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Posted

FRFHF and EWBC.

 

I had trimmed some Fairfax in the last three to four months. I decided that was a mistake and bought back the shares I sold.

 

I estimate that EWBC is trading at a normalized P/E of about 10. It has good management and good prospects for growth. I increased my position by 10%.

Posted
48 minutes ago, EgonKuhn said:

Bought a small initial position in AJG as part of my insurance broker basket.

Bought another small initial position in VRSK as the analytics/tech provider in the insurance sector.

Posted
2 hours ago, EgonKuhn said:

Bought another small initial position in VRSK as the analytics/tech provider in the insurance sector.

Market started hating software and analytics again today . Market seems confused and not right. Just a general feeling I get. 

Posted
11 minutes ago, Eldad said:

Market started hating software and analytics again today . Market seems confused and not right. Just a general feeling I get. 

Whatever the cause. I looked left and right from the insurance brokers for "picks and shovel plays" and found VRSK and GWRE as interesting candidates to look further.

Posted
59 minutes ago, Eldad said:

Market started hating software and analytics again today . Market seems confused and not right. Just a general feeling I get. 

they are supposedly AI losers according to the market

Posted
On 10/10/2025 at 12:19 PM, StevieV said:

 

 

I also view it this way - APO > OWL, but how do you think of the business model and structure of OWL vis-a-vis risk?  Inherently it's a pretty safe structure to have locked up capital and take a percentage fee.  

 

This is what Apollo has been saying about competitors: "And I think a pure third-party business, heads you win, tails you win, hopefully the client does well, we think that's going to be a much more robust alignment to our business over time."  (Zelter - September 16th).

 

 

Sorry I forgot to respond to this. I think OWL's structure and business model reduce risk. I'm a huge fan of their business model which generates long term locked up sticky FRE earnings at fantastic margins. 

 

I think the bigger risk is that OWL only grows FRE if it can grow AUM. So far so good, but OWL has also been riding a wave of institutional capital into the type of private credit products it manages. APO simply has a piece of essentially the whole market, and a long track record. So if the going gets tough, or the shift in AUM growth goes towards investment grade private credit, I think APO could be less risky than OWL. 

 

If the tide goes out, and OWL ends up with a bunch of nasty credit losses for its investors due to bad underwriting, I think that would be hard to come back from. I find this very improbable for Apollo since I think they're on of the savviest players in credit. 

 

OWL is still one of my top 5 holdings, and I think it's attractive at this price. I think it's more likely to do 20% annual returns for the next 5 years. But I think it needs to keep growing AUM at an above average clip for the thesis to play out. 

Posted
3 hours ago, Eldad said:

Lumine

 

Nice.  Has come right down, and feels like another acquisition would move the needle a bit. From memory they are debt-free.  Nyland is sharp.  Might have a think myself...

Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, mananainvesting said:

Added to $FRFHF/$FFH.TO


I did the same. I explain my thinking below.
 

I manage my Fairfax investment in two ways:

  • Core position
  • Flex position

The core position is the (relatively) new part for me. I have held a large core position in Fairfax since late October/early November 2020. At a little over 5 years, this is the longest time period I have ever owned a core position in Fairfax. (It is the longest period of time I have owned a core position in any stock.)

 

Flexing my position size is something I have done with Fairfax on and off for +20 years. I sometimes buy more of the stock when it sells off/gets cheaper. And then I lighten up when the stock moves higher. With my flex position in Fairfax I am looking for a small gain (the exact amount will vary each time and will depend on the set-up). 
 

Normally, I find I get 2 or 3 nice opportunities each year to flex my position in Fairfax. Times when the stock sells off - where I like the short term risk/reward set up. 
 

Why did I ‘flex’ my position higher today?

  • Stock closed today at $1,660/share. Three days ago it closed at $1,790/share. Decline was 7.3%.
  • It looks to me like the stock has sold off over the past week for reasons that have nothing to do with Fairfax. (I.E. all financials are selling off.)
  • Fairfax’s fundamentals continue to improve - I really like the sale of Fairfax’s 80% stake in Eurolife’s life insurance business for $944.7 million (expected to close in Q1-2026). 
  • Strong earnings - I expect Fairfax to deliver very good Q3 earnings report. My guess is BV will be comfortably over $1,200/share. This puts the P/BV at about 1.38
  • Hidden value - Excess of FV over CV for associate and consolidated holdings is likely $100/share (after tax). That puts ‘adjusted’ P/BV at about 1.28 ($1,660/$1,300)
  • Hidden value part 2 - Of course, we know intrinsic value is much higher than ‘adjusted’ BV of $1,300. Let’s be conservative and add another $100/share (Eurolife sale will crystallize a nice investment gain in Q1-2026…). This puts Fairfax’s value (measured conservatively) at $1,400/share. This puts the. P/FV at 1.19   Today. 
  • Fairfax thinks its stock price is cheap - Fairfax was an aggressive buyer of its shares in Q2, paying about $1,700/share. 
  • Seasonality - As @SafetyinNumbers has pointed out many time before, Fairfax’s share price tends to underperform during hurricane season (which runs until about the end of October). A headwind will end soon.
  • All cashed up - As I said earlier, I expect Fairfax to deliver strong Q3 earnings - they will be all cashed up in early November. What will they do? Well, being all cashed up, with shares trading below $1,700 and with hurricane season behind them… why not buy back a bunch of stock to year end? 
  • Added motivation - Fairfax still owns 1.76 million shares of FFH-TRS. Every $100 increase in Fairfax’s share price delivers an investment gain of $176 million to Fairfax. This makes buying back stock when it is undervalued (like it is today) an even better decision. 

