Parsad Posted May 24 Posted May 24 https://www.fairfax.ca/press-releases/fairfax-announces-the-passing-of-ramaswamy-athappan-2024-05-23/?utm_source=press-release&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Fri+May+24+2024&utm_campaign=Fairfax+Announces+the+Passing+of+Ramaswamy+Athappan Mr. Athappan was a brilliant insurance operator. You owe your thanks to him for Fairfax Asia! He was a very nice man and spoke a few times at our dinner. Condolences to his son Gobinath and his family! Cheers!
Viking Posted May 24 Posted May 24 (edited) 1 hour ago, Parsad said: https://www.fairfax.ca/press-releases/fairfax-announces-the-passing-of-ramaswamy-athappan-2024-05-23/?utm_source=press-release&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Fri+May+24+2024&utm_campaign=Fairfax+Announces+the+Passing+of+Ramaswamy+Athappan Mr. Athappan was a brilliant insurance operator. You owe your thanks to him for Fairfax Asia! He was a very nice man and spoke a few times at our dinner. Condolences to his son Gobinath and his family! Cheers! Mr. Athappan was one of the founding members of the $1 billion club at Fairfax - individuals who have built enormous value for Fairfax and its shareholders over the years. "Mr. Athappan was an exceptional leader with an incredible track record of success." In 2017, Fairfax sold First Capital for $1.7 billion and booked a $1 billion gain after-tax. The amount Fairfax received from this sale was a complete shocker at the time. First Capital was an insurance business based in Singapore that in 2016 had shareholders’ equity of $473 million and gross premiums written of $384 million. CR was 86.4% and underwriting profit was $41 million. The story of how Mr Athappan built First Capital is an epic tale. And it highlights beautifully so much of what Fairfax actually does right (that still gets very little attention today). Pick the right partner/founder. Decentralized corporate structure. Nurture. Loyalty. Patience. Let compounding work its magic. Here is what Prem had to say in his 2017 Shareholder Letter: "...Mr. Athappan has had an incredible record with us in building First Capital. We provided $35 million in 2002 to let him establish First Capital; 15 years later, with no additional capital having been added, he had grown First Capital to be the largest P&C company in Singapore and with the Mitsui Sumitomo deal, gave us back $1.7 billion. That’s a compound rate of return of approximately 30% annually. A fantastic track record by Mr. Athappan!” Mr Athappan has his fingerprints all over many of Fairfax’s many insurance acquisitions in Southeast Asia over the past 20 years. As a result, Fairfax has built out a significant platform in a very important region that should continue to grow nicely in the coming years. Below Prem explains why Fairfax agreed to sell First Capital: “For the past two years, Mr. Athappan has come to me saying that he had taken First Capital as far as he could in the commercial property and casualty business in Singapore and that he needed a partner like Mitsui with a brand name to build the personal lines business. I refused him twice as I really did not want to sell First Capital. His continued persistence, his position as the founder of the company, and the fact that he would continue to run Fairfax Asia and First Capital and we would have a 25% quota share in the business of First Capital going forward persuaded us, with unanimous support from our officers and directors, to form a global alliance with Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company and sell First Capital to them. We worked very closely with Matsumoto san, the Senior Executive Officer of International Business of Mitsui Sumitomo, and his team, and the partnership is going very well. Through our cooperation agreement with Mitsui Sumitomo, we have been working together on a number of fronts including opportunities on reinsurance, shared business and products and innovation to name a few. We are very excited to be a partner with Mitsui Sumitomo. Total proceeds from the sale of First Capital were $1.7 billion, resulting in an after-tax gain of $1.0 billion. I do want to emphasize that we agreed to this global alliance and sale only because of its truly unique circumstances and we do not see this being repeated! Our companies are not for sale, period!” Edited May 24 by Viking
Hektor Posted May 24 Posted May 24 7 hours ago, Parsad said: https://www.fairfax.ca/press-releases/fairfax-announces-the-passing-of-ramaswamy-athappan-2024-05-23/?utm_source=press-release&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Fri+May+24+2024&utm_campaign=Fairfax+Announces+the+Passing+of+Ramaswamy+Athappan Mr. Athappan was a brilliant insurance operator. You owe your thanks to him for Fairfax Asia! He was a very nice man and spoke a few times at our dinner. Condolences to his son Gobinath and his family! Cheers! RIP
Parsad Posted June 5 Author Posted June 5 Didn't see it posted, but as expected, Gobinath has taken over as CEO of Fairfax Asia after his father's passing. https://www.fairfax.ca/press-releases/personnel-announcement-june-4-2024/ Cheers!
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