Wintaai Holdings Ltd (not listed)

[Parsad]

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240725957346/en/AM-Best-Revises-Outlooks-to-Positive-for-Members-of-Stonetrust-Insurance-Group

 

Cheers!

[TorontoChaosTheatre]

Is it weird that I really want a Francis Chou iron bust... I must have relistened to his speech at Ivey on loggerhead 5 times already in the past couple of months. It's brilliant what he did. 

 

These are the Confessions of a Chou-aholic... part 1...

 

 

 

Something like the below, but you can add Prem for an extra fee. Chou is smarter than Prem, and his head is larger, and hence, this should be reflected in the size of the bust. 

 

Very happy to have exposure again through McElvaine fund personally (family was forced seller for non-economic reasons). I want my mom to hold 4eva this time instead of getting another divorce where she needs to pay some random dude half our stuff— please, no more CRAPDU (Cannot Realize A Profit Dudes) Mom. 

 

I am going to the Prem Watsa Empire Club event, it should be fun. If anyone here is going I would love to buy you some food and hear your thoughts.

 

 

 Happy bargain hunting! 

 

 

Edited January 11 by TorontoChaosTheatre

[longlake95]

Only 15 students in the class. Value still out of favour, probably better times ahead for “value”. 

[jfan]

@TorontoChaosTheatre

 

Francis has tremendously changed my families' lives. I have the utmost respect for him, his character, his values and his work ethic. He is not Buffett, Munger or Prem, but internalizes their wisdom to suit his own personal style. He is a gem. 

 

Being a mutual fund manager is challenging, always dependent on the fickleness of your fundholders and their lack of patience. I am truly glad that Francis has found a permanent capital vehicle to which he can do his thing. 

 

I know Francis is very private and humble but Wintaai has outperformed Fairfax and Berkshire by leaps and bounds over the past 4 years. I found it refreshing that he is doing this in private away from fickle fundholders, shareholders in a low cost manner. 

 

Is he infallible? No. But he doesn't carry himself to be all-knowing. This quality is very unvalued amongst money managers. 

 

 

[longlake95]

13 minutes ago, jfan said:

@TorontoChaosTheatre

 

Francis has tremendously changed my families' lives. I have the utmost respect for him, his character, his values and his work ethic. He is not Buffett, Munger or Prem, but internalizes their wisdom to suit his own personal style. He is a gem. 

 

Being a mutual fund manager is challenging, always dependent on the fickleness of your fundholders and their lack of patience. I am truly glad that Francis has found a permanent capital vehicle to which he can do his thing. 

 

I know Francis is very private and humble but Wintaai has outperformed Fairfax and Berkshire by leaps and bounds over the past 4 years. I found it refreshing that he is doing this in private away from fickle fundholders, shareholders in a low cost manner. 

 

Is he infallible? No. But he doesn't carry himself to be all-knowing. This quality is very unvalued amongst money managers. 

 

 

All agreed. He helped me 20 years ago (via an email exchange) to clarify some ideas/concepts about value investing, that I clearly, was too dumb to understand at the time. He didn’t have to - but he did. The world would be a much better place if we had more people like Chou. 

Edited Sunday at 05:05 PM by longlake95

[mananainvesting]

Does he write letters? I have seen his Ivey video, wondering if anyone is willing to share his quarterly/annual letters? Looking to learn and get some investment ideas. I met him once the day before Fairfax Annual meeting, he seemed like a wonderful person. Glad the Fairfax family has good/honest/humble people who they call friends.

[gfp]

8 minutes ago, mananainvesting said:

Does he write letters? I have seen his Ivey video, wondering if anyone is willing to share his quarterly/annual letters? Looking to learn and get some investment ideas. I met him once the day before Fairfax Annual meeting, he seemed like a wonderful person. Glad the Fairfax family has good/honest/humble people who they call friends.

 

Lots of annual and quarterly letters on page one of this thread

 

Edited Sunday at 05:33 PM by gfp

[mananainvesting]

11 minutes ago, gfp said:

 

Lots of annual and quarterly letters on page one of this thread

 

Thank you

[TorontoChaosTheatre]

mananainvesting https://www.choufunds.com/pdf/Letters of the Manager Since 1998.pdf

 

I read these at least once a year. I always find something new. Another source that might interest you is an interview he did in Robin Speziale's book, (this link isn't the really good stuff).

 https://robinrspeziale.com/2017/03/02/my-interview-with-francis-chou/

Edited Monday at 02:33 AM by TorontoChaosTheatre

[Parsad]

Francis is probably the nicest person you will ever meet.  Believe it or not, he's quite shy, quiet and introverted, but opens up whenever people start talking to him about investments.  He has the utmost respect for Prem and is incredibly humble...I think he would be the perfect Berkshire manager, not unlike Peter Cundill, who Buffett touted once as the type of investment manager he could see at Berkshire before hiring the two T's.  Francis bought shares of Fairfax at $3 when it first started and he's never sold a single share.  Cheers!

