giofranchi

Of course valuation matters a lot! And that’s why I keep repeating BH’s low stock price is a very good thing. :) Cheers, Gio

I thought my answer was clear enough: our alumni don’t just “get a degree”… Imo they are given very useful information for their professional life! I wouldn’t be doing this otherwise. :) Cheers, Gio

I simply don’t see business that way… Things change… Quite too often and unpredictably… As long as a business remains what I think it is, I’ll gladly keep it for a very long time… The longer, the better!… But, as soon as I realize that business is no longer what I thought it was, I am gone… No matter what! Am I losing some capital? So be it!... I have always behaved this way, and results until now on average have been more than satisfactory… As I have said, BH has also the advantage of a very low stock price! Cheers, Gio

--the Demon --[amazonsearch]Born to Run[/amazonsearch] by Christopher McDougall --Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching Last Saturday I ran 10 km in 50 minutes, and I could have run longer… Who on the board does better than me? ;D ;) Cheers, Gio

Well, but I don’t care: like I have always said, as soon as I see irrational business choices and/or deteriorating business results, I am gone. Period. What’s wonderful with a very low stock price is that I am not likely to suffer a significant loss of capital if that happens! ;) Gio

Thank you Sanjeev! Would you please let me know more about Allan Mecham? Where could I find his track record? Cheers, Gio

FYI I have sold to buy FIH. I still think Packer is right about OAK’s future prospects, and I expect to be buying again as soon as I have significant new capital to deploy. Gio

I don’t know the answer to this either… But I know: 1) Fairfax thinks the new Indian government has taken the right measures to check inflation, 2) The 20.5% CAGR net of fees and expenses of the HWIC Asia Fund was in USD, therefore they did quite a good job to shelter themselves from an inflation environment that presumably has been far worse than the one we should expect in the future. Cheers, Gio

Packer, I don't know the answer to your question... But please consider: 20.5% is net of fees and expenses... Therefore, gross CAGR should be higher. How much higher? I don't know... To be conservative, let's say 21%. That was before the government of Mr. Modi was elected. How much could a pro-business environment help? I don't know... Let's say another 1%? I think that assumption might turn out to be conservative too. If we could except a 22% gross CAGR, I think you might agree this is a very good vehicle and a worthwhile investment. Cheers, Gio

Ahahah!! You want to fire Federer just because he has become a billionaire at 33 swinging a tennis racket?! ;D Your answer might be: Biglari is no Federer. Then I ask you again what I have asked some posts ago: show me the track record of a stock market investment professional which is better than Biglari’s since 2000. Until now no one has answered. ;) Cheers, Gio

By the way, Fairfax will receive the Performance Fee in the form of Subordinate Voting Shares if their price is below 2xNAV… To me that sounds like Fairfax doesn’t think any price below 2xNAV is too high… Of course Fairfax doesn’t pay any fee, therefore the price it is willing to receive and hold shares might be higher than outside investors… Gio

Biglari Holdings Proxy Battle Ends In A Whimper But It Won't Be The Last http://seekingalpha.com/article/3061626-biglari-holdings-proxy-battle-ends-in-a-whimper-but-it-wont-be-the-last?auth_param=7i5hb:1aifjbq:6590823587e365d2d5bd86724dccec17&uprof=25 Gio

—Charlie Munger Nothing new, of course... But find a very good presentation in attachment! :) Cheers, Gio IIM_Ranchi_Lecture.pdf

I will surely answer your question... But right now I have to go! ;) Cheers, Gio Phoenix01, My experience is that, after 6 years spent studying engineering and graduating from two of the most prestigious Universities in Europe (both The Polytechnic of Milan and the UPC Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona), I still had almost no means to help me thrive in a market economy... - I still had never read a true balance sheet, a true income statement, nor a true cash flow statement. - I still had never heard about value investing. - I still had never thought about how the markets truly work. - I still had never thought about the psychology of decision making. - I still had never thought about what constitutes good business and what doesn’t. - Also technically I was full of great and complex theories, but know very little of practical use. Yet, I was asked right away to help manage and supervise site works with hundreds of workers and which cost many tens of thousand Euros each day…!! Clearly, I was not prepared. And if I managed to do relatively well, it is only because I am a “learning machine”, I read and study everyday all day long, and it is a real pleasure for me, not a burden at all. But, as I have said, not everybody behaves that way… My hope is through our postgraduate courses people might get at least interested or “nudged” into learning technical and non-technical means that could really be useful to them in a market economy. Where such a nudge might lead no one can really be sure of: the ultimate outcome of course depends on how productive a use each one of our students will make of those means. Cheers, Gio

