Fairfax stock positions

[SafetyinNumbers]

2 hours ago, Hoodlum said:

Sleep Country has purchased Bed Bath and Beyond name and logo rights for Canada and the UK.  They plan on relaunching the retailer in 2026 with physical stores and online.  I am not sure what they plan to do this time that would be any different from the previous owners. 

 

https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/business/sleep-country-canada-charting-revival-of-bed-bath-beyond-next-year/article_8c7a47b2-0f9a-5cc9-85a2-6d3072e59170.html

My guess is that this a low risk / high reward set up. If it doesn’t work out it won’t cost too much. 

[Hoodlum]

I was not familiar with the MW Eats restaurants and found this article provided an interesting overview of the foods/experience that they provide. 

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lmowery/2025/12/04/is-london-the-top-city-in-the-world-for-this-cuisine-these-chefs-say-yes/

[Hoodlum]

Fairfax has sold 25M share of ORLA @ $17.64/share, which is 8-9% below yesterday's closing price but just 5% below Wednesday's price.  This is about 25% higher than what Newmont sold their 43M share for just ten weeks ago.  Fairfax has not converted any debt or warrants to shares as of yet.  

 

https://www.fairfax.ca/press-releases/fairfax-sells-common-shares-of-orla-2025-12-05/

 

Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (“Fairfax”) (TSX: FFH and FFH.U) announced that it has sold, through its insurance company subsidiaries, 25,000,000 common shares (the “Common Shares”) of Orla Mining Ltd. (TSX: OLA) (“Orla”) at a price of CDN$17.6435 per Common Share for aggregate proceeds of approximately CDN$441.1 million (US$316.1 million) (the “Share Sale”). The Share Sale occurred in connection with the rebalancing of investment portfolios of Fairfax.

 

Immediately prior to the Share Sale, Fairfax, through its insurance company subsidiaries, beneficially owned or controlled: (i) 56,817,229 Common Shares; (ii) US$150,000,000 principal amount of senior unsecured convertible notes (the “Notes”) of Orla, which are convertible into Common Shares at Fairfax’s option at a conversion price per Common Share of CDN$7.90; and (iii) 17,544,302 warrants (“Warrants”), which allow Fairfax to acquire up to 17,544,302 Common Shares at an exercise price of CDN$11.50 per Warrant, representing approximately 16.7% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares (on a non-diluted basis) and approximately 26.3% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares (on a partially-diluted basis, assuming conversion of the Notes and exercise of the Warrants). Following the Share Sale, Fairfax, through its subsidiaries, beneficially owns and controls: (i) 31,817,229 Common Shares; (ii) US$150,000,000 principal amount of Notes; and (iii) 17,544,302 Warrants, representing approximately 9.4% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares (on a non-diluted basis) and approximately 19.8% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares (on a partially-diluted basis, assuming conversion of the Notes and exercise of the Warrants).

Edited December 5, 2025 by Hoodlum

[Junior R]

22 minutes ago, Hoodlum said:

Fairfax has sold 25M share of ORLA @ $17.64/share, which is 8-9% below yesterday's closing price but just 5% below Wednesday's price.  This is about 25% higher than what Newmont sold their 43M share for just ten weeks ago.  Fairfax has not converted any debt or warrants to shares as of yet.  

 

https://www.fairfax.ca/press-releases/fairfax-sells-common-shares-of-orla-2025-12-05/

 

Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (“Fairfax”) (TSX: FFH and FFH.U) announced that it has sold, through its insurance company subsidiaries, 25,000,000 common shares (the “Common Shares”) of Orla Mining Ltd. (TSX: OLA) (“Orla”) at a price of CDN$17.6435 per Common Share for aggregate proceeds of approximately CDN$441.1 million (US$316.1 million) (the “Share Sale”). The Share Sale occurred in connection with the rebalancing of investment portfolios of Fairfax.

