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Request: Seth Klarman and Bruce Berkowitz Keynote Speeches (Feb. 1, 2013)...

BargainValueHunter

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BargainValueHunter Newbie

BargainValueHunter

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...from the Columbia Student Investment Management Association Conference

 

http://www.csima.org/events/conferences?id=19&eid=504

 

Awesome.  Thanks, BargainValueHunter.

 

Oh, I didn't read that very carefully. 

 

Yeah, I second that request!

 

:) No worries.

 

BTW, did anyone ever find the other half of B. Berkowitz's talk at the U. a couple of months ago? The video seemed to cut off before it was over.

wescobrk Collaborator

wescobrk

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I was there. It was enjoyable.

I didn't take many notes but I enjoyed Berkowitz's chat.

He was very released and although I don't know the kind of shoes he had on he was dressed very similar to the Miami video. It was I'm the 20's and his shirt and informal attire looked the same.

I didnt realize how funny he was. He was more entertaining than Klarman.

 

For Aig fans and BAC he did say BAC is worth 40 in 5-7 years and Aig about 140 in 5-7 years. He didn't list anything this board hasn't covered.

The one juicy question came about mbia and BAC litigation. Bruce said he would love to talk for 15 minutes about it but stopped and only said he can't discuss it (maybe material info) he said it would get settled but didn't give a time frame.

JRH Newbie

JRH

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The one juicy question came about mbia and BAC litigation. Bruce said he would love to talk for 15 minutes about it but stopped and only said he can't discuss it (maybe material info) he said it would get settled but didn't give a time frame.

 

This seems VERY significant to me.  Make a list of the reasons Berkowitz would be afraid he has material info.  Seems like a pretty short list to me.

Liberty Contributor

Liberty

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This seems VERY significant to me.  Make a list of the reasons Berkowitz would be afraid he has material info.  Seems like a pretty short list to me.

 

Can you be more explicit? Do you mean because he's in contact with MBIA and BAC management? Something else?

 

JRH Newbie

JRH

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This seems VERY significant to me.  Make a list of the reasons Berkowitz would be afraid he has material info.  Seems like a pretty short list to me.

 

Can you be more explicit? Do you mean because he's in contact with MBIA and BAC management? Something else?

 

Yeah, I don't feel like I can grok the situation well enough to guess particulars (which would be fairly useless anyway from a risk assessment standpoint) but as I understand the concepts of inside information and materiality, he'd have to know something that hadn't been clearly made public.  I have speculated before that Fairholme would act as a liquidity provider to MBIA in the worst-case scenario but honestly that is pure speculation.  If they had discussed such a possibility, even at a high level, Bruce could end up with information that could be construed as insider info.

 

It's also possible at this point in time that I am approaching the realm of "conspiracy theorist".  None of this speculation goes into my rationale for holding a position in MBIA (or BAC, for that matter).

wescobrk Collaborator

wescobrk

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Everyone is welcome to listen to the audio.

He said he would love to talk about it but can't. He said they both feel that they are owed money from one another and that Bruce thinks they would settle.

Why would Bruce say he would love to talk several minutes about it and then say "but I can't?"

 

If we see any trading from him in the next few days in AIG or BAC that would clearly disprove that he has any material information.

Guest hellsten

Guest hellsten

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Thanks!

 

Here are my notes from the part where Greenwald asks about advice he would give to students:

 

Bruce Greenwald: What kind of advice would you give to students?

 

Bruce Berkowitz: What I've learned is that to do well in life you have to be extreme at what you do. I've learned that there are only so many people in this world that can be 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

I'm a 24/7 person for the last 30 odd years of my life. You got to know you have to give up stuff to succeed in certain areas.

…

Also, you have to understand, you can't change people. All through my life I've tried to.

…

It doesn't work that way. People have strengths and they have weaknesses.

…

Use people for their strengths, stay away from their weaknesses.

…

Developing multipath independent processes. When working in a team, the people at Fairholme have a distinct separation.

…

We do not chat until we are done. We try to kill things independently.

…

Avoiding denial in all of it's various forms.

 

On the LUK and JEF merger:

Rich Chandler I think is the best Wall Street executive out there.

…

Brilliant succession plan for Leucadia. Great way for Jefferies to have a Fort Knox balance sheet.

 

On Sears:

I kind of align Sears up with Berkshire Hathaway. The parallels are pretty good.

 

You try to kill it. I don't know how you can kill it. You can agree or disagree with the real estate.

 

Someone needs to destroy this concept for me. Sears has more commercial square footage than Simon Properties. Show me how it's that much different.

Tell me why Simon Properties has an enterprise value 10 times that of Sears. If you can't kill that concept then maybe are on to something.

…

Sears has 5 billion dollars of cash in its inventory.

…

Everyone says Eddie Lampert is in retail(??). Have you looked at AutoZone or AutoNation lately and seen what kind of money is being made there?

…

I'll give you a hint. Go to Sears. Do an analysis of Sears' legal entities.

Separate the companies between guarantors and non-guarantors.

Take a look at those two individual balance sheets and cash flows and tell me what you think.

 

Hope a transcript of the whole interview will be posted :)

Liberty Contributor

Liberty

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I haven’t found the right technique or medication yet for premature accumulation.  I just see it’s cheap.  I count the cash.  I look at the intrinsic value of the company and the price.  And I think, ‘This is too good to be true.’  And I buy and then it goes lower.”

 

This sounds very familiar...  :P

siddharth18 Newbie

siddharth18

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@BargainValueHunter: Thanks for the thread!

 

@QLEAP: Thanks for the .mp3 version!

 

"What I've learned is that to do well in life you have to be extreme at what you do."

 

Completely agreed with him on that.

berkshiremystery Contributor

berkshiremystery

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Bruce Berkowitz Expects To Make 4 Times His Money On His Core Holdings

2013-02-04 SeekingAlpha.com

 

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1155571-bruce-berkowitz-expects-to-make-4-times-his-money-on-his-core-holdings?source=yahoo

 

 

-----

 

During this interview with Bloomberg, Berkowitz indicated that he expects his top holdings to increase fourfold over the next five to seven years. The increase will be driven by two things.

 

- The core Fairholme holdings are very cheap today so Berkowitz expects that the multiple attached to the companies will increase.

 

- While the valuation multiples assigned by Mr. Market increase the earnings and book value of this companies will also be growing.

 

 

http://static.cdn-seekingalpha.com/uploads/2013/2/4/91506-13600160452910535-Devon-Shire_origin.jpg

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