jbwent63

I'm confused a bit here (maybe it's just a bit of friendly rounding...), but didnt FFH hold $330 MM of BB debentures, and just agreed to "roll" $150 MM, for net cash to FFH of $180 MM vs $200MM? I too am somewhat surprised that FFH didn't bargain for a better interest rate given the current environment or a lower warrant exercise price given the current share price, but there may be unknowable reasons for that (those reasons might become clearer in time). Anyway, I agree with Viking, good to reduce exposure at 100 cents on the dollar.

According to the Globe & Mail (via Yahoo! Finance home page and Reuters), John Chen is leaving Blackberry at the end of this week. (Reuters) -BlackBerry's CEO John Chen has resigned and will exit the company on Friday, the Globe and Mail reported on Monday citing a source familiar with the matter. The Canadian technology company is expected to announce an interim or full-time replacement, expected later in the day, according to the report, which did not give details on why Chen was leaving. U.S.-listed shares of the company gained 7% in late afternoon trading on the report. Chen joined BlackBerry in November 2013 and led the company's turnaround efforts in pivoting it from consumer hardware business to one that focused on enterprise software. Once known for its full-keyboard business phones, BlackBerry saw its business suffer after the launch of Apple's iPhone in 2007 and the rapid adoption of Android-powered smartphones around that time. It had since moved to focus on cybersecurity, in-car software and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Earlier this month, the company said it would separate the IoT and cybersecurity units and target a subsidiary initial public offering for the IoT business next fiscal year. Last year, it pulled the plug on its smartphones business and has since been trying to sell its legacy patents related to its mobile devices. BlackBerry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Never rating MKL at higher than 3 stars over the past few years is enough to cause me to dismiss this analyst's work. One star for FFH? Is he mixing currencies? FV in USD, price in CAD? Not credible. Pass.

Terrific discourse here folks. My $0.02 is that in valuing businesses you try to come up with maintainable earnings (EBITDA, EBIT etc.) which are based not only on history but your assessment of the future. Like some, I believe FFH has turned a corner and that the past is not a good indicator of the future. Of course with P&C insurance the CR could be 90 or 110, but based on recent history and the track record of underwriting FFH's subsidiaries have created, I would be more inclined to discount the chance of 110 much more than the liklihood of 90. In any event we all see things differently and I appreciate the views expressed by the above writers.

My tracking shows the portfolio crossed 3 TRILLION yen overnight. $20.3 Billion USD. Wow.

I apologize if this has already been covered, I didn't scroll back... I was thinking about the Pilot acquisition in re-reading the Q2 10-Q. BRK paid $8.2 B for about 41%, valuing the whole enterprise at about $20B, yet the earnings were only $186M for three months (pre-tax) and $322M for 5 months. Assuming no seasonality, pre-tax of $800M yields a pre-tax multiple of about 25X. I own ATD and it doesn't trade at that multiple. What am I missing? Thanks.

Thank you for the helpful response, unlike another just before yours....

I'm not sure if its me or not. Did BRK.A not close at June 30 with a price of $517,810 and the B share at $341? I'm not sure why Morningstar would be showing $459,210 as a closing value for the A shares on the same date.

Value after Tuesday bump after disclosure is about $20.64 B USD (2.922 T Yen). Debt at the time of the Q1 report (including April transactions disclosed) was about 1.1 T Yen. At about 1.0% (or less!). Dividends are coming in at multiples of the interest costs. Knocked it out of the park, over the stands into the parking lot! Link to website where disclosures are posted: https://disclosure2.edinet-fsa.go.jp/weee0040.aspx Type in National Indemnity and tick the box "Report of possession of large volume", and all the disclosures for all 5 stocks will appear. Go Warren!

+1

News: Westaim Raises US$87.4 Million in Secondary Offering of Skyward Specialty Shares; Redeems Preferred Shares 02:55 PM EDT, 06/12/2023 (MT Newswires) -- The Westaim Corp (WED.V) on Monday it closed a secondary offering of its shares in Skyward Specialty Insurance Group (SKWD), raising US$87.4 million. The private-equity company said it sold 3.99-million shares priced at US$23.00 in the offer, including the underwriters' over-allotment option. Westaim said it will use C$50 million of the proceeds to redeem all five million of its 5% subordinate preferred securities held by "certain affiliates of Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO)". It will also terminate a 2017 governance agreement with Fairfax, which will return an unspecified number of warrant to Westaim for cancellation. Westaim shares were last seen down C$0.03 to US$3.56 on the TSX Venture Exchange

I track the shares, and since March 31 as a group they are up over 29% vs. the Nikkei being up 17.75%. In terms of yen, the gain is about 558.5 billion yen (about $4 billion USD), and the total value of the shares held as of today is 2.465 trillion yen ($17.7 billion USD). Amazing performance.

If wildfires are started by arsonists, does that give the insurers an "out" to avoid claims? Subrogation would be difficult (assuming the firebug isn't a billionaire).

As to your first question, the calculation is book value, unadjusted. If you want tangible book value you would subtract those items. One could argue that the intangibles, recorded at historical cost, are significantly undervalued on that basis. NCI is an accounting valuation (on historical basis) of the portion of consolidated entities that Fairfax doesn't own. It should not be included in the equity calculation for the purposes of calculating the book value of common shares outstanding as it is the equity of the other shareholders. Hope that helps!

Is there an expectation that the video recordings will be made available after the meeting? I unfortunately could not attend nor have I been able to pay attention during the day. My feed for India didnt come on line until just after the management presentation (boo!). TIA

Got my passes in the mail today. Thanks to whomever noted that you could print the proxy off the EDGAR website and send it in. I haven't received my annual reports yet, but I have my passes for the meeting. I am in Canada.

Looks like some will be used to payoff yen denominated bonds coming due in April, 2023.

All the companies have very good investor relations sections on their websites in English with lots of interesting information. Happy digging!

Isn't Susan Decker considered the lead independent director? On another topic, how many shares of OXY do you think Omaha scooped up today?

LEGO Group would be an interesting, large addition especially given the recent acquisition of Jazwares (via Alleghany). It is owned (75%) by the founding Kristiansen family with the remainder in a trust. The current Chairman is fourth generation and the company has had a nice turnaround from a decade ago or so (the company I work for bought a small business from LEGO in the early 2000's). Not sure even the 75% would be for sale, but BRK would be a logical place for it to land should the family wish to divest.

Now if Blackberry would do the same!

Thank you, once again.

GFP, thanks for this. If you could also send along the year end list of owned common stocks for NICO that would be fantastic. Are you going to Omaha this year? I'd like to buy you a beer for your troubles.

Apologies that I cannot remember the user's name, but someone was posting the detailed listings of NICO's investments which listed all the stocks that company and its subs owned, including the foreign ones (Japanese, German, Australian etc.). I hope that person will do so again when the NICO filings are available for 12-31-22 with many thanks.

I didn't see an answer to this, so here goes. New England Asset Management was to my knowledge running some of GenRe's investments prior to its purchase by Berkshire. It appears that Warren has allowed them to continue to hold some of GenRe's equity investment allocation (most likely at Warren's direction due to changes made over the years in the GenRe equity held within NEAM). Not related to Alleghany at all.