A near term risk to my ‘flex’ trade: it appears the hard market in P/C insurance is coming to an end. Lots of P/C insurance companies will report in the next 2 weeks. It they disappoint in the top line (revenue) we could see a big sell off in P/C insurance stocks. 
 

Important: I flex my positions in stocks I am happy holding for the long term (with the increased position size). There is always a good chance the stock could get much cheaper from here (especially in the short term). 
 

Anyways, I do not post this as investment advice. My logic could turn out to be completely wrong. Please consult your investment advisor before making any investment decisions. My post above is intended to be for information/entertainment purposes 🙂 

Edited by Viking
  • Like 1
Posted
3 hours ago, Viking said:


I did the same. I explain my thinking below.
 

I manage my Fairfax investment in two ways:

  • Core position
  • Flex position

The core position is the (relatively) new part for me. I have held a large core position in Fairfax since late October/early November 2020. At a little over 5 years, this is the longest time period I have ever owned a core position in Fairfax. (It is the longest period of time I have owned a core position in any stock.)

 

Flexing my position size is something I have done with Fairfax on and off for +20 years. I sometimes buy more of the stock when it sells off/gets cheaper. And then I lighten up when the stock moves higher. With my flex position in Fairfax I am looking for a small gain (the exact amount will vary each time and will depend on the set-up). 
 

Normally, I find I get 2 or 3 nice opportunities each year to flex my position in Fairfax. Times when the stock sells off - where I like the short term risk/reward set up. 
 

Why did I ‘flex’ my position higher today?

  • Stock closed today at $1,660/share. Three days ago it closed at $1,790/share. Decline was 7.3%.
  • It looks to me like the stock has sold off over the past week for reasons that have nothing to do with Fairfax. (I.E. all financials are selling off.)
  • Fairfax’s fundamentals continue to improve - I really like the sale of Fairfax’s 80% stake in Eurolife’s life insurance business for $944.7 million (expected to close in Q1-2026). 
  • Strong earnings - I expect Fairfax to deliver very good Q3 earnings report. My guess is BV will be comfortably over $1,200/share. This puts the P/BV at about 1.38
  • Hidden value - Excess of FV over CV for associate and consolidated holdings is likely $100/share (after tax). That puts ‘adjusted’ P/BV at about 1.28 ($1,660/$1,300)
  • Hidden value part 2 - Of course, we know intrinsic value is much higher than ‘adjusted’ BV of $1,300. Let’s be conservative and add another $100/share (Eurolife sale will crystallize a nice investment gain in Q1-2026…). This puts Fairfax’s value (measured conservatively) at $1,400/share. This puts the. P/FV at 1.19   Today. 
  • Fairfax thinks its stock price is cheap - Fairfax was an aggressive buyer of its shares in Q2, paying about $1,700/share. 
  • Seasonality - As @SafetyinNumbers has pointed out many time before, Fairfax’s share price tends to underperform during hurricane season (which runs until about the end of October). A headwind will end soon.
  • All cashed up - As I said earlier, I expect Fairfax to deliver strong Q3 earnings - they will be all cashed up in early November. What will they do? Well, being all cashed up, with shares trading below $1,700 and with hurricane season behind them… why not buy back a bunch of stock to year end? 
  • Added motivation - Fairfax still owns 1.76 million shares of FFH-TRS. Every $100 increase in Fairfax’s share price delivers an investment gain of $176 million to Fairfax. This makes buying back stock when it is undervalued (like it is today) an even better decision. 

A near term risk to my ‘flex’ trade: it appears the hard market in P/C insurance is coming to an end. Lots of P/C insurance companies will report in the next 2 weeks. It they disappoint in the top line (revenue) we could see a big sell off in P/C insurance stocks. 
 

Important: I flex my positions in stocks I am happy holding for the long term (with the increased position size). There is always a good chance the stock could get much cheaper from here (especially in the short term). 
 

Anyways, I do not post this as investment advice. My logic could turn out to be completely wrong. Please consult your investment advisor before making any investment decisions. My post above is intended to be for information/entertainment purposes 🙂 


Nice to be in good company. I added some FFH yesterday.

 

On top of all of the positives that Viking listed, I expect reserve releases over the next few years will help the combined ratio beat expectations. This started last year and my theory is that releases will ramp as premium growth 4 years ago was a lot faster than it is now. I also like that Fairfax is built to buy the dip if there is a broader market sell off. 

  • Like 1

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