Parsad

Welcome aboard Txlaw! Enjoy. Cheers!

Article on the troubles within the Baltic nations. Cheers! http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090810.wlatvia0810/GIStory/

Detroit needs unionized employees to take 10% paycuts, otherwise it may find itself bankrupt. Cheers! http://www.freep.com/article/20090810/NEWS01/90810035/Detroit-is-running-out-of-cash--Bing-says

Parsad, Please don't take this the wrong way, but just because you haven't met them doesn't mean that they don't exist. In fact, I think that a number of people, let's say Jim Simons as one example, would certainly disagree with your second sentence. You could very well be correct. I'm still not convinced of Simon's results, so you'll have to view me as a heretic. Cheers!

Some highlights: - Cash at the holding company is the highest yet at nearly $38M - Continues to slowly whittle down assets for sale - Total assets remain at about $513M - Credit line is down about $3.5M to $13.7M from last quarter - All long-term debt has been eliminated...roughly $12M from last quarter - Shareholder Equity is up about $4.5M - Most operating expenses have been cut significantly since last year, so headway there will by slower. Areas where we see continued improvement since last quarter (cost of sales, restaurant operating costs, G&A). Marginally higher marketing costs. - One aspect of operating expenses that will save probably $6-10M a year going foward is interest costs. With a lower credit line and no long-term debt, this will be a significant savings - Net income of $3.8M and I would expect next year's full operating earnings to come in around $20-25M - $41.1M of net operating cash for the 40 weeks ending July 1, 2009, with nearly $16M of that coming in this quarter! - SNS is converting to a holding company structure like WEST did, with Sardar allocating excess cash...which there is nearly $40M of already and it comes in every quarter now at a pace of $4-5M plus! Exactly one year now since Sardar took over. The business was running on pace for a $25M yearly loss when he took control, and next year it should show a $20-$25M operating profit. Great stuff! Cheers!

Nice interview Tariq! Cheers!

The other issue facing the economy, along with Alt-A and Opt-A refinancings, are the commercial property mortgages and decreasing values as commercial properties are sold over the next two years. I had mentioned that one of our partners renewed leases on his commercial properties by offering an across the board 20% rent reduction. He was probably smart to do that this year, as rents will probably decrease more than that in 2010 and into 2011. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aFp6TE9kWkqk

Yes, sorry Wesco, I meant on the website. Cheers!

Excellent answer Broxburnboy! Cheers!

Seeking Alpha has Markel's transcript. Cheers! http://seekingalpha.com/article/154639-markel-corporation-q2-2009-earnings-call-transcript?page=-1

Most folk would suggest that shareholders have a right to an annual shareholders letter & quarterly 10Q and 10K disclosures. But ... when the business has a material, and very significant active involvement in a specific investment, those letters should be every 6 months. Shareholder letters speak to the operational thinking, expectations, and reasons behind the various changes. It is not glorified MD&A disclosure, & it exists because todays decisions produce tommorows financials. I politely disagree Sharper. I put weight in certain shareholder letters (Berkshire, Fairfax, and a couple of others), because I use them as educational tools. But realistically, shareholder letters are probably the least pertinent pieces of information for making a calculated assessment of a business' intrinsic value. I'm sure Enron put out a great letter about operations and expectations, but we know today that those letters were complete bunk...as I'm sure Madoff's great letters were. The balance and income statements don't lie (at least not usually ;D), they don't accentuate the positives and reduce the negatives, and they give no opinion on future prospects. Even the proxy filings, news releases, statuatory filings are far more important. If you look at any sort of management commentary, the MD&A should take a far greater precedent than any shareholder letter, as these pass directly through the hands of the CFO, the audit committee and the auditors. There is no greater tool to sell a business than the shareholder letter. It is rare for a CEO to ever say they did a crappy job this year or that things do not look optimistic. Cheers!

