FFH pending sale of Cunningham Lindsey

[Daphne]

he Globe and Mail Metro (Ontario Edition)

29 September, 2012

 

Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. stands to take in proceeds of between $200-million and $300million if private equity firm CVC Capital Partners Ltd. strikes a deal, as expected, to buy Cunningham Lindsey Group Ltd. in coming days.

[Daphne]

Now a done deal.  Had been marked to market at $108m, sold for $260m, reinvesting $35m to take a minority position.

[Uccmal]

Thus ends a long sad tale of in the realm of bad investments.

 

This was my first foray into rights offerings backed by Fairfax.  You think I would have learned my lesson.  No, I had to do it again with sfk pulp.  I believe I have finally learned this lesson.

[racemize]

Thus ends a long sad tale of in the realm of bad investments.

 

This was my first foray into rights offerings backed by Fairfax.  You think I would have learned my lesson.  No, I had to do it again with sfk pulp.  I believe I have finally learned this lesson.

 

I'm not too familiar with this one--do you mind elaborating?

[FFHWatcher]

Thus ends a long sad tale of in the realm of bad investments.

 

This was my first foray into rights offerings backed by Fairfax.  You think I would have learned my lesson.  No, I had to do it again with sfk pulp.  I believe I have finally learned this lesson.

 

Until RIMM comes out with a Rights Offering... :-)

[Uccmal]

Thus ends a long sad tale of in the realm of bad investments.

 

This was my first foray into rights offerings backed by Fairfax.  You think I would have learned my lesson.  No, I had to do it again with sfk pulp.  I believe I have finally learned this lesson.

 

Until RIMM comes out with a Rights Offering... :-)

 

Of course :-)

 

Racemize,  From memory, which is certainly flawed.  This was a one time large controlled company of FFH, the minority of which traded on the TSX.  They are an insurance adjuster company.  Originally FFH bought an adjuster called Morden & Helwig.  Later on they bought a company with the name Lindsay in the title, merged the two and created Lindsey Morden, circa 1997-98 - may have been a little earlier even.  LM had huge earnings for a couple of years right after creation, and then the bottom must have fallen out of the industry.  Later on, in the early 2000s they merged with Cunningham (you will have to look in FFHs old reports for proper names and details).  This created an adjuster behemoth, that promptly lost money forever after. 

 

So we had Cunningham Lindsey, that cost around 400 m to cobble together.  They ran into financial trouble.  I am guessing around 2002, FFH backstopped a rights offering, to refi CL.  Anyone (me) who invested in this company prior to this, or took advantage of the rights offering, or bought the stock subsequently, lost money.  At some point., long after I gave up, CL was taken private by FFH with a US Hedge fund (Stone Point) - 2007 I am thinking.  The going private transaction was at a fraction of original book value.  So, now they have gotten rid of it. 

 

It appears FFh got rid of this PITA for good, finally.  The sfk tale, of which you are aware, has a similar, although not quite as disastrous end.  Anyway, when, RIM has a rights offering, run for the hills as fast as you can. 

 

To be fair I made a small fortune on HUb Group, Northbridge, and ORH, and FFH itself, which dwarfs the losses on LM.

 

I have been following the other thread on Buffett's success, without commenting.  His buy good quality at reasonable or low prices, and try to never sell, resonates more with me than Graham's cigar butt style.  Basically, as much as I admire Walter Schloss, and Graham, I cant do what they did.