Parsad

Your broker should have sent you the information regarding the rights offering if you are a shareholder. You should have told them that you want to purchase the warrants at $0.04 each. I think you may be out of luck now. Contact Chanticleer and see if there is anything they can do, but I believe it may be too late. They were being offered only to existing shareholders. Cheers!

Yup, and Chanticleer will own half of that new location. Cheers!

One of the greatest businessmen and executives in the U.S. is stepping down January 1st. Costco CEO, Jim Sinegal, will be replaced by COO Craig Jelinek. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/44350592

It's almost uncanny watching what Europe is going through. You have 17 countries that are trying to come to some consensus, yet they probably won't until things get worse. They could easily fix much of the financial institution pains by simply implementing a TARP program and recapitalizing the banks with the same type of warrants the government bought here. Otherwise I suspect you are going to see more articles such as this: http://www.cnbc.com/id/44335728 Undoubtedly, credit is going to tighten in Europe as foreign institutions withdraw their capital. Cheers!

[amazonsearch]Of Permanent Value - Andrew Kilpatrick[/amazonsearch] This was the first book on Buffett I read many years ago, and Andy's book gets better year after year. Every long-term Berkshire shareholder should definitely have a copy. Full of wonderful, insightful stories on Berkshire and Buffett, and how he influenced so many others. The book is also full of hundreds and hunderds of pictures. Cheers!

Incidentally, she also won a public service announcement contest which is as good, if not better, than the BusinessWire video. This girl is very talented! Cheers! http://www.freedomofspeechpsa.org/winners.asp

Here are the ten college finalists for the BusinessWire contest to meet Warren Buffett. You can watch their videos here: https://www.facebook.com/BusinessWire?sk=app_2392950137 Hands-down the winner should be Jenna Marie James: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150340201769276 Quite an extraordinary video for someone in college. Any marketing or advertising company should snap her up now. Cheers!

Paul from Watermelon Webworks suggested that I add a "Books" board, that would operate similar to the "Investment Ideas" board, where we can build up a library of information. When you post about a new book, just like on the "Investment ideas" board, make sure there isn't already a post regarding the same book. The format should be: "Title of Book" - "Name of Author(s)" That is probably the last category I add now to the board. I don't want it to become cluttered on the index page. Cheers!

This board should operate similarly to the "Investment Ideas" board. It will form a reservoir of posts that discuss specific books, and that board members can turn to when looking for specific topics that could assist the value investor. Please make sure the post threads are in this format: "Title of Book" - "Name of author(s)" Cheers!

Nomura Securities analyst says the TRE bonds are worth at best 17 cents, and at worst...one penny! Cheers! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/streetwise/nomura-values-sino-forest-bonds-at-17-cents/article2148326/

Comments from Ackman's latest letter to investors. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/44345554

Hi Al, He may speak Chinese. Not sure though. I do know he speaks Hindi, and of course English. ;D Cheers!

In retrospect when I owned Sino 4-5 years ago I never really understood what was going on. It was purely a numbers play. Now I know why Francis never held it, and he has a language advantage over me. Actually, Francis grew up in India, and he can speak and understand Hindi. I'm not sure how much Chinese he can actually speak! ;D Cheers!

I think that is definitely a step in the right direction. It's not going to solve everything, but selling some of their core brands through other distributors is the right thing to do. They should start selling Kenmore through there too! It's funny, I mentioned this in the discussion we had about value traps two weeks ago: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1;area=showposts;start=90 They've spent $1.6B over the last three years on capex, so if he's not pouring it into the stores, where is it going? Sears Canada was better off than Sears USA, but it is going to run up against stiff competiton for the forseeable future. Buying Sears Canada may prove to be a poor decision, when that cash could have been invested elsewhere. Instead, they're burning through the cash in Sears Canada too! Revenues keep dropping, shareholder equity keeps dropping, debt has increased dramatically...slow burn! My opinion remains: Pour money into investment ideas or other businesses; runoff the underperforming stores; sell off properties in bulk as values stabilize or start to increase; license core brands to other retailers (Craftsmen, Kenmore, etc); eliminate paper catalog business and move everything online; decrease store footprint and reduce number of inventory items; reduce operating expenses to the bone. Cheers! Hopefully they make some other big changes. Cheers!

In other words, what is the best way to determine cigarette butt value in bonds of fraudulent companies? I wouldn't touch them. You have incalcuable risk from class-action litigation, fines, etc and in many circumstances have no idea what the actual value of the underlying assets legitimately are, so you cannot come to any reasonable estimation of what the bondholders may walk away with. On top of that, fraudulent companies obviously have an impaired corporate culture that would be difficult to change. It's tough enough changing the culture at companies that just need to be turned around, but the culture at a company that perpetrated fraud could be damn near impossible to improve without ripping it apart. Unless you can either come to a reasonable estimate of what the assets are worth, or see someone walk in who is going to change everything about the company, it's just simpler to move on to something much easier to define and value. Cheers!

That is exactly the impression I get. I wondered about it whenever I hear his comments on BYD. He clearly seems to distance himself and associate BYD to Charlie. I get the same feeling about Li Lu as well. But not Todd Combs. I think Buffett hand-picked Combs. Cheers!

This writer does a terrific job breaking down the various companies, entities and spinoffs that have evolved from MFC Bancorp, as well as establishing the long-term track record for Michael Smith. Cheers! http://seekingalpha.com/article/290755-15-for-15-years-michael-j-smith-s-outstanding-track-record?source=yahoo

That was pretty funny! ;D My question would be: Aren't there easier ways to make money than companies that are implicated in fraud? If we cannot put any guarantees or even estimates on what the assets are worth, then how can you come to any real margin of safety for equity or bonds? I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. Cheers!

That's actually a terrific little interview. I love his comment about electricity and natural gas. Cheers!

Hi Gopi, Go to the 10-K for each year and see how much was spent on retiring shares, and how much was spent issuing shares, including through options and warrants. If a corporation spends plenty of money buying back shares, but either pays too much for those shares or issues as many shares through grants, then it really isn't getting anywhere. Not sure if that was the case with the Gap, but the filings will give you the correct numbers. Cheers!

Some people just have too much time on their hands. This writer came up with "81 Reasons We Love Warren Buffett". Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/81-Reasons-We-Love-Warren-fool-1638791010.html?x=0&.v=2

I always thought this was because it's very difficult to afford a Vancouver mortgage without renting out a part of your house. That's partly become the reason now, but there have been multi-generational homes in Vancouver for the last 30 years. It really took off in the 80's and 90's with the large Punjabi population in Surrey and the enormous inflow of Hong Kong immigrants. Now we have new "laneway" homes, similar to residences in London or San Francisco...small footprint homes where normally a driveway or garage might have been. These are often used as mortgage helpers or in-law residences. They design of many are very nice actually. Cheers!

I think CCB is a strategic partner for them long-term. BAC looks like they want to focus on the core banking / wealth management business, and they want to be the global leader in the future. They could sell more, but that may hurt their alliance in any future endeavors together. Cheers!

Happy Birthday Smallcap! Are you 81 too? ;D Cheers!

Here's a short interview with the CEO of Dickey's BBQ Pit. I always enjoy reading about CEO's who find ways to cut costs for their business or their franchisees. Cheers! http://www.businessweek.com/small-business/from-local-hot-spot-to-national-chain-08302011.html