Hi Kumar, I think El-Erian had a very good answer for that as the interviewer said the same thing. Any investor has to have some broad understanding of the capital markets. Bonds finance corporate America, thus what happens there is directly correlated to equities. Plus some of us do buy bonds! ;D Cheers!

I think we all know he's your 'friend' and you guys email and such -- but he shouldn't get off on a fundamental corporate governance issue because of that (perhaps you are falling prey to the liking/loving bias?). I think this is a ridiculous assertion. Unlike Fairfax, where I do know alot of the people, the only real contact I have with Sardar and his various companies over the last couple of years is usually stuff related to questions from this board on when is a report coming out, or can I get into a specific meeting without being a shareholder. That's when I contact him. I used to meet him regularly in Omaha, and I did an interview in the past, but since then my contact has been related to questions from this board. I think the real problem is a routine over-reaction from investors. Whenever any issue comes up...be it with Berkshire, Fairfax, Biglari, Mohnish, whoever and whatever, I think there are a handful of investors that rely on their own expectations on an issue, rather than judiciously applying a bit of patience to see what the outcome actually is or how an issue is handled. My comments were that Sardar said he owes WEST shareholders a letter. I said that personally, I don't care if he writes the letter or not, as long as there are improvements in the business. How am I letting him off a corporate governance issue that he has already stated he expects to meet? He wrote one every year for TLF did he not? And he wrote one for SNS last year and will again this year, correct? And I told you he said that he will write one for WEST...so what exactly are we debating? By the way, I'm probably the last person on this board that actually falls in love with a stock. We sold all our Fairfax last year simply to buy other stuff that was cheaper, and we bought it back again this year. I'm a student of Buffett, but we own no Berkshire other than in our corporate account and that's primarily for the annual report. We own no WEST outside of our corporate account...again primarily for the annual report. If Steak'n Shake hits or exceeds our estimate of intrinsic value, I will be the first person on this board to sell some, no matter how much I like Sardar. Finally, the shareholder letter is often the biggest selling tool an executive has for shareholders. As much as investors want their management to be honest and ethical, shareholder letters are always from the manager's perspective...always a biased perspective, regardless of who it is...even my own MPIC Fund letters will be from my perspective. Every investor should pay more attention to the 10-Q's and 10-K's, regardless of their level of sophistication. Otherwise they are playing Russian roulette by relying only on the shareholder letter. Cheers!

The Brick was Canada's dominant furniture retailer for many, many years when Bill Comrie was at the helm. The business went downhill after he retired from the company shortly after it went public. There's a good biography of him below. A great story about how he built the business. Cheers! http://www.retailcouncil.org/news/media/press/2008/pr20080516.asp

you don't even like their management even after the boardroom shake up? No, my comments were directed at previous management over the last decade. I don't know much about the current group. Cheers!

at the risk of sounding like a one note charlie, where are the shareholder letters for 2008 for both west & sns? i know i'm not the only one wondering. i've seen the same question asked on other boards. i've even heard that there's been no letter to shareholders in the lions fund for a longer than usual time, tho i cant confirm if thats true. -has sardar simply been much too busy rolling up his sleeves in the trenches, working 17 hr days, & just hasnt found the time? -has he had a change of attitude about their value & efficacy, preferring instead to use the annual meeting to answer questions & provide the kind of color that cant be had from 10k's alone? -is he waiting until he feels there are sufficient new changes & developements in the works to justify a letter, conventional schedules be damned? whatever the reason is, i hope he addresses it at the west annual meeting if we havent rec'd a letter by then The Lion Fund Annual Report for 2008 has been out for about two weeks. I did not want to mention it here, since not everyone has access to the site, and I don't want anyone giving out the website passwords without Sardar's permission. I spoke to Sardar shortly after that regarding a WEST shareholder letter. He told me he owes WEST shareholders a letter, and that he would write one...so Noisefreeinvesting can probably remove that from his site. Sardar wrote a letter last year to SNS shareholders that is on the website. I believe he will write another one this year after the fiscal year is complete near the end of September, as their fiscal year is different than WEST and TLF. That being said, as much as I want to hear Sardar's comments, I would much rather have him working his butt off on improving fortunes at TLF, WEST and SNS, rather than writing three seperate letters...and his letters are never short ones. Since so much of TLF and WEST's future resides in SNS, I think that letter once a year is probably fine. But as I said, he will do a WEST letter and put it out whenever he has some spare time. I think most of us can make out what is happening at WEST and SNS simply from the 10-Q's and 10-K's, so it's not terribly important. Cheers!

