Granitepost

Although BRK.A is supposed to be worth 30 times BRK.B shares, for the last couple of days the Bs have been significantly cheaper than the As. For example, at the moment the As are 75,204 so you would expect the Bs to be 2,506 rather than the 2,340 for which they are trading. This seems to be about a 7% discount for the As. I can understand a difference existing for a short time period but wonder if this relationship has been common in the past or could be a function of the panic in the markets where the A holders may not be an anxious as the B holders. Any comments? Cheers, Jim

Trading was halted momentarily on US exchange this morning presumably due to the announcement of FFH's purchase of $5 million in senior unsecured Convertible Debentures from Novadaq (NDQ on TSX) bearing interest of 5% maturing in 5 years from the date of their issue scheduled for Feb 18. They can be converted into common shares at $2.33 Canadian. Although this is not a big investment for FFH, it is curious that they would agree to quite a low interest rate unless they had great confidence in the future of Novadaq. It appears that they already own some common shares and that if the debentures are converted they will hold 17.17% of the company. Novadaq developes imaging guidance systems for operating rooms.