Grenville

Dazel, thanks for the color! Pretty interesting.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/915191/000095012310011704/o59521csc13gza.htm Prem Watsa's ownership info in Fairfax.

Summarized changes: http://holdings.nasdaq.com/asp/OwnerPortfolio.asp?FormType=OwnerPortfolio&CIK=0000915191&HolderName=FAIRFAX+FINANCIAL+HOLDINGS+LTD/+CAN Sold out of BNI and INTC.

I for one would love to see an analysis on MAAL... I"m interested. Ben I second that! Thanks!

The only thing we can be certain of is that he has invested in more than one stock. The linked story is from 2003.

I didn't believe it, but the Citigroup position shows up in their Nov. 30 2009 annual report on their website.

I hold FRFHF in Scottrade through a regular account and an IRA account. The regular account has 15% deducted for Canadian Tax, but the IRA account does not show a similar charge.

Something interesting is brewing. Buffett is using financial instruments in regards to his position at Munich Re. Information found following link posted above from Munich Re's website: Release according to Section 26, para. 1 of the WpHG [the German Securities Trading Act] WKN 843002 ISIN DE0008430026 Warren E. Buffett, USA, informed us in accordance with Section 25, para. 1 of the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG) that on 19 January 2010 he directly or indirectly held financial instruments that granted him the right to subscribe to shares in our company which bear 1.945% of the voting rights (3,840,000 voting rights). Furthermore he informs us that in addition he held directly or indirectly 3.084% (6,088,300 voting rights) pursuant to Section 21 para. 1 in connection with 22 para 1 sentence 1 item 1 of the WpHG. Therefore by way of aggregation he would have held 5.029% of the voting rights (9,928,300 voting rights). As per this date he would have thus exceeded the threshold of 5% in the voting rights in our company. The exercise date of the financial instruments is: 11 March 2010. Financial instruments that he held directly were held via the following companies which are controlled by him: - Berkshire Hathaway Inc. - OBH Inc. - National Indemnity Company Munich, 28 January 2010 The Board of Management

Great find MartinWhitman! None of the news services seem to have picked up this story... http://www.munichre.com/en/ir/publications/notifications/default.aspx

Thanks for posting!

A relevant tidbit from the 2000 Annual regarding the dividend: (I'm slowly making my way through the old annuals) "This brings me to my own compensation arrangements. For many years now I have felt that as a controlling shareholder involved in the management of the company, my compensation should be closely linked to all shareholders. So from 2000 onwards, my compensation will be a fixed salary of $600,000 with no bonuses. This compensation will not increase annually, and if 1999/2000 is repeated, could decrease!! However, to make sure that my family survives, Fairfax will examine instituting a dividend – yes, a modest dividend – in 2001 at an annual rate of $1 or $2 per share. Going forward, the only difference between me and you, our shareholders, will be my salary of $600,000 – which based on recent performance, many of you may think is too high! While the payment of a modest dividend results in double taxation to most of you and is not as economically efficient as retaining all our profits and compounding at high rates of return (as we have done for the past 15 years), this was the only way I could think of to bring my compensation in line with your interests. While I may have generated some sympathy from you, I should add that I continue to travel well – in fact a little better recently because we sold our Lear Jet for US$2.5 million (cost US$1.8 million) and purchased a Gulfstream II for US$6.2 million."

Additional details: 8-11-08 Original investment: FFH buys MB convertible debt Cdn $64 million, 8%, convertible into 20,064,000 common shares or 35.4% of MB at a conversion price of Cdn $3.19. 1-14-10 MB Capital Structure Restructuring (See attached .pdf for all details from MB website) Key details as it relates to FFH after recapitalization: + FFH will choose three board members as a rep. of holders of Debentures + FFH CDN$64 million convertible debt cancelled for: a. CDN$6.5 million 10% interest 5yr debt (105% early purchase option subject to conditions) b. 13.058 million common shares c. 13.058 million warrants (1 common share at CDN$0.50) + CDN$50 million additional capital injection for: a. CDN$25.8 million 10% interest 5yr debt (105% early purchase option subject to conditions) b. 51.61 million common shares c. 51.61 million warrants (1 common share at CDN$0.50) + Own an additional CDN$2 million common shares & 2 million warrants that I can't account for. Summary + FFH will own 64.6 million common shares = 20.2% outstanding common shares (non-diluted basis) + FFH will own 64.6 million warrants (1 common share at CDN$0.50) + FFH will own $32 million principal amount of 10% 5yr debts = 24% of outstanding principal amnt + FFH total capital injection CDN$115 million = CDN$64 million in 2008 and CDN$51 million in 2010 + FFH has been paid 8% interest for about a year on the original convertible debentures

Thanks for posting! I always wondered what Geico was like, nice to hear a first hand experience.

