jbwent63

It will most certainly be interesting to see how this was structured. Possible it was a simple loan from Parent Co to FIH? If it was share issuance, one would think that would be a disclosable event under securities regulations.

Has there ever been any disclosure by Fairfax of ownership of Peller shares prior to the announcement of the takeover? I don't see any mention of it in the press release.

Yes, RD is a good business, very challenging from a vendor standpoint (not a bad thing as an owner). I wonder if the Berkshire/Buffett model of not getting into auction-like situations also is a factor in not finding the elephant.

I would add that the only reason to look at the price every day is if you are actively looking to buy or sell. Otherwise it is just entertainment IMO. Has the information on May buybacks been released?

A couple of comments/thoughts: 1. The Japanese Trading Houses and Tokio Marine Holdings have a current market value of about $42.7 billion (even after the last month of significant underperformance vs the Nikkei 300). 2. Is it possible that in the background Google is dealing with BHE for electricity for its AI infrastructure build out, and BH's investment in GOOG is a way to ensure BHE is a long-term partner in that electricity business?

On BB, now that they are below 5%, we will not know if they sold more than what was disclosed in early May until or unless there is a press release or the filing of the next 13-F. If I had to guess, I would think they have already exited the position given the recent activity and share price...

Per the 2023 shareholder letter, the cost per share was $17.16 as of that date.

Between the Sanmar write-off in Q1 of about $75 million ($102-$27) along with the mark-to-market losses on the public company portfolio of about $400 million, the total loss is $475 million or just over $3.50 per share. Before any write-ups of BIAL or other profits, the BV of the shares will drop to below $19.50 at the end of Q1, a long way from $23.35 with 9 months to go. Looking forward to the Q1 report and update.

Unfortunately I am unable to attend this year as I will be away on vacation next week. I do not see it mentioned anywhere that there will be a replay of the meeting available nor can I find any historical meetings on the website. Does anyone know if there will be an option to view the meeting after it has been held?

We have now got the quarter-end closing prices for the 5 public companies. Their value in USD did not change from the comments above. In USD (roughly) the value of these holdings is down $400 million USD from year-end. Almost $3 US per share (assuming no material stock buybacks). As I write this, the FIH shares are trading at $16.41 vs the prior quarter end of $17.29, or about an 88 cent haircut. The BV/P ratio has most likely dropped significantly unless there are gains in non-public investments to make up some of this difference. Or, to put it another way, the discount to BV has narrowed, potentially substantially.

I was just looking at the change in the value in USD of the 5 public company investments held by FIH. They have dropped approximately $304 million USD ($2.25 per share) on a starting value of $1,220 million (about 25%). This is due in part to the decline of the rupee by about 3%, but the bulk of the decrease is from the INR price of the shares (wtd avg drop of 22.9% in local currency). With the FIH shares trading slightly up on the year, it appears either the price vs book value/intrinsic value is narrowing, or the market believes the non-public investments are making up for the public companies underperformance. For further reference, in local currency, the indexes are down around 10-11% for the YTD. Might be something to watch...creating an opportunity to buy or buyback at lower prices (one can hope).

I just hope that telegraphing that the buybacks are on (a couple of months before we would normally find out with the Q1 10-Q) the shares don't go above the intrinsic value calculated by Omaha! I took the announcement as Abel demonstrating to shareholders that he will be more forthcoming with information. I wish the annual report was twice as long with much more information....but that's me. An information junkie.

@gfp I'm hoping you can send these along again once the year end reports are filed. A few of us like to look way under the hood at the insurance subs. Many thanks in advance.

A new tradition starts tomorrow morning. Instead of Coffee with Warren on a Saturday morning in late February/early March, it is Coffee with Greg. It will be interesting to see what changes, or even improves or if Warren has anything to contribute. Not quite as much excitement as in prior years, probably trying to lower my expectations. Enjoy!

Hello all. This post may seem controversial, but I'm hoping it will spur some debate, or at least will show where my thinking is wrong. On page 2 of the press release, we can see that in Q4 2025 income before tax was $1,756 million. This included $717 million of gains on investments. If you were to exclude these gains (thinking like Buffett here....they wont always be there), you get $1,039 million. Using the same logic for Q4 2024, you get an amount that is double the 2025 amount ($1,677 + 403 = $2,080) (note that the $403 was a loss, which is why it is added back). For the year we see a similar result, although not as dramatic. Adjusted net income before tax for 2025 is $3,289 vs $4,571 in 2024. I'm usually quite good at analyzing income statements (insurance under IFRS is much more complex) and while I can see some small differences, I am having difficulty coming up with the reason this figure is only half what it was in the year prior quarter, and that the whole year is down by about 30% +/-. I'm thinking that the CR on a discounted basis is part of the story, in Q4 it was 410 bps higher than the prior year, and for the year it was 250 bps higher. Also it appears that the interest rate fluctuations caused a net negative that was larger in 2025 (gains in bonds did not offset financing costs on the float). Anyone else have any further observations. I'm trying to think about operating earnings (as a long time Berkshire shareholder, longer than Fairfax) vs. gains on investments. It appears to have deteriorated, perhaps masked by the outsized gains on the investment book. Thanks for reading.