 

Immediately prior to the Share Sale, Fairfax, through its insurance company subsidiaries, beneficially owned or controlled: (i) 56,817,229 Common Shares; (ii) US$150,000,000 principal amount of senior unsecured convertible notes (the “Notes”) of Orla, which are convertible into Common Shares at Fairfax’s option at a conversion price per Common Share of CDN$7.90; and (iii) 17,544,302 warrants (“Warrants”), which allow Fairfax to acquire up to 17,544,302 Common Shares at an exercise price of CDN$11.50 per Warrant, representing approximately 16.7% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares (on a non-diluted basis) and approximately 26.3% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares (on a partially-diluted basis, assuming conversion of the Notes and exercise of the Warrants). Following the Share Sale, Fairfax, through its subsidiaries, beneficially owns and controls: (i) 31,817,229 Common Shares; (ii) US$150,000,000 principal amount of Notes; and (iii) 17,544,302 Warrants, representing approximately 9.4% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares (on a non-diluted basis) and approximately 19.8% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares (on a partially-diluted basis, assuming conversion of the Notes and exercise of the Warrants).

did anyone calculate the gains on this?

[Hoodlum]

19 minutes ago, Junior R said:

did anyone calculate the gains on this?

 

Are you referring to the gain since the initial investments or the gain since end of Q3.  My understanding is that Orla share are marked to market, so any gains up to the end of Q3 were already accounted for in earnings.

 

Edited December 5, 2025 by Hoodlum

[Santayana]

I see that Orla also just announced that they will start paying a dividend.  

 

https://orlamining.com/news/orla-mining-announces-inaugural-dividend-and-quarterly-dividend-program/

 

Vancouver, BC – December 3, 2025– Orla Mining Ltd. (TSX: OLA; NYSE: ORLA) (“Orla” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that its Board of Directors has declared an inaugural quarterly cash dividend of US$0.015 per common share of the Company (the “Shares”), which is payable on February 10, 2026 to shareholders of record as at the close of business on the record date of January 12, 2026. The Board of Directors has also approved a policy under which the Company intends to pay a regular quarterly dividend of US$0.015 per Share, or US$0.06 per Share annually. The decision underscores the Company’s strong financial strength, confidence in its long-term growth strategy, and commitment to returning capital to shareholders. 

 

 

[Santayana]

Excited to see what they do with the proceeds. Or maybe this is how they're paying for buying back the preferreds.

[SafetyinNumbers]

27 minutes ago, Santayana said:

Excited to see what they do with the proceeds. Or maybe this is how they're paying for buying back the preferreds.

It’s important to understand that the investments are held mainly inside the insurance companies. To the extent capital is used by the holdco for buybacks and to redeem preferred, it’s from dividending up from the insurance subsidiaries which have a lot of excess capital and earn more every day. 

[Santayana]

12 minutes ago, SafetyinNumbers said:

It’s important to understand that the investments are held mainly inside the insurance companies. To the extent capital is used by the holdco for buybacks and to redeem preferred, it’s from dividending up from the insurance subsidiaries which have a lot of excess capital and earn more every day. 

Thanks for reminding me of that detail.  I always forget how the plumbing is working behind the scenes.

[Viking]

Fairfax announced today they sold 25% of their stake in Orla Mining, a gold company, for total proceeds of $316 million. How did the investment perform? Very well. My estimate is with the sale Fairfax locked in a gain of about $223 million or 240% over the past 2 years (average holding period). The management team at Fairfax continues their exceptional performance - they have been putting on a master-class when it comes to capital allocation over the past 5 years - Orla is just the latest example (the list of very successful investments is getting long).

 

Orla is a market-to-market holding - my estimate is the sale will generate a realized investment gain of about $46 million in Q4. 

 

Edited December 5, 2025 by Viking

[Parsad]

Sleep Country Canada to revive the Bed Bath & Beyond brand in Canada and possibly the UK.  Cheers!

 

Sleep Country Canada to revive Bed Bath & Beyond | Watch

[Hoodlum]

19 hours ago, Parsad said:

Sleep Country Canada to revive the Bed Bath & Beyond brand in Canada and possibly the UK.  Cheers!

 

Sleep Country Canada to revive Bed Bath & Beyond | Watch

Here is a bit more on this acquisition.  
 

https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2025/12/sleep-country-ceo-plans-canadian-relaunch-of-bed-bath-beyond/
 

Additional details about the brand’s return will be shared prior to the grand opening scheduled for Q3 2026.

 

Schaefer said the Canadian relaunch of Bed Bath & Beyond will be with a smaller store format, a refreshed product mix and an initial digital-first approach.