Thanks for the heads up. He will be in SF next week: Jan 13, 2010 – San Francisco, CA 8:00 PM Jewish Community Center of San Francisco 3200 California Street San Francisco, CA 94118 http://www.jccsf.org/content_main.aspx?catid=535#3351 other locations: http://gawande.com/events#

Hi, I use Microsoft Money 99 to log all the details for transactions including dividends ( I manually enter the data instead of having the program pull it from websites). I have been using the software to track a range of stocks and mutual funds for the last five years. The best feature about the program is the ability to pull transaction data very easily into excel. In addition, the money program can get online and pull recent stock quotes and mutual fund quotes. One spreadsheet I create and constantly update is my current stock positions and weightings. With one press in excel it will go to the money program and pull the data to update your current positions. Also at year end, I calculate cumulative returns in my various accounts. You can pull specific transaction data for certain accounts and then crunch through the data with excel formulas to calculate cumulative returns in which ever way you want. I prefer calculating my returns then relying on Microsoft Money's approach. It's not super high tech, but it fits my needs and is customizable through the excel feature.

Here is the transcript of the interview between Matt Rose and Warren: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/934612/000095015709001025/form425.htm

Just another data point from SF car insurance over the last six months. my premium is down 5% Notables: + "premium reductions" down 5% + comprehensive dropped 10% + collision dropped 19% + uninsured motor bodily increased 30%! My current premium shows a decent delta compared to the last one...pricing is moving.

Article: NetJets still has plans to grow in Columbus, new CEO David Sokol says. It'll just take a little longer. A nice article about the future plans for Netjets and the recent cuts. Sokol also mentions future growth plans in China. Enjoy! http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2009/11/22/netjets_sokol.ART_ART_11-22-09_D1_5SFOD23.html?sid=101

The most likely purchasers of the recent equity offering: Change in Shares ING Investment Mngmt 1,087,212 Capital World Investors 660,000 Davis Selected Adv 584,087 Capital Research Glo 359,800 Marshfield Associate 278,105 total 2,969,204 http://holdings.nasdaq.com/asp/Institutional.asp?&sHead=t&coname=Fairfax+Financial+Holdings+Ltd&market=NYSE&selected=FFH&symbol=ffh&symbol=FFH&ads=1&FormType=Institutional&strFilter=T

Doesn't this mean AIG owned the Davis fund, not the Davis fund owned AIG? Sorry, I wrote things backward. Davis NY Venture Fund held AIG.

I just can't seem to forget the fact that they missed the ball on AIG. They had over a billion before AIG imploded. Interesting picture: AIG reported holdings in Davis NY Venture Fund 10/31/07 28,556,210 shares at $1,802,467,975 4/30/08 30,451,813 shares at $1,406,873,761

Great article! Thanks for sharing. Shetty shows a similar line of thinking exposed by Atul Gawande. The heart surgery high volume approach shows the benefits of specialization similar to the example of the hernia operation center in Canada. "Japanese companies reinvented the process of making cars. That's what we're doing in health care," Dr. Shetty says. "What health care needs is process innovation, not product innovation." A great sign for the future of healthcare for us all!

Warren Buffett refers to a speech given by Li Ka-shing titled "My Third Son" in the 8 minute web exclusive on the Charlie Rose site. This video actually plays through without any hitches. Here is the text of Li Ka-shing's speech: http://www.lksf.org/eng/media/speech/20060905.shtml

I completely disagree. The problem with this kind of thinking is that there is the implication that your investment decisions are right or wrong based upon the market price of the asset. For example, I buy at $5 because I think IV is $10 and the asset then rises to $10. I sell out of my position and track the asset after my sale. The asset then rises to $20. Did I make a foolish decision? I don't think so. As an investor, all I care about is (a) current market price and (b) intrinsic value. Whether or not that asset will then be traded by overly optimistic parties at some later date is irrelevant and it certainly doesn't make my investing decisions foolish. Biglari once stated that value investing is buying from pessimists and selling to optimists. That implies that the asset you sold to the optimists might trade much higher at a later date. And then I ask ... so what if it does? I agree with what you are saying in regards to short term price. I still think there is value in the idea of tracking what you have sold for some time. One's determination of intrinsic value is subjective. The goal should be to constantly improve the assessment of intrinsic value. Mr. Market provides a fairly strong data point in regards to intrinsic value. The caveat though is that in the short term that indication can be significantly off, but over time the market quote should eventually track intrinsic value. How much time elapses before the market weighs correctly is debatable. The value is using the market quote over time to provide some feedback to the intrinsic value calculation. An example: Company A trades at $5 at year 1. Intrinsic value is assessed at $10 At year 2 the price reaches $10 and the intrinsic value is still assessed at $10 and the stock is sold. At year 7 the price reaches $25. Now what does this mean? a. The market is overly optimistic b. The assessment of intrinsic value missed something c. A fundamental change occurred in the company after year 2 d. and so on.... In the event that (b) is true some % of the time, the process of tracking a sold position provides important feedback to the intrinsic value calculation. Investing is a marathon and not a sprint. Any bits of insight that can be picked up along the way is only beneficial.

I couldn't make it past the 4 minute mark. I am going to try again later tonight or tomorrow.