Parsad

Yeah, I saw that interview on the weekend. As I've said before, I don't like Ackman's publicity stunts, but he is a very smart guy. Terrific speaker and his ideas on the banks are actually ones I completely agree with. Cheers!

Article in Smartmoney with Irving Kahn, Walter Schloss and Seth Glickenhaus. Cheers! http://www.smartmoney.com/Investing/Stocks/Stock-Pros-Who-Survived-the-Depression/?page=all

Article from the Omaha World-Herald about the AGM this coming weekend. Cheers! http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1208&u_sid=10617765

The Indianapolis Star had a short article about the AGM: http://www.indystar.com/article/20090425/BUSINESS04/904250424/1279/BUSINESS04 What I actually liked were a couple of the comments made by readers: Whether they want to admit it or not, the key to their turnaround has been the 4 Meals for $4 and the Mon-Fri Happy Hours with half price drinks. I can't tell you the number of hand-dipped milkshakes I have consumed since this special has started. What used to cost nearly $4 per shake now costs me $1.74. I have also been eating there more now that I don't have to pay $10 plus a tip to walk through the door. See you can have reasonable prices and still make a profit. I think this is a very important comment. Burger restaurants succeed based on their overall execution, but price and value play an enormous role. The biggest difference between Sardar running the company and the previous management, is that Steak'n Shake food is actually incredibly competitive now with other burger chains, let alone sit-down burger restaurants. Previous management had priced themselves out of the market because their operating costs had gotten completely out of whack. Sardar can sell cheaper food because operations have gotten significantly more competitive. Please open up a store in the airport When I come into Omaha, one of the first things and last things I always see at Eppley is the Omaha Steaks cart at the airport. Whether I buy anything or not, I completely associate that brand with steaks and Omaha. If someone asked me to name a city for great beef, my first answers would always be Omaha and Kobe. Not because the beef is necessarily better than other cities, but because those names are so ingrained in my head. Why doesn't Indianapolis' airport have a Steak'n Shake restaurant? Now with SNS' retail business, why can't they put a cheap cart somewhere near one of the terminals where people would start to associate with the brand? Cheers!

Sardar's vacation is actually to be at work. If he goes on vacation, all he'll be doing is reading. I remember John Linnartz telling me this story of how all these people were playing in the hotel pool last year. John walks over to Sardar and sees him sitting in a tracksuit on the lounger reading. "Money never sleeps" is Sardar's favorite saying! I don't think he does either. Cheers!

Great stuff Jeff! Thanks very much! Cheers!

Well, it certainly doesn't look like this ship is going to get sunk. Where's Tiddman? I'm three for three with him now! Sardar told me shortly after the sales numbers were released a couple of weeks ago, that the positive improvements in sales and customer traffic is only the beginning. They've got much more work to do to get it to where it was a few years ago. Those are things you like to hear from a CEO. Cheers!

You can get the direct clip here: http://watch.bnn.ca/best-of-bnn/best-of-bnn-april-13---17/#clip161568 You also had shots of Kilroy, Daphne & Calonego in there, as well as Sam Chan who works for Fairfax. It is quite amusing how cordial Andrew Bell was to Prem. I remember the shots Bell has taken at Buffett in the past, and I'm sure he's taken shots at Fairfax at some point as well. Cheers!

They've updated the Deepcapture site. A bit fresher and up to date. Cheers! http://www.deepcapture.com/

Well, the good thing Mungerville is that you will have plenty of more chances to come to Toronto. We have it each year, so anyone who wants to come can. The more the merrier! Although, next year I have to arrange to get a portable mic somehow, because even though we have a semi-private room, there is still plenty of noise and the people in the back can barely hear anything the guests say. Especially Francis who speaks quite softly! Cheers!

I believe it had to do with mark-to-market accounting changes in GAAP. The orange bar would have been where the decrease in surplus would have been before mark-to-market. With the change in GAAP, the decrease in surplus is considerably more as assets will be marked down. I believe that was what was implied. Cheers!

Any notes by anyone will be appreciated by those that follow it here. Thanks very much!

They've released the details of the cases below. The infected seem to end in the names Sender, Greenberg, Antar, Eavis, Cramer, Rocker & Contogouris. How bizarre! ;D Cheers! http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/23/swine.flu/index.html

So far I guess, no one is attending from here. What a shame! Hopefully, we can get some color of the meeting from the news. If anyone attends, please feel free to post your notes here. Thanks! Cheers!

Well, the stupidity of some of those questions becomes glaringly obvious once the reader realizes who the source is...Jeff Mathews? C'mon! On the other hand, there are a couple that are interesting: #1, #6 & #9. Number ten is probably the most assinine thing Mathews could ask, and about on par for him. Cheers!

Interesting article on Bill Ackman. He's a smart guy, but I don't like the way he necessarily does things. Anyway, the article is a good read. Cheers! http://www.portfolio.com/executives/2009/04/22/Hedge-Fund-Manager-Bill-Ackman

Good point John! Cheers!

I think the mistake was to be adamant about choosing ONLY 10 stocks and allocating 10% each. When you are dealing with wide array of companies with various risks and rewards, how can you justify allocating almost exactly 10% of your capital in each? Ah Kumar, I see what you are saying. You mean putting exactly 10% in one idea regardless of the quality of the idea. You don't have an issue with the concentration itself. Cheers!

You can! Come to the Fairfax AGM one of these days, and you'll be able to say hello. Better yet, you'll be able to listen to him speak, and meet all the terrific managers who work for Fairfax. Cheers!

Also, his 10x10 approach was a mistake. He is changing. An investor has to do what he's comfortable with, but I don't think that was the problem. In fact, I think it's probably a mistake to now switch to a less concentrated portfolio, since such dramatic losses have already happened. Now going forward, he has to find 20-30 positions, each will have less of an impact and he has to focus on far more businesses. It's less efficient than what he was doing. I think the real problem was the correlated risk of various businesses that could be impacted by a severe economic downturn and the leverage utilized by a couple. Normally, without hedging or shorting, he probably would have fallen on par with the markets. Because of some of the indirect, but correlated risk from businesses like DFC, CCRT, PNCL, HNR and SHLD, he suffered worse than the markets. If he stuck to his strategy, going forward the gains would be commensurate with the losses over time. Cheers!

Just wondering if we have any boardmembers attending the Steak'n Shake AGM on Friday in Indianapolis? Cheers!

No, Berkowitz was down 30% in 2008. Prem not only side-stepped, but made a huge profit. My friend Peter Lindmark of Lindmark Capital also crushed the