 

The expansion into the U.K. aligns with Sleep Country’s acquisition of Simba, a bed-in-a-box brand Schaefer called “the largest and most well-known” in that market. He said the UK business also includes a “fabulous digital team.”

 

Schaefer said the company’s goal is to bring Bed Bath & Beyond “back to its heyday” with a curated assortment focused primarily on bed and bath. “It won’t be as deep and wide as it was before,” he said, noting that the previous chain had neglected core categories. “They weren’t doing the mattresses, they weren’t doing their headboards, they were doing very little bed linens.” 

 

Sleep Country will incorporate its own brands — including Casper, Endy, Hush and Silk & Snow — into the revived chain. While kitchen products will be part of the assortment, Schaefer said the company plans to bring in specialists to develop that segment.

 

 

 

Edited December 6, 2025 by Hoodlum

[backtothebeach]

Whenever I hear "Sleep Country" I start thinking about how sleep is such a hot subject in the longevity/health community, and there may be a huge opportunity in smart mattresses etc.. But it is probably too much of a niche still, according to Grok only a 1-2% market share, albeit with slightly higher gross margins.

[villainx]

11 minutes ago, backtothebeach said:

huge opportunity in smart mattresses etc.

 

how long until NVDA invests and puts in chips, or OpenAI partnership?

 

 

[dartmonkey]

On 12/5/2025 at 2:47 PM, Viking said:

Fairfax announced today they sold 25% of their stake in Orla Mining, a gold company, for total proceeds of $316 million. How did the investment perform? Very well. My estimate is with the sale Fairfax locked in a gain of about $223 million or 240% over the past 2 years (average holding period). The management team at Fairfax continues their exceptional performance - they have been putting on a master-class when it comes to capital allocation over the past 5 years - Orla is just the latest example (the list of very successful investments is getting long).

 

Orla is a market-to-market holding - my estimate is the sale will generate a realized investment gain of about $46 million in Q4. 

 

Here are some more numbers. Actually, they sold 25m of their 56,817,229 shares, not 25%, although this may end up being somewhere near 25% of the full investment, when you include the investment in preferred shares and warrants which was of a similar size to the stock investment. For the shares, Grok tells me the cost basis is ~C$5.47 per share, close enough to your figure and I don't think they have announced the exact figure. So for the shares, a total cost basis of 5.47*56.8m = C$310.8m. (All currency numbers in $C henceforth unless mentioned.)

 

At the announced sale price of $17.6435, that makes for aggregate proceeds of approximately CDN$441.1 million (US$316.1 million). Since they give the amount in CAD and USD, we can impute that the exchange rate was 1.39544, consistent with a sale on Friday (they say they announced today that they sold 25% of their stake, not necessarily that they sold it on the day they announced it, but it may be that the sale really was dated on Friday Dec 5th.)

 

That would mean their profit is 25m*(17.6435-5.47)= $304.3m. Eyeballing it, most of the shares were purchased in Q3 2022, Q1 2023 and Q3 2023, so let's say February 2023 very approximately, so we have held the shares on average for about 1 5/6 years. The gain on shares would be $304.3 + the gain on the remaining 31.817m shares, or another 31.8m*(17.10-5.47)= another $370.0, for a total gain of about $713.3m. This is a stunning gain of 230% in CAD, or 92% annualized from Feb 1st 2024. And that's just for the share component.

 

They also have, since November 2024:

(i) notes with US$150 million principal amount, convertible at Fairfax's option into 26,582,275 common shares at CDN$7.90 per share (maturity in 2030, with interest paid quarterly).

(ii) 17,544,302 warrants, exercisable into an equal number of common shares at CDN$11.50 per share (expiring in 2030).

 

At today's ORLA price of $17.10, that means the notes, if converted today, would be good for another gain of 26.58m*(17.10-7.90)= $309m, and the warrants also have intrinsic value gains of another 17.5m*(17.10-11.50)= $98.2m.

 

Adding up all the gains, we have $304.3m on the sale, $370.0m unrealized on the remaining shares, $309.2m on the convertible notes and $98.2m on the warrants, or a total of $1081.7m. The cost basis is $310.8m for the shares, from about February 2024, and US$150m for the notes and warrants, from November 2024. The exchange rate in November was about the same as now, say $1.40, so the total cost basis of the notes is about C$210m. In other words, they have turned $521m into $1604m over an average holding period of about a year and a half, plus a little interest. Amazing, and I think this would definitely merit more than one exclamation point next March!

