Parsad

I pay more too, not just you! I agree people should pay in an ideal world. The President of the United States pays nothing, because it is within the law. So, as long as the laws are there, loopholes not closed, she has as much right as the President to act within the law. If she can get out of the contract, and the repercussion is repossession, damage to her credit rating, but nothing else, then that is her prerogative and right if the auto dealer doesn't pursue further action. Why is it when trillions of student loans may be forgiven (these are contracts too, and I think a more morally bankrupt decision than a car loan default) that is ok? Those with student loans will make a greater income than without that degree in many instances...should their lifetime wages not be reduced if they default on their student loans? But they won't because it is within the law. Cheers!

LounginMKL, your grandmother should do what is right for her...simple! If that means she defaults on the car loan and it's repossessed, that is her decision...full well knowing the possible repercussions...credit report, collections, etc. If she chooses to honor the contract and not default, she should also understand the repercussions...reduced quality of life/income, ability to pay other bills, etc. As long as she acts within the law, it's nobody's fucking business! Heed the advice from COBF boardmembers, but don't let their moral righteousness push you into making a decision that isn't right for your grandmother. I know alot of the posters on here, and few are as squeaky clean as they claim to be. Self-righteousness is easy behind an anonymous username! Cheers!

Agree with Doo Diligence. Although, maybe taking a $9K hit and getting a very nice used car is an option. Alot of dealers will wrap the $9K into a new loan...or if she has the cash, then a loan isn't necessary. Other option is to sell privately and get a few thousand more in the sale. Cheers!

https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2020/08/14/apr-energy-laying-off-50-employees.html https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2020/08/11/atlas-corp-atco-q2-2020-earnings-call-transcript/ Please turn to Slide 7, where I will provide APR developments for the quarter. As we communicated at our 2019 Investor Day, we see tremendous upside potential in APR, and are working toward transforming the business to the next level. I'm very pleased to announce the recent appointment of Brian Rich as the President and COO. Brian has deep expertise and networks in the global energy and power sector and was formerly President and COO of APR between 2012 and 2015. Brian is well aligned with APR's priority focus going forward, and we are confident in his leadership to drive APR's operational excellence and sustainable growth. APR's power fleet utilization for Q2 was supported by mobilization of eight turbines across three power plants in Mexicali. These eight turbines contributed $12 million of revenue in Q2, and we expect these projects to contribute approximately $41 million of adjusted EBITDA during 2020. Due to the mobile and fast power nature of the APR's fleet, we expect the utilization to fluctuate as these turbines are put on different contracts around the world. However, we are confident in our ability to maintain a strong utilization. While COVID-19 has impacted APR's business through a reduction in overall global power consumption, we continue to structure the business as a long-term oriented energy solution provider. Our priority is to sustain and improve asset utilization, while focusing on extending the duration of existing contracts. This will require a shift in focus of our partnerships and solution offerings. In addition, we will continue to be more selective on potential deployment opportunities around the world that meet our risk management criteria. We also continue to execute on our business strategy with strong commitment to ESG, divesting idle diesel generators and making operational improvements. Just to highlight, during the Q2, APR's overall plant availability was maintained at over 98% and an LTIR of 0.72. Further down: APR is a business secured by medium-term contracts with strong upside as additional capacity is deployed either on additional long-term projects or lucrative short-term fast track power solutions. While the decline in power consumption from COVID has slowed down our pipeline of potential projects, Brian Rich and his team are focused on deploying our assets and building a high quality pipeline of global opportunities. Down further: Bing Chen -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yes Michael, I think the way to -- that's why I think the way we look at the APR business to a certain extent is similar to Seaspan's is that we're going to work on both opportunities to improve the utilization. One is through the extension. The other one is through the new business opportunities. As you know, that APR's fleet is more than half, it's under long-term contract. The current COVID obviously has certain impact in terms of the reductions to overall -- the power consumption. However, I think we believe it's temporarily slowing down the decision-making process and also of course result in some, I think, cancellation of the projects. For example, back in May, the Puerto Rico prefer had a demand for about 350 megawatts of power. But due to this COVID and for the peak season, they did not need to have this power, so therefore there are certain impacts. However, I think as we continue to working on both the existing type of opportunities, that the management team are working on other opportunities such as flare -- we started looking at other opportunities such as flare to gas, LPG, and other grid stabilization, so to broaden our portfolio of offerings, so therefore, that we will have more opportunities to get the turbines utilized. So over the period, I think we are still confident we will be able to improve the turbines' utilization through the expansion and also the new opportunities. Ryan Courson -- Chief Financial Officer And then Michael, just as a clarification, for the third quarter pro forma for the Mexicali, what you'll see is 80% utilization for the APR power utilization fleet. Cheers!

