yesman182

So todays story line is Block cutting their workforce by 40%. Since they are cutting workers it trades up 15%. Meanwhile all other payments and sas companies go down. At the same time Dorsey says that all companies will come to the realization that they have too much staff and will make a similar staffing adjustment at some point this year. interesting space to pay attention too

I was recently listening to a quarterly call for an insurance company and they were estimating the social inflation at around 8% per year. When these reserves where put on the books I doubt they were planning for 8% social inflation.

Reminds me more of Berkshire in 2022 when he was buying back shares and everyone was running around complaining he wasn't buying an elephant and busy chasing meme stocks.

Having the US men’s and woman’s hockey team win Olympic gold has to be good for Bauer. Anybody know what percentage of current sales are in US? Seems like it will tick up a little, definitely can’t hurt.

Yeah, I was hoping they would answer how long these will continue, not just say the US is litigious and then have a technical issue.....

If this trades at 3x BV and consistently earns 15% ROE a stock holder can expect to earn 5% per year, right? In a world with 4% 10 year gov bonds, that seems like a very small equity risk premium. If they continue to grown their income buckets outside of insurance, similar to Berkshire I think it’s more likely.

I too found that a little strange. I seem to recall that they are like partnering on deals with KKR. So they aren’t blindly sending money to private equity, I think they have a good understanding of the investments it’s going into.

Thanks for that. Do you think that RYAN will execute the buyback they talked about on the call before Pat buys for himself? Seems like if he buys in the open market, then the price does up and RYAN can buyback fewer shares.

Where are you seeing that level of insider ownership? Valueline says Pat owns 12% and other directors own 1%. I checked TIKR and saw something similar.

Recent 13F https://dataroma.com/m/holdings.php?m=FFH

Anyone care to recommend at AI service? I have never paid for an AI service. I assume I should get with the times. Most helpful things for me would be reviewing 10ks and quarterly calls. As well as consolidating my notes. Self employed so I don’t need it to work with any specific software.

From google AI overview: In March 2020, Berkshire Hathaway sold its BH Media Group publications and The Buffalo News to Lee Enterprises for $140 million in cash. The deal included 30 daily newspapers, 49 weekly publications, and 32 other print products. Berkshire acted as the sole lender for the transaction, providing $576 million in 9% interest financing to Lee to pay for the acquisition and refinance existing debt. Lee has had a change in control and a private placement for equity. As part of that process Berkshire has lowered the interest to 5% for the next 5 years. Lee's still owns Berkshire around $450 million. I guess I wouldn't have thought WEB would lower the interest, but I guess he wants to the papers to survive and doesn't want to retake ownership. https://investors.lee.net/news-releases/news-release-details/lee-enterprises-reports-strong-first-quarter-results-and-closing From Press release: “A key component of the transaction is an amendment to the Company’s credit agreement that reduces the annual interest rate on the Company’s outstanding debt to 5% from 9% for a five-year period. This rate reduction is expected to result in interest savings of approximately $18 million annually or up to $90 million over the five-year period, further improving the Company’s capital structure and strengthening the balance sheet,” added Bekke.

ML has said he thinks the terminal growth rate is something like 10% per year. What are you estimating it grows at for the next 5 years? it seems like the stock is fairly priced if you think it will grow its cash flow at 10% per year for the foreseeable future. I assume you think they will be growing faster than 10%?

You think capital allocation is more important than underwriting? Seems like low cost float should be priority number 1.

I would be curious to know where you live. I would say in the US hockey is a rich persons sport. I live in Wisconsin, it’s plenty cold here but public parks don’t really make many hockey rinks anymore, so the only people who play the sport are people who can pay for renting ice time. Is that story the same in Canada? Lots of rich people around me seem to like getting their kids into hockey, not really sure why but it’s very trendy in my area. I am not a hockey guy, so in no way am I an expert.

What US brokers are you aware of that allow you to buy FFH? I know IBKR but are you buying FFH with anyone else?

Frfhf for me. Why are you thinking about wanting to switch?

Sorry if this is behind a WSJ paywall. https://www.wsj.com/business/david-sokol-berkshire-hathaway-a2f92bf2?st=YygBpz&reflink=article_copyURL_share Odd that they describe him as “low profile”. More evidence how low profile Fairfax is in the US. Seems like the title could have been “ One time Buffett successor makes billions for Canadian Warren Buffett” or something else catchy.

Do we know if Fairfax still owns ~40% of Exco?

Thanks for posting the link. I have enjoyed listening to every show you have been on.

https://archive.is/Qnxi9

AAP

The host was stating the PB was 2. He was using CAD numbers in numerator and USD numbers in denominator, so you aren’t missing much!

I agree 100%. Host was fixated on old news, shorts, blackberry, macro calls. Definitely not bringing in new investors.

Looks like WEB’s charity also extends to offering to cut the interest to LEE for the next 5 years. WEB knows just how hard it is for Newspapers. I think LEE still owes BRK something like 450m. Offering them a loan rate only slighting above a T bill rate seems like total charity, but I know he really wants them to succeed. Not sure who would want to participate in this rights offer. https://investors.lee.net/news-releases/news-release-details/lee-enterprises-announces-intent-pursue-rights-offering