Xerxes

Prem has repeatedly mentioned that financials are the best assets to own in a growing economy. Believe he gave the example of Singapore. Why would we not want for FIH to take a big swing at these privatizations opportunities or other like assets. Buying back shares in an ocean that is full of opportunities (India) would be incredibly short sighted of them, and should be the very last resort.

CFO retiring, one of the “Fellas Down the Hall” moving on, an actual operator taking the helm of the industrial conglomerate … it is time to Make Berkshire Great Again (MBGA) Next step: clean up the portfolio of all the small % non-valued added equity investments, that are just there to amuse Warren. Go big or go home. I want to see 13F filing in Q1 and Q2 showing all the junk gone. Pronto

definitely. I just listened to one on the Swedish company. The pod drop rate is also daily. No human can do this. So now Alphabet AI podcast product will be dominating all the lower-tier human podcast. Culling the field for the high quality human pods with franchise.

Everytime I tried watching Landman. it feels like Baywatch Still painfully crawling through season 1, hoping there is an actual story somewhere

This looks very interesting Hopefully release in Canada as well. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/dec/05/kill-bill-the-whole-bloody-affair-quentin-tarantino

It is not so much the buying for indexing by the ETF providers that brings the buying pressure, I feel. More the fact that active managers that going forward needs to own it.

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-gemini-report-investment-deep-dives/id1830518221

one for the books !!

??? if you mean cash and bonds, yes But monetary assets also means ownership of businesses (aka stocks)

Siemens was a motivated seller. Their job was done. They are not there to operate a concession on a long term basis. Siemens AG group itself went through restructuring that saw the spin off of its health, and energy as independent companies, 2018 and 2020. Why would it keep an airport as a minority investor in a not so clear odd jurisdiction, when they tried so hard to simplify Siemens story. Siemens is there to sell picks and shovels and not make directional bet in India by directly owning and operating airport. Here are some other Siemens asset sales: When a motivated seller (Siemens) meets a patient owner-buyer (FIH), there is a market.

**Bump** It is that time of the year. To review 2025 predictions, right or wrong, and hopefully extract something from them. One can be right yet for the wrong reasons. And one can be wrong, but also be wrong for the wrong reasons. They both count wrong I think. And of course make new predictions for 2026 and stay humble. …. in a new thread hopefully …

Sounds like a great book to buy and read !!

Great stuff

You said it best John

My major beef with author who write for Barron’s on Berkshire is not so much his grading of Berkshire investment, rather his inability to see Berkshire investment portfolio as an integrated part of an industrial/insurance company. And seeing it totally in isolation as if it was a money management business. So all his comments on Berkshire buy/sell has a childish tilt to it. Ex: he sold but than it went up.

Correct he is largely gone I think. Nonetheless the investment philosophy does/did not change with his retirement.

Akre investment firm sold out big % of its American Tower, Roper and Danaher to pile into FICO and Copart AMT is surprising. Always thought that was large position for them. Not huge rotations into Copart and FICO, but if they were adding Q3 they might be flooring it in Q4. PS: Gemini speaks

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/money-maze-podcast/id1504477769?i=1000736549312

Carney should have the Korean submarine deal conditional of Canadians being able to invest into Korean stock market. *sigh*

Gaullism, as defined as having sovereignty of nuclear & defense technology stack, was so out of fashion decades ago, but now that it has proven it worth many times over, one cannot say Saab or BAE will easily displace the French. BAE is fully an Anglo-American defense contractor. It is more Anglo-American than the mining giant of the same name. Even Saab Gripen is powered by GE engines. Among these European defense names, Dassault is unique. Sadly they never learned to work together with their peers.

I think BN and BAM had the same thing going when BAM IPOed couple of years back. The public entity BAM owner 30% of the privately held asset manager. The late 2024 re org fixed that.

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/empire/id1639561921?i=1000703759580 If you like East Asian history lore, episode 247 through 255 covers: the tea/chai trade, opium wars, rise of East India Company, the Persis merchants in Gujarat, flow of gold/silver balance of trade between China and Britain, the rise of private merchant class etc Highly recommend. Listening to the podcast, there are various interviews from the author of these books to go through. The first title is not in the podcast but came across it on Amazon as well. The rest I will soon acquire.

Canada will very likely buy that tranche of F-35 that is contractually obligated to buy but not the full tranche. Really it is all up entangled with the trade discussion, including the Boeing E-8 aircraft as well. https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/news/2023/11/canada-purchasing-up-to-16-p-8a-poseidon-multi-mission-aircraft-for-the-royal-canadian-air-force.html That said I do believe that Canada will have a two type aircraft fleet.

I agree specifically on General Electric. It had scale, was industrial asset, had a known outsider CEO with a track record. … and more importantly the GE turn around was never at aerospace but on the wrapper around the crown jewel Me missing out is one thing … but him