Livin’ On The Hedge (Prem, WeB & Mohnish)

[berkshiremystery]

Some interesting article about Fairfax and Prem Watsa. It also mentioned some thoughts of Warren Buffett on Prem's CDS trade.

 

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Livin’ On The Hedge

How Prem Watsa, the ‘Oracle of Ontario’, beat the downturn

 

Outlook India Magazine

 

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?282410

 

Watsa was introduced at that 2007 event by Prof George Athanassakos, director of the centre. Athanassakos recalls that speech: “Mr Watsa is an outstanding VI (value investor) with a contrarian view on things. His excellent reading of the markets in the last four years enabled him to successfully use credit default swaps (CDSS) and make money when everyone else lost. He had commented on the markets in a conference I ran in May 2007, in which he was the keynote speaker. During my visit to see Mr Buffett, he asked me who endowed my chair, and when I said Mr Watsa, he smiled and said, ‘Smart guy, he made a lot of money on cds.’”

 

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Watsa’s friend Mohnish Pabrai, managing director of the Irvine, California-based Pabrai Investment Funds, says there’s more to him than just investment acumen: “I would say Prem is a low ego, humble person. People tend to fixate on his investing skills. His skills as a business leader are vastly more important. Most of the core people he started with 26 years ago are still with him today, which is an unusual situation—and speaks volumes

 

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The Watsas are also committed to providing $1 million every year for five years to the Dakshana Foundation, which was started by Pabrai for providing quality education to underprivileged children.

 

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But Watsa’s hardly a one-trick pony, as Pabrai says, “He’s a learning machine. Earlier, they used to buy distressed insurance operations. Now he’s moved to paying a lot more attention to quality. He has diversified, completely bought a sporting goods company, a restaurant chain, and a wedding gifts company.”