Edited December 8, 2025 by dartmonkey
corrected for an error in the sale price of the 25m shares sold on Friday

[Hoodlum]

On 12/4/2025 at 2:59 PM, Haryana said:

Putman Investments, which owns Toys "R" Us Canada and HMV, quietly closed all of its Rooms + Spaces stores recently. It opened the concept in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, after snapping up 21 properties left vacant through Bed Bath & Beyond and BuyBuy Baby's demise.

 

I see that Jumbo from Greece is coming to Canada with first 3 stores opening in 2026.  I suspect that they will be taking over some of the ToysRUs leases.  Jumbo bought a mall from Eurobank last month for 10M Euro.  It would not surprise me if Prem helped to make this happen with Fairfax's involvement with Putman Investments and his connections in Greece. I don't believe there is any financial involvement from Fairfax for this Jumbo move into Canada.

 

https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/business/greek-retail-giant-jumbo-heads-to-canada-with-first-ontario-stores-in-2026

 

Edited December 9, 2025 by Hoodlum

[Jaygo]

I visited Team Town Sports managed by the sporting life group. 

 

Hands down the best sports store i've been too. Not a bass pro style as its purely focused on athletics rather than sportsman or winter wear. 

 

Unfortunately the location sucks as its in the far west GTA and a bit of a pain to get to. I talked to the assistant manager and she mentioned traffic was really slow and sited the location as a big issue. If this was in Vaughan or North York it would do very well. Good pricing and really impressive selection. 

 

My guess is the locations were chosen for their cheap leases to test the water vs a huge expensive lease that would come with a more central location. No matter what sporting goods is tough when you have Walmart and Canadian tire on the low end and tons of independents on the high end plus the very competitive SVP in the middle ground. Not a business I would want to wade into but interesting that Fairfax really like consumer facing franchises. They seem terrible but what do I know.

 

I did my part and spent 350 beaver bucks on some Christmas swag for the fam and a beauty WC 26 Espana scarf for myself.

[SafetyinNumbers]

Farmers Edge launching a new division, Covian, to go after agtech. 
 

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251210543212/en/Farmers-Edge-Announces-Corvian-A-New-Enterprise-Technology-Division-Built-to-Accelerate-Digital-Transformation-Across-Agriculture-and-Sustainable-Supply-Chains?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=bookmark

[Hoodlum]

S&P has upgraded Seaspan Corp to ‘BB’ based on improved profitability.  There is a lot of good information in their review of Seaspan and definitely worth the read.  
 

https://www.spglobal.com/ratings/en/regulatory/article/-/view/type/HTML/id/3494584

 

 

Edited December 16, 2025 by Hoodlum

[Hoodlum]

S&P also provided a debt rating for Recipe Unlimited in October.  It provides some insight on its financials, that we normally don’t have visibility to.  The Keg contributed $700M in annual sales.

 

 https://www.spglobal.com/ratings/en/regulatory/article/-/view/type/HTML/id/3462613

 

 
 

 

[Crip1]

I'm on vacation right now with very limited connectivity. But I just got in my feed that euromack is up over 15% today? Is this right and, if so, any ideas why?

 

-Crip 

[Viking]

9 minutes ago, Crip1 said:

I'm on vacation right now with very limited connectivity. But I just got in my feed that euromack is up over 15% today? Is this right and, if so, any ideas why?

 

-Crip 

Eurobank? Yahoo Finance says stock (EUROB.AT) is €3.48, down a little on the day??? (I hope you are right!)

Edited December 16, 2025 by Viking

[Crip1]

1 minute ago, Viking said:

Eurobank? Yahoo Finance says stock is €3.48, down a little on the day??? (I hope you are right!)

 

[Hoodlum]

I see that 67M shares traded at the close today (EUROB.AT).   That is 8x daily avg volume or ~1.8% of outstanding shares.  Would this be Fairfax selling?  I don't know what the US$ ticker has to do with this.  

 

Edited December 16, 2025 by Hoodlum

[SafetyinNumbers]

EUROB was halted for a few days because they did a reorganization where they merged the holdco into the operating company. I wonder if there was a build up of passive rebalancing or something like that which caused the volatility.