then it just makes more sense to postpone buybacks and take advantage of the other cheaper investments. Cheers!

That's where politics and freedoms come in. That being said, do you think Trump feels like Jack Ma today? It also wouldn't take much for politicians in the U.S. to go after Bezos or Musk. We've seen it before many times under anti-competition initiatives or practices. Any company gets too large, and the U.S. government goes after them. Cheers!

This is all true, but this type of attitude also leads to complacency. China's GDP 20 years ago 1.5T...China's GDP today 18T. India's GDP 20 years ago 0.5T...India's GDP today 3.5T. US GDP 20 years ago 10.5T...US GDP today 23T. Outside of politics and freedoms, if you have money, the lifestyle in China and India is as good or better than the lifestyle in the US. It would just take one reasonable Chinese President and one reasonable Indian Prime Minister, who would agree to work together and form a free trade agreement, to change the entire economic dynamic of the world. The U.S. has the advantage, but they are going to have to keep working damn hard to keep that advantage. Charlie Munger called it a decade ago when he said, "We may have witnessed the apex of a great civilization." Cheers! I've always invested in North America, but I'm small enough to do so. Larger investors and institutions will have to look abroad as the global economy grows.

If they hit $900-1000 per share in the next couple of years...which seems very feasible barring any major global catastrophes or market crash...those TRS are going to be looking pretty damn good! Cheers!

Again, I totally agree with you. META is my largest position after Fairfax. I also bought a ton of GOOGL, AMZN, JEF and OSTK...as well as ATCO. I'm just saying that investor's crying unfair that the tender offer came and is lower than they would have preferred is not Prem's fault...not even Sokol's fault in my opinion. If he has a choice between bringing in ONE with deep pockets that would help ATCO thrive, and minority shareholders who are along for the ride, that's a sacrifice that has to be made for the future of ATCO. It sucks, but that's life! He's also going to have to live with the consequences of a large partner with far greater influence over the company than minority shareholders would have had as well. Cheers!

Nice timing Lessthaniv! I bought a bunch then too, but was averaging down from a bit earlier...so I made just under 30% in a little over a month selling at $14.30. I have a bunch still in my taxable/corporate accounts...will most likely let those play out and reap the dividend until any deal is consummated or the offer is rescinded. If rescinded, I'll hold those shares. If the price falls, I'll buy them all back in the non-taxable accounts too! Cheers!

SJ, I fully agree with you that the 30% return in a few weeks was pure luck. At the same time, whether it was silence or not, there was little discussion in the way that ATCO was cheap. Perhaps, you stayed out of that discussion, but it was abnormally quiet from the rest of the posters. There just seems to be a hell of a lot more confidence that the $14.45 offer is low, rather than ATCO at $10.30 a month earlier was low. And that seems a bit disingenuous when the wilderness suddenly howls..."unfair, unfair"! The screams of "Prem is ripping off the minority shareholders again" by many was premature as well, since we now know that Sokol or ONE are the lead on the deal. Cheers!

June 23 on the "What are you buying thread?" in General Discussion, I wrote "Lots of ATCO! Cheap, cheap, cheap!" Didn't see anyone respond to that. When I posted I was buying on here...a few people asked me to justify why I thought it was cheap at $11. Again, very few buyers. I also bought lots of META and GOOGL...but I had plenty of time to add lots of ATCO. So, I didn't see anyone really scream out or even politely state that ATCO was cheap in the last month or two. Now, people are saying $14.45 would have been called out as ridiculously low. The offer may not be what people really wanted, but I also call bullshit on it being unfair or lowball based on sentiment and behavior on here. Frankly, I don't think it's going to get the majority it needs...so either they will up the offer or pull the offer. In the meantime, I'll sit on the cash or buy something else that is still really cheap. Cheers!

I'm sure they did approve. But the deal was brokered and led by ATCO, not FFH, to improve ATCO's long-term prospects. Cheers!

Also, based on the Bidco information on the Fairfax 2022 thread, FFH isn't even leading this transaction. Up to $1.4B is being put up by ONE, $175M by the Washington Family and $30M by Sokol. Fairfax is not putting anything in. So Prem isn't really screwing over ATCO shareholders as suggested by many on here. They just remain the largest shareholder after it goes private. It looks like this deal was led by David and primarily one to strengthen ATCO's partnerships and add another deep pocket partner for the future. Shipping rates will eventually crater in late 2024 or so...maybe Sokol is preparing for that. Cheers!

It also means that Prem isn't screwing over ATCO shareholders as originally suggested. Cheers!

Just a reminder...while we have some of the most intelligent investors on the cobf board, any tax, accounting, financial, estate planning queries/answers should always be qualified by an outside expert in that area. If something goes wrong without discussing it with a qualified outside expert, that is your responsibility and error. Cheers!

The one thing no one has mentioned in this is that from a Fairfax investor perspective, this is a real win-win if the transaction is approved and consummated. Why? - Fairfax gets a great business with great operators at a fair price. - Fairfax solidifies the relationship even further with Sokol and Chen! Could there be two better investor/operators we could have added to the Fairfax team than David Sokol and Bing Chen? Fairfax shareholders always bitch and complain about the quality of acquisitions. Sokol's got quite the history on building and finding quality businesses. A few years ago David Sokol was Buffett's heir apparent. Now he's working for Fairfax. David brings on Bing Chen who proves to be a savvy operator and leader. Now Bing works for Fairfax. As a Fairfax shareholder, I'll be quite happy if these two guys are working for us, not just partnered with us. Cheers!

Sure. We should have asked seniors to stop aging as well, since 80% of deaths were seniors over 65. Actually, maybe the CDC should have warned everyone about a pandemic before it happened and then nothing would have been closed, since 50% of the population would have gone on a diet and exercise program before the pandemic arrived. Cheers!

After the pandemic started, overloaded Canadian hospitals were inundated with patients. I know, because my family lost 7 people to Covid in 2 years...and almost 2 more! I saw how the hospitals were getting hammered and that was with social distancing, closures, masking and vaccinations. Most hospitals operated at a triage level for 12 months with nurses working double-shifts! I can't imagine what it would have been like without closures and distancing. There were some half million surgeries delayed due to Covid...can you imagine how many would have been delayed or cancelled if the system was flooded only with Covid patients?! Cheers!

C'mon SJ! The Watsa family has controlled the votes since the company started. Do you really think they would eff over all their friends and family who also own Fairfax stock...including their staff! They are making the takeover bid for ATCO to benefit FFH shareholders. Yeah, it isn't fair value to ATCO shareholders...but I don't see anyone else pounding the door to acquire ATCO. Investors always knew that there was a chance Fairfax would acquire the remaining stock, including possibly buying out the Washington family as well. Well, instead FFH, the Washington Family and Sokol are buying out the minority shareholders. If we vote it down. Then they could up the offer. Or they could just keep things the same and the stock may drop back down to $11 again. That's what makes a market! Cheers!