[mananainvesting]

Thanks @TorontoChaosTheatre

 

@Parsad: Thanks, I think Francis would be fantastic for Fairfax, do you know why he isn’t on the Board? Is it cause he also runs a fund/insurance and could have conflict of interest?

[TorontoChaosTheatre]

 

Francis Chou's ultimate boss move. Simply epic. Also, is Brian Bradstreet's real first name Frederick? lol. 

[TorontoChaosTheatre]

 

WHERE CAN I BUY A COPY? OR BORROW IT? PLEASE I BEG YOU. I WILL CLEAN YOUR HOUSE. I WILL SHOVEL SNOW. I WILL WALK YOUR DOG. I WILL DO ANYTHING FOR A COPY PLEEEEEEEEEAAAAASSSSSSEEEEEEEE!!! (I would use more exclamation marks but Prem took them all). I am in Scarborough but will go anywhere in the GTA or beyond for a copy. 

[mananainvesting]

I moved to US, and emailed Investor Relations who sent me a copy. I am sure they will send you too. Can you email me, I will share the IR’s email to you directly, It is a person’s email so don’t want to share publicly. My email: [email protected]. 

 

 

[TorontoChaosTheatre]

Just emailed you, thank you so much and very thoughtful of you.

[Parsad]

2 hours ago, mananainvesting said:

Thanks @TorontoChaosTheatre

 

@Parsad: Thanks, I think Francis would be fantastic for Fairfax, do you know why he isn’t on the Board? Is it cause he also runs a fund/insurance and could have conflict of interest?

 

Francis used to be a VP at Fairfax and sat on the investment committee.  At that time, Fairfax had put some money into Francis' funds and Francis decided that it would be a conflict of interest to stay on while managing money separately for Fairfax.  

 

I think the same issue would come up if Francis sat on the board.  If at some time, he no longer manages any money for Fairfax, as he is independently wealthy, maybe they will ask him to join. 

 

Regardless, he's still there as an advisor or sounding board to Prem whenever Prem needs him, and I would suspect any future board without Prem would feel the same way, especially since Prem's children are on the board now.  Cheers!

[gfp]

1 hour ago, Parsad said:

 

Francis used to be a VP at Fairfax and sat on the investment committee.  At that time, Fairfax had put some money into Francis' funds and Francis decided that it would be a conflict of interest to stay on while managing money separately for Fairfax.  

 

I think the same issue would come up if Francis sat on the board.  If at some time, he no longer manages any money for Fairfax, as he is independently wealthy, maybe they will ask him to join. 

 

Regardless, he's still there as an advisor or sounding board to Prem whenever Prem needs him, and I would suspect any future board without Prem would feel the same way, especially since Prem's children are on the board now.  Cheers!

 

Didn't seem to put up any conflict flags with Ben Watsa

[TorontoChaosTheatre]

3 hours ago, gfp said:

 

Didn't seem to put up any conflict flags with Ben Watsa

SHOTS FIRED IN COBF, REPEAT SHOTS FIRED. 

[mananainvesting]

4 hours ago, gfp said:

 

Didn't seem to put up any conflict flags with Ben Watsa

The comments states Francis decided to part ways due to conflict of interest, not that Fairfax did. I guess Ben is cool with it. As long as the fund is performing well, >10% returns, I personally don’t care.

[Parsad]

19 hours ago, TorontoChaosTheatre said:

SHOTS FIRED IN COBF, REPEAT SHOTS FIRED. 

 

Hilarious!  

 

23 hours ago, gfp said:

 

Didn't seem to put up any conflict flags with Ben Watsa

 

I think there is a difference between Ben and Francis.  When Prem passes, Ben, Christine, Stephanie and Nalini will become the largest individual shareholders of Fairfax.  Ben is also a director...before they put any money into his fund...whereas this was the opposite with Francis.  Lastly, it was Francis who initiated the conflict of interest reason for leaving, not Prem.  I don't think it was an issue for Fairfax...it was an issue for Francis, because it was attracting unwarranted attention to Fairfax at the time the hedge funds were attacking.  Francis is loyal to a fault and he felt it was better to distance himself as a VP of Fairfax and a money manager of Fairfax funds.  Cheers!