Leverage was also 40-50% higher. Just a friendly reminder that leverage would impact ROE but would not impact ROA, unless we're redefining the word leverage. No. It impacts ROA as well. You are leveraging opex. If it helps, think about what ROA is at wells at current leverage (back out provisions for this year), and then what it would be at 1x leverage. Obviously ROA would be lower for WFC at 1x then at 5x, 10x, 15x, all else equal. So you're saying operating leverage was 40-50% higher? What exactly does that mean? Does that mean their incremental margin was 50% higher pre-GFC, as in if their incremental margin is 20% right now that it was 30% pre-GFC? This is getting a little technical for my simpleton brain. Yes. Most banks were operating with visible leverage of 10-12-14 to 1, but when you included collateralized debt or CDO obligations, the leverage jumped to 20-30 to 1...for someone like AIG, Countrywide, New Century...it jumped to 80-100 to 1. So while the banks had somewhat higher asset to equity and debt to equity leverage, the quality of their underlying portfolio was far worse as the housing market turned. Things were great until they weren't great! Today, U.S. banks declared leverage is relatively close to the actual underlying leverage of their portfolios. Some are starting to turn to new products that are a bit funny, but for the most part, they are sticking to actual banking...lending, borrowing, credit, investment banking, commercial lending and wealth management. And the government has them better capitalized and limited their ability to use derivatives. Hard to start padding bonuses through risky banking practices, when you have so many eyes on you and such expansive stress testing. Trump could f**k that up if he deregulates too much in a potential 2nd term! Cheers!

I agree! Probably two reasons for the dividend...legacy dividend from Seaspan...Washington family may want an income stream without selling any more equity. Fat dividend now, but I suspect it will grow slowly in the future, and will probably drop to about 2.5-3% as the stock hits fair value...$14-15. Cheers!

Sokol grew Mid-American at a 23% ROE for about 20 years. His strength is capital-intensive businesses and making them very efficient. Bing is no slouch either! Cheers! Yes. I’ve never really trusted that number because my source is Prem and I think he can be a bit sloppy with figures. But Sokol is definitely one of my big reasons for owning Atlas. Actually, all you have to do is look at what Mid-American was earning when Berkshire acquired it in 1999 ($104M) and what it was making in 2010, shortly before Sokol left...$1,131M. That's about 26% annualized over 10 years in earnings growth. He essentially did the same thing 10 years earlier growing earnings from $10M to $104M. Cheers!

Common sense isn't so common. Nice post Broeb22! Cheers!

Sokol grew Mid-American at a 23% ROE for about 20 years. His strength is capital-intensive businesses and making them very efficient. Bing is no slouch either! Cheers!

What Buffett and Munger do should be irrelevant to us, otherwise we should be in ETF's. By the way, I think Buffett sold WFC because the image issue doesn't fit the Berkshire image, and if they could get tax losses, crystalize some gains and replace it with BAC...it's win-win. Plus he can buy up to 24.9% of BAC. Cheers!

There was a time when almost every numbnuts on here would have paid book value as a hugely, cheap discount price for Wells Fargo. I never owned it then. The only big bank I've owned over the last 12 years has been all of the BAC I bought at $5 back in 2008, some more at $13 and finally we bought quite a bit this year at $19. I owned some Wells Fargo in 2008 when I bought it at $13 and sold a couple of years later at $27. I have not bought Wells till this March. Buffett says that the markets are a voting machine in the short-term and a weighing machine in the long-term. In the short-term, Wells has been hammered with one scandal after another, one fine after another. Yet, here we are and they are still the 3rd most dominant U.S. bank after JPM and BAC, and globally less than 15 banks are anywhere near its size. They are still making money hand over fist with all of these fines and regulatory constraints. They are still one of the best capitalized in the current scenario and under the most stressful scenarios that the FED can think of. We are at zero short-term interest rates and they are still making money. It is trading at 0.6 of book, a price most would say was "outrageous, stupid, plain dirt cheap" if Buffett still held it and there was no scandal around it. Instead, the Buffett acolytes pour into JPM when Buffett says read Dimon's reports, and when Buffett bails on WFC and buys BAC, the acolytes load up on BAC. Voting machine now. Don't forget the weighing machine later! Cheers!

Definitely agree with that! Cheers!

I don't think their management is a failure. I think Handler was brought in to run Jefferies, but instead he was running Leucadia. Two very different companies and it took Handler years to realize he's not Cummings and Steinberg, but an exceptional investment bank manager, and years for them to understand he wasn't them. In the last three years, he's turned the business around, simplified it and now is running what he should have been running 7 years ago. Cheers!

In a zero interest rate world a long term stream of payments that is almost certainly going to increase is worth more than 15x. That's a good point. Since Handler, Friedman, and Steinberg are likely to pay themselves more over time, not less. If we slap a 20X multiple on $100 million of corporate costs the stock is right around fair value at its current level. No offense, but you guys need to go back and read Securities Analysis...your analysis is so far off, it's not even funny. The annual presentation day slideshow last year provided a more accurate way to value the parts of the business. You also are negating their cash flow from the leverage they use when examining tangible equity. For example, banks earn 1-1.5% of their assets using their leverage, so it is ridiculously stupid to value a bank at tangible equity and estimate that as fair value. Cheers!

