Parsad

...to consider changes to investment account rules. He played by the rules, but this certainly isn't in the spirit of what these accounts were intended for. Personally, I think a $15M cap is more than reasonable. Cheers! https://www.marketwatch.com/story/peter-thiels-5-billion-roth-ira-moves-congress-to-consider-changes-to-investment-accounts-rules-11625786725?siteid=yhoof2

Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Frick & Baker...Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates, Arnault & Musk. Cheers! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/super-richs-wealth-concentration-surpasses-gilded-age-levels-210802327.html

40 years ago, my mother was the loans officer for TD who handled all of the Pattison accounts at TD...she was invited every year to his yacht for their annual Christmas party where he would play the piano for the guests and they used to send her a large Christmas basket. Too bad I paid more attention to the basket than who Jimmy Pattison was. Then again, I was 12 years old! Cheers!

There definitely is, and always has been, a number of shareholders who provide better analysis than the professionals. That being said, the public listens to the professionals, not us...so we're stuck with the status quo! Cheers!

Take this with a grain of salt, as a higher IPO price is something that could cut both ways...to the upside and downside depending on market sentiment. What we know is that a consortium is paying a certain price willingly, and we've essentially got $60+ per share coming to the upside. Anything else is icing on the cake! On another note, with the departure of Paul Rivett, I would imagine there may be some broad changes at Fairfax, which we may be witnessing already. While Prem remains Chairman, Paul had a significant influence from operations to investments, and with him gone, there will be a certain amount of streamlining going on as Wade, Andy, Peter Clarke and others have more responsibilities and perhaps a slightly different view of positions, holdings, ventures, insurance and the investing environment. I truly think Fairfax is finally once again getting to a point where the constant comparison as a "mini-Berkshire" isn't out of line. They don't have to reinvent the wheel...just copy it! Cheers!

Story about BC's "Warren Buffett", Jimmy Pattison, and his relationship with lieutenant Glen Clark, who used to be Premier of British Columbia. Incidentally, Buffett and Pattison are very good friends...one plays the ukulele and the other plays trumpet and piano. The billionaire and the socialist: No longer the odd couple, believe it or not - The Globe and Mail Cheers!

Hi James, Not what I meant. The point was that the success/failure of the investment was based partially on a rational outcome from the courts...not something solely based on underlying fundamentals. Once the outcome is based on something intangible, the fate of the investment lies in something completely out of the investor's control. And in this case, the intangible act was not what the majority of investors expected. Cheers!

Evans and Evans is who we used on the fairness opinion when PDH sold Russell Breweries. Mike is honest and fair, so I would imagine the price was well justified through their analysis. Fairfax probably paid fair value for the business...not distressed, but fair. Cheers!

To me it seems as though there were a few opportunities where investors could have walked away with the elusive 10-bagger or better return...to blame political machinations or an irrational court decision is silly. An outlier event has now changed the nature of the investment bet...shit happens! Cheers!

+1! Cheers!

What a joke! Without Prem, Blackberry would have been bankrupt 8 years ago under Thorsten Heins who the board picked against Prem's wishes. Prem is the guy who pushed for John Chen before Thorsten Heins got the job. The board went with Heins and lost almost three years on the turnaround. Cheers!

Vancouver has similar constraints to New York. Essentially, we have mountains to one side, Pacific Ocean on another and the U.S. border on the third side. So as such, we either build upwards, higher density or east to the Fraser Valley. Cheers!

Rosenberg comments on prices in North Bay, ON. Cheers! David Rosenberg on Twitter: "I'm going to change the Einstein definition of insanity to this: when home prices in North Bay, Ontario begin to look like a dotcom stock in 1999. There's a whole lot of pain, globally speaking, if (when) this housing bubble bursts. https://t.co/NTR4H2Z7WT" / Twitter

Hi All, Please move this discussion over to the Coronavirus thread on the Politics Forum. Same username and password as the Investment Forum. https://politics.thecobf.com/topic/37583-coronavirus/?tab=comments#comment-1240380 Thanks! Sanjeev

Incidentally, Fairfax doesn't have to monetize their BB position. I think it would be equally beneficial if BB did something similar to AMC and did a at the market equity raise as well. BB raising $1-2B at these prices would be as good as FFH selling or monetizing their BB investment. Cheers!