Actually Bill Gross' August Letter is quite good and expounds on El-Erian's comments. This is pretty much what we talked about in our 2nd Q letter...low growth, modest prosperity, increased frictional costs, more efficient business, higher unemployment and several years of continued recovery. He also has some wonderful shots at the money management business. Cheers! http://www.pimco.com/LeftNav/Featured+Market+Commentary/IO/2009/Investment+Outlook+August+2009+Gross+Investment+Potion.htm

I don't always agree with Bill Gross, but I've come to appreciate the clarity with which Mohammed El-Erian, CEO of PIMCO, portrays the credit markets and economic environment. I don't think I've heard an explanation as simple and clear as his in this CNBC interview. Cheers! Story: http://www.cnbc.com/id/32334381 Interview: http://www.cnbc.com/id/32200989/

I thought I would post this here before somebody jumps on me! ;D Due to Peter's macroeconomic bets and closeouts of short positions, he's had a tough first half as his 2nd Quarter Letter came out today...down a little over 30% for the year. Just like Mohnish last year, or Sardar when he started buying Steak'n Shake, or Peter today, investors could very easily face significant volatility when they have capital allocated in the markets or within concentrated funds. I expect just like Mohnish, and just like Sardar, Peter will turn around the tough first half, and over the long-term investors will do fine with him. In July he was up 9% already. My thoughts on why that will happen are simply because good, ethical managers learn from errors and improve on their strategy. Anyway, I thought I should post that here since everyone was discussing Lindmark Capital, and I didn't want someone looking surprised when they read the 2nd Q Letter. Cheers!

Here's a pretty bleak forecast by Comstock Partners. I don't think we will see Japan. I'm more inclined to believe we will see 1974-1982. They have some pretty good points though and some good slides. Cheers! http://www.comstockfunds.com/default.aspx?act=Newsletter.aspx&category=SpecialReport&newsletterid=1473&menugroup=Home&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aX39_VW6pf3U

Both my friends, Tim McElvaine and Francis Chou, are simply the two greatest guys in the value investing world. Humble doesn't begin to describe these two. I don't know who the four managers are that were selected to manage Berkshire's portfolio in Buffett's demise, but both of these guys would have been ideal candidates in my mind. One was the genius boy wonder at Cundill, and the other was the genius boy wonder at Hamblin-Watsa. Neither would ever say something like that, but I certainly can. Bob Thompson, in his book Stock Market Superstars, covers some of the best managers in Canada. For some reason, I didn't notice this on Tim's site at www.mcelvaine.com, but he has an excerpt from his chapter available on there. Thanks David Lau for pointing it out. I had read it already, but didn't know it was available to the public. Anyway, here it is and I think you'll enjoy it. Cheers! http://www.mcelvaine.com/Pdfs/2008%20-%20Tim%20McElvaine%20booklet%20(Thompson).pdf

Don't know. Just Monday. Cheers!

Hi Folks, For those waiting for this quarter's SNS results, they will be out Monday. Cheers!

$3.3B in net earnings for the 2nd Q. Cheers! http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1067983/000115752309005813/a6021509.htm

I've never liked management at KFS, but I know a bunch of boardmembers have followed this thing since the early days of the MSN BRK Board. They've killed their dividend after their recent quarter. Probably a good thing. Cheers! http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090807.wkingswayfinancial0807/GIStory/