frugalchief, I understand your reluctance in sharing the notes taken during the meeting… But may I ask you to share them with me through a PM? It would be greatly appreciated! :) Cheers, Gio

But I will surely keep on looking at RX! If Mr. Goehrum is in the mid 50s, and he truly is a great entrepreneur, five years from now he will be 60, and RX might have become a billion dollar company. At that point Mr. Goehrum will finally have a very solid track record, might still have 20 years in front of himself to keep building much more value, and RX would still be a relatively small company (lots of room to grow). That, coupled with a fair price, would be imo the perfect investment… truly my sweet spot! ;) Cheers, Gio

I find talking at the phone with management to be useless at best, maybe even misleading… And I surely would never base an investment of mine on a chat at the phone! Truth is I need a track record of many years. Period. Take care of the downside, and the upside will take care of itself... That sort of things, you know. If I lose some great opportunities, so be it!… Fortunately, the world is a big place, and sooner or later some other very good opportunity will probably come my way (Knight Therapeutics maybe? We will see! ;)). Cheers, Gio

I will surely answer your question... But right now I have to go! ;) Cheers, Gio

Lots of companies that work with us have expressly told me they always wait to meet our students before hiring people. Because they find our students to be far more productive than those candidates who have graduated in engineering without attending some sort of post-graduate course afterwards. :) Gio

I’d wish my children don’t need a school to learn what might be useful for their professional life… I hope they could become “learning machines”… But I also know the great majority of people simply aren’t. And those who aren’t need guidance and help to keep learning and improving and staying competitive. If my children won’t be among the very few self-taught individuals, I would certainly recommend they follow some courses of ours! ;) Gio

I don’t know much about for profit education in the US. But one of those two companies of mine is a for profit post-graduate master school, and I would saying it is doing very well! This year we will probably end up almost doubling revenues! Imo for profit education, provided you offer true value to your students, is a good industry to be in: education requires very little capital, will always be needed, and will always do good. Cheers, Gio

And don’t forget he engineered the sale of Paladin to Endo after he recovered from his accident! ;) Cheers, Gio

I don’t know… Surely, he won’t be the same person anymore… But in business you don’t need a very high IQ, nor a prodigious memory, nor flashes of dazzling brilliance, right? Instead, you need emotional stability, you need the ability to think and to plan for the long term, therefore you need patience, you need to be flexible, to not be sleeping at the wheel and to constantly adjust to how circumstances evolve. And, of course, you need to have a very well thought out plan and to be in the right industry!... I am not sure how those things could be affected by an accident, even a terrible accident like the one Mr. Cooperman has suffered… You also need a certain dose of humility… And I would say surviving a serious accident might even improve some people on this topic: to touch first-hand the precariousness of life might serve as a constant reminder of how much prudence is always warranted in everything that we attempt doing. So, maybe (just maybe!) Mr. Goodman has lost some abilities, while also gaining others… :) Gio

Probably not! But, as always, I will take the evidence as it comes… Provided we have not paid too much for a great business, that policy usually leads to good and safe results: if and when Mr. Goodman would be forced to step aside for health issues, GUD simply won’t be the business I am interested in right now anymore. Gio

I would like to start this thread, in which anyone can post interesting thoughts they have happened to read. I think few are the truly memorable sentences in a book. Even a book we have liked very much! If everyone on this board might be willing to share those sentences which have most resonated with her/him, I think all of us cannot but benefit a lot! First by those useful ideas themselves, and second by the reading suggestion that follows as a consequence. So, here is one to start: --Armando Fuentes Aguirre “El Catón” (The Wise Man) [amazonsearch]Thrive, Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way[/amazonsearch] by Dan Buettner. Gio