Succession planning is something Fairfax gave much more thought to than Berkshire did at their relative ages. Fairfax has always been a company run by committee...Berkshire until very recently, was always Buffett & Munger...and then really just Buffett. Ben & Christine aren't being groomed as Prem's replacement, just like Howard Buffett isn't Warren's replacement. They are there to maintain the culture their father instilled in the business, like Howard is there at Berkshire to do the same. And everyone is talking about Fairfax 10-15 years from now. How about Fairfax as an investment until it simply reaches fair value...I'm talking 2-3 years? If Fairfax just recovered to book, plus 5% growth a year, that would be about $700 CDN in 3 years or around 23% a year. That's as far as I'm looking like any of my portfolio holdings. Cheers!

Well, Vancouver's city hall had no problem spending $1,500 a chair at Herman Miller for their renovations. What jack asses...and how frickin' out of touch is the Mayor and his city manager? Cheers! https://globalnews.ca/news/7339783/vancouver-city-hall-furniture/

I was in the South Surrey location near me for my birthday in July, shortly after it reopened. It was packed like before. The good thing about the Keg interior design, is that most booths were already more than 6 feet apart and about 8 feet across the main corridors that servers/patrons walk along. So unlike most other restaurants, they aren't shutting down tables in between other tables. They made some adjustments, but that Keg was doing at least 80% of normal business that night, if not closer to 90%. I can see the Keg getting back to full normal business as soon as the vaccine becomes available. Cheers!

It looks like he bought at an average cost of $308 USD roughly or about $420-425 CDN per share. It says he bought in the last few days before the press release...I would imagine it was around the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th, where the stock was around $425 CDN or less and volumes rose. If he is buying there, then I would imagine he is expecting a return of better than 15% annualized or more over the next few years. Cheers! The question then becomes is Prem expecting a 15% return a good predictor of future 15% returns. ...and one to ask: ''is 15% a realistic expectation?''. I am approaching a decade of holding FFH and I am seriously wondering if this is a realistic target as recent shareholders (10 years or less) are yet to benefit from such appreciation. It sure attracts new ( and naive) investors. I am tired of hearing the 30 years track record and while I focus on the last 10 years, I can only come to the realization that shareholders fell short of expectations. yeah , yeah ... I am still around and will for quite some time, but I needed to vent and share ;) Even during the depths of the hedge fund crisis, when Fairfax stock fell to $53 USD, I don't remember Prem buying shares in such a significant amount. Frankly, I'm shocked that he put $150M of outside capital into Fairfax...that would be a decades worth of dividends for him. And if he didn't borrow the money, I would imagine that's probably half his net worth outside of what is held in Sixty-Two Corporation. Then again, I've got half my net worth outside of Corner Market Capital in Fairfax and Atlas Corp right now, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised...and I'm very comfortable with both and think both have 50-100% upside over the next 2-3 years! Cheers!

Yes, we owned quite a bit of JEF in the fund before Covid...we sold about half when BAC fell to $18 and bought that. We still own the rest of our JEF...it was bought around $18 as well a couple of years ago. Like FFH, I think JEF is in great shape now, and has turned the corner. Both should be trading at book value or better. Cheers!

I decided to sell most of my position. I still have Fairfax India and willing to give that more time. Seems like they have a little more preference for quality assets in that portfolio, and I like India's 5-15 year growth potential. The irony is that Fairfax owns a good chunk of Fairfax India, and more importantly, generates really nice management fees and performance bonuses from Fairfax India. If Fairfax India does exceedingly well, Fairfax will benefit handsomely. If Fairfax India does average, Fairfax will still benefit from the fees. I would rather own the asset manager! Cheers!

Article on ATCO/Seaspan from Business in Vancouver. Cheers! https://biv.com/article/2020/09/shippings-new-imperative-continual-crisis-management?utm_source=BIV+Newsletters%2C+effective+July+1%2C+2017&utm_campaign=3f4283fe83-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_09_08_06_20_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c5e00a74ef-3f4283fe83-211177161

It's one of the lowest valuations of the business in a non-distressed period. It was lower after 9/11, Hurricane Hugo/Andrew, but it was a distressed business...insurance business was extremely stressed and cash was low. The reverse happened during the financial crisis, because Fairfax had a ton of cash and credit default swaps. This is one of the only periods in the last 20 years since I've been watching and been a shareholder, where Fairfax is not distressed, insurance operations are humming, cash is ample, debt is very manageable, and portfolio positioning is still mostly defensive...yet it is trading at 0.6 times book. And I think that has alot to do with the complexity of the investment portfolio outside of the fixed income portion that is very long-term, distressed value. Completely out of favour! Cheers!

Buffett's investment universe is 1/15th the size of Prem's. If Buffett's universe comprises 200 public and private companies worldwide, Prem's universe has 3,000 companies to look at. Combine that with the competition from large pension funds, private equity, hedge funds and ETF's, who do you think can continue to grow at 15% a year or better for longer? Cheers!

You have time. About 2 weeks away from Beta testing. I would say October 1st is more realistic. Cheers!

What the f**k! You're a frickin' engineer and you've made investments in cryptocurrencies! Pot calling the kettle black. Cheers!