oec2000 Posted March 7, 2009 Posted March 7, 2009 http://www.fairfax.ca/Assets/Downloads/AR2008.pdf I get a nice warm and fuzzy feeling reading it! ;D Makes me want to go out and buy more LEAPs - oops, too late, markets are closed for the week.
vinod1 Posted March 7, 2009 Posted March 7, 2009 Anyone know why printing the AR is not being allowed from Adobe?
Guest ericopoly Posted March 7, 2009 Posted March 7, 2009 They paid $21.93 for their Wells Fargo shares. Still no mention of their total portfolio yield (unless I missed it).
nodnub Posted March 7, 2009 Posted March 7, 2009 Vinod, It won't print because the document security settings has been set to forbid printing or copying content from the report. It may not be intentional. I am not sure why they would do that intentionally.
oec2000 Posted March 7, 2009 Author Posted March 7, 2009 Anyone know why printing the AR is not being allowed from Adobe? Time for you to get the kindle - then you don't need to print out. No, I am not long AMZN. ;)
omagh Posted March 7, 2009 Posted March 7, 2009 Anyone know why printing the AR is not being allowed from Adobe? Hi Vinod, You can print this version filed with the SEC... http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/915191/000090956709000229/o54015aexv1.htm http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/915191/000090956709000229/0000909567-09-000229-index.htm http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/915191/000090956709000228/0000909567-09-000228-index.htm -O
vinod1 Posted March 7, 2009 Posted March 7, 2009 Omagh - Thanks! Nodnub - I wonder if this is FFH's attempt at going green :) oec2000 - Can we read other documents besides books on Kindle? If I can read annual reports, I am going to buy one. Vinod
rmitz Posted March 7, 2009 Posted March 7, 2009 In my opinion, the screen on the kindle is too small to display a whole 8.5x11" page legibly. I am still waiting for an eink based reader which has a physical size of at least A4 for the screen.
StubbleJumper Posted March 7, 2009 Posted March 7, 2009 I've perused the AR. A very complete document, as always. I really feel better about the company when I look at the accident year loss triangles and see the performance of the past 5 or 6 years at C&F! I am completely baffled about why this company was trading at US$220 over the past week. The $1.5B in holding company cash is a wonderful wild card. It is entirely conceivable that a portion of this could be used to repurchase a couple million shares at current prices, with no meaningful effect on holdco strength. A gift from Mr. Market? SJ
rogermunibond Posted March 7, 2009 Posted March 7, 2009 There already is such a creature... https://www.irexshop.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_35&products_id=69&osCsid=da8958780eeee3476978a3f5a6055df7 Plus, there's Plastic Logic's product due out in 2010. That's the game changer IMO. http://www.plasticlogic.com/product.html
Guest ericopoly Posted March 7, 2009 Posted March 7, 2009 The $1.5B in holding company cash is a wonderful wild card. It is entirely conceivable that a portion of this could be used to repurchase a couple million shares at current prices, with no meaningful effect on holdco strength. A gift from Mr. Market? SJ Don't forget the $1.5B is the amount they have before they pay for NB.
rmitz Posted March 7, 2009 Posted March 7, 2009 There already is such a creature... https://www.irexshop.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_35&products_id=69&osCsid=da8958780eeee3476978a3f5a6055df7 Plus, there's Plastic Logic's product due out in 2010. That's the game changer IMO. http://www.plasticlogic.com/product.html Actually, I had an iRex a couple years ago (tested it out for work). Still not big enough for me, and frankly the construction was clunky and rather difficult to use overall. But I am looking forward to the latter product! That's essentially what I've been waiting for.
berkshiremystery Posted March 7, 2009 Posted March 7, 2009 Anyone know why printing the AR is not being allowed from Adobe? vinod,... i just wanted to let you know, that i could print a test page very well (PDF page 6/=AR page 4) with Adobe. just don't want to waste my ink ;) maybe they have corrected the printing/settings error.
StubbleJumper Posted March 7, 2009 Posted March 7, 2009 The $1.5B in holding company cash is a wonderful wild card. It is entirely conceivable that a portion of this could be used to repurchase a couple million shares at current prices, with no meaningful effect on holdco strength. A gift from Mr. Market? SJ Don't forget the $1.5B is the amount they have before they pay for NB. Good point. I guess they can "only" re-purchase a couple million shares before going below Prem's $500m threshold for holding company cash. ;) :P SJ
Viking Posted March 8, 2009 Posted March 8, 2009 Regarding hold co cash, yes NB needs to be paid for. Fortunately, they also should have decent capacity at the subs and runoff to pay another round of healthy dividends this year (based on earning last year). Lots of flexibility and lots of good options... I wonder if FFH was in a blackout period prior to the annual being released?
oec2000 Posted March 8, 2009 Author Posted March 8, 2009 Also, once NB is wholly-owned, they have more flexibility in "dividending" out surplus capital to holdco. The net impact on holdco cash will likely be somewhat less than the cash required for the buy out.
Guest ericopoly Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 They list their big three investments to possibly hold for the long term: Johnson & Johnson Kraft Wells Fargo Notice GE isn't on that list? Strange since GE was a bigger holding on Dec 31st than either Kraft or Wells Fargo. So, GE is either: 1) to be sold after a satisfying pop 2) already sold (I would find that unlikely) I should also think that they've bought a ton more Wells Fargo. I mean, you don't dress it up as a beauty queen in your annual report if you plan on it being just 3% of your book value as it was on December 31st. So this ought to be a not-too-subtle hint that they now own a lot more.
Viking Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 It was interesting to see the overlap in holdings with BRK. I must admit to being a little surprised by this given all the choices out there and Hamblin Watsa's historic record.
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