Liberty

As a relatively new investor, I'm constantly trying to learn, and I do appreciate it when you talk about your processes and criterias, Harry. Thanks for that.

That's indeed my main concern, that they haven't been around that long. From what I can tell, they have experienced people in management and they've had backing from savvy players (Chubb, Goldman Sachs) since their creation in 2002, but it's hard to know if that means much... But at a P/E under 5 and book around 0.8, there seems to be a decent margin of safety there... I dunno, that's why I asked the board, to get more opinions. I'm personally undecided. I'd probably invest if they had a longer history and if management held more shares..

Harry, what do you think of AWH? I'm a fan of RLI, but AWH seems pretty solid too, and sells below book, unlike RLI, and the combined ratios have been in the low to mid 80s recently. I made a thread about it here but so far it's only crickets and tumbleweeds... http://cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/index.php?topic=4287.0

Thanks for this summary, Onyx!

Thanks for the summary, Parsad, and thanks for all your work in organizing this and creating this amazing online community. And of course, thanks to Fairfax and the other CEOs and investors who came. sounds like it was a blast. If any of the people who went and had a chance to chat with the FFH people could give us their summaries of what they learned, that'd be awesome for those of us who missed it. Thanks!

Have fun guys & gals and take photos for those of us who can't make it ;D

Great. Can't wait to get my hands on it (somehow)...

Thanks for another thought-provoking comment, Bonechip!

Looks like you had lots of fun. Kudos to the organizers and to Fairfax!

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/buffett-and-sokol-sued-over-trading-in-lubrizol-shares/

Working now. Not sure what the problem was..

Thanks for posting the transcript, Bathtime. Very interesting. "These assets we were able to acquire and secure for $1.2 million. A lot of people thought we were crazy and probably spent too much. However, their replaceable insurance cost is $851 million. These assets are more than 95 per cent ideally suited for our new product, dissolving pulp. As we turn this project around and convert to dissolving pulp, we are able to take these $1.2 million assets that were heavily underutilized by the previous owner, and, once we are fully converted to dissolving pulp, even at the initial stages, given the current or spot price of dissolving pulp, the mill will generate just over $200 million in profit."

I get an error page ???

Thanks Bonechip. Do you have info about labor relations at the various plants? That's one thing that concerns me and that I haven't really seen mentioned anywhere.

You've made me take a second look at FTP, Bonechip. What's your take on IV and stock valuation right now? Stock went down pretty significantly lately. Buying opp?

That's one of my picks. I also think Robin Raina of EBIX has been doing an impressive job.

Gannon posted a review of it: http://www.gurufocus.com/news/128995/book-review-the-big-secret-for-the-small-investor

The more I learn about China, the more I think it's going to end badly.. Problem is, how long can it last? Who knows...

How old are Cumming and Steinberg?

http://www.financialpost.com/personal-finance/mortgages/Pricey+property+surge+drives+average/4621592/story.html

Value investors are too cheap to spend money on good microphones ;)

Not a prob Parsad, as long as it's available one way or another I'll be happy. What would be sad is if it was just available to the lucky few at the AGM and not to anybody else..

thanks Liberty, I found that very interesting. If you liked it, make sure to watch the video lecture that is referred to in the article, and if you want even more, read 'Good Calories, Bad Calories' by Gary Taubes, the author of that piece. Cheers!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html

Nice article. We should invite that guy to join this forum :)