It also appears that the $500 million of KW preferred shares held by Fairfax et al will be rolled into the deal. It also appears that the warrants issued with each tranche of preferred shares will be rendered worthless due to the strike prices being higher than the agreed to takeover price (as a result of KW no longer trading or ceasing to be under the Merger Agreement). It would be helpful if the future state of the equity box was clearer. Perhaps further disclosures will be forthcoming indicating the proceeds to FFH of the $1.65 billion investment to close. It is also a bit confusing as the 13-F filed today shows 13.322 million KW common shares owned by FFH, yet the 13D/A filed on November 4 shows 30.95 million or 19.9%, but this is disclosed pursuant to a shareholder agreement limiting FFH to 19.9%, the total potential number of shares controlled by FFH (upon exercise of all warrants) is 38.7 million (23.7%), but it doesn't appear that those warrants are being exercised.

Another follow Pierre Lassonde investment?

I've done some math, and I don't expect to be perfect as not all the purchases are disclosed in SEC filings, but to the best of my ability (and estimations) FFH has purchased 65,000,000 Class A and C common shares of UA (about 15.33% of all classes of common shares) at a total cost of about $339.2 million, or an average blended cost of $5.218. Shall we assume that we have now landed on a round number that the purchases have built the desired position, or do we think there will be more shares acquired? Value of shares at today's close is $401.1 million ($6.17 per share using the UAA quoted price).

The Fairfax Canadian holding company and all other Canadian subsidiaries file individual returns, unfortunately there is no consolidated corporate income tax returns here in Canada. The remainder of your post is accurate I believe. Assuming the profits earned are considered active income (aka safe income), the dividends would not be taxable in Canada. Dividends paid by one Canadian corporation to another do not attract tax in the recipient. There are thin cap rules that one must be careful of, but for insurance subs this would never be an issue.

Get in there and start buying, Prem. (Hopefully not in a blackout period)

It looks like the share count is much higher. Per the website, at the end of Q3 there were 3.378 billion shares outstanding, multiplied by 6.26% is about 211.46 million shares owned by Fairfax, so maybe slightly less than Q4-24.

I often think about Mr. Stanton and that missing 1/8 of a dollar. Warren may have still gotten into insurance in a big way (he was well versed on GEICO at that point), but he may have done it privately and we would have probably never heard of him, nor had the chance to easily invest alongside him. I know we shouldn't have regrets, but I wish I had learned about Buffett and Munger and BH a decade or so before I did (when the B shares were first issued for me). I'm interested to see how BH morphs over the next decade or so. Spin-offs, dividends, buybacks, acquisitions. All possibilities. I am lucky enough to have gotten in early, never sold a share, and BH is partially the reason for my family's financial health. I cannot wait to see what the Abel era brings. Thanks Warren (and Charlie, who still has nothing to add) for the teachings, learnings and entertainment along the way. What are people thinking about Omaha this year? Attending or not. Or waiting to see if/how the programming might change?

On this day when Warren retires, it is the shareholders of BRK who are thankful for the 60 years he was at the helm. One sterling recent example of his wealth creation for shareholders is the portfolio of Japanese holding companies that he created over the last decade. My tracking shows about 1.9 trillion yen in debt outstanding as of today, and the value of the shares held is about 5.47 trillion (almost $35 billion USD). The gain in 2025 alone is 1.6 trillion yen (about $10.2 billion USD), a 41.44% gain vs the Nikkei 225 which was up a solid 26.2% for the year. Marubeni was the best performer with an 81.9% gain. Note these returns do not include dividends. What an amazing gift he is leaving Greg Abel as he takes over the reins. (All figures based on public information and may not be 100% accurate).

While it may seem the FIH directors are under invested, do any of them have stakes in FFH of size, and therefore indirectly hold more shares of FIH than is disclosed in the FIH proxy statement? For example Ben and Prem... (Note, I haven't looked at the FFH proxy to tell, just making a general comment about indirect ownership that is possible).

Marc retiring is not a surprise. With WEB leaving it is a good time to retire. The additional corporate positions are also not surprising. A new leader for CSR and a legal addition, given the legal issues at BHE, both make perfect sense. Todd's departure is surprising. I wonder if he and Greg have issues, or if he and Ted had issues, and he saw an opportunity and jumped at it (good for him!). It's unlikely we will ever get this granular information, but the market is speaking with a 2+% downdraft at the time of this writing. Of course, whenever an employee leaves, it is always a chance to improve the team. It will be interesting to see what, if any, additions to the investment team are forthcoming. With Ajit, of course we all hope he is there forever, but that isn't going to happen. One idea would be to have Berkshire purchase MKL, and bring its investing group into the fold (Gayner et al) along with additional insurance management to choose Ajit's replacement from. (Unlikely I know, but who knows).