Fairfax is one of the most opportunistic companies out there. They couldn't capitalize on BB last time, because the convertible debt agreement restricted any sale of BB for six months. They said they looked at all different ways to capitalize on it...Wade and Roger sold their shares so you know half the investment team thought it was over fair value...it wasn't like Brian and Prem were sitting on their asses eating potato chips and watching hockey. If they haven't capitalized on it some way this time, then I will agree with you. But the opportunity to sell or monetize last time simply wasn't there. Cheers!

Also, that analyst's comments were some of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Do they actually know how in depth Fairfax goes before making a large investment...I've talked to the analysts who work there, I've seen the reports, articles, statements on their desks...I've talked in depth about investments with Brian, Roger, Chandran, Prem...I know how their team tears apart an idea that anyone brings forth for investment...Wade, Lawrence come from the Cundill environment, which should speak for itself. Just because their investment ideas don't necessarily fit in the framework of what shareholders, analysts or other managers frame their ideas in, doesn't mean the work isn't there. Cheers!

I think they'll monetize a significant portion of the shares as lumber peaks towards the end of the summer...maybe at $25-28 per share. Might even get taken out by a larger international player. In terms of Atlas, I've owned it since under $8 for about 3 years. Essentially doubled my holdings during the March 2020 collapse of the market. Sold half in my taxable accounts around $14, and am holding the rest. I've been watching and following Sokol since he left Berkshire. I think he's extremely talented at understanding distressed scalable, high capex businesses that are normally cyclical, and then converting them into consistently, cash flowing businesses that have reduced operating risk compared to their peers. Atlas has become the fastest growing shipping lessor with long-term guaranteed contracts, flexible supportive financing...and they will slowly diversify into a handful of consistently cash flowing businesses that dominate their respective space. He's also very good at finding talent. Cheers!

How come no one is talking about Fairfax's stake in Resolute Forest Products? The one that everyone was hacking apart 2-3 years ago, and now sits at nearly $20 per share as lumber prices soar! Up $5 a share since the end of Q1 and up over 300% since the end of 2019. Owning 40% of a $1.5B lumber company sounds pretty good right now...alongside a 40% stake in a rapidly growing $3.3B shipping company...10% of a $6.5B telecommunications company...30% of one of Greece's largest banks valued at nearly $3B...some pretty interesting large stake turnarounds that are taking hold for Fairfax. Combine that with a very hard insurance market, tons of dry powder and soon to be $1.3B in holding company cash after paying off the revolver...looking like $700 CDN at the end of the year looks reasonable. Especially if India's 2nd wave drop takes significant hold and the Indian economy starts churning again over the next few months. Cheers!

Sure, I would agree with some of that. But the actual mRNA technology used in the Pfizer/Moderna vaccines is not new. It's been researched and developed for over 30 years. So it's not like the world came up with this overnight. The technology was there. Cheers!

Yeah, but that works both ways...one group says one thing...the other group says the opposite. After everything that has happened...reviews, recalculations, court cases, audits, secondary audits...there is still nothing showing any fraud from the election, but you still have people digging. Vaccines, Wuhan, even frickin' kneeling during the anthem...each side has their own narrative, and neither side wants to listen to the facts. What else is new? Cheers!

I understand your sentiment, but you can't have it both ways: - The vaccine may have side effects, even though none have come to light other than 1/100,000 or greater chances of blood clot or inflammation of the heart...so the anti-vaxxers say wait for the long-term effects and evidence. - The virus came out of a lab, but the conspiracy theorists said let's not wait for evidence. Which is it...do we base decisions on evidence or speculation? As value investors, you invest based on evidence or fundamentals. As a speculator, you invest based on speculation. I would imagine that value investors are an evidence-based group, but perhaps the recent influx of capital by value investors into crypto should indicate otherwise! Cheers!

This was what I was talking about yesterday...I'm glad the U.S. government acted so quickly! Cheers!

No it doesn't! But it is hilariously accurate...including the cheating and character part. Cheers!

Well I think the public has their limits: Bill Cosby's entire life of good work is now completely overshadowed by the terrible things he did in his personal life...no one is ever going to celebrate any positive thing Cosby has done. There have been a ton of horrendous allegations and prosecutions against priests in the Catholic church...and I think the reputation of the Catholic church has been irreparably harmed...anything positive the church does lives in the shadows of its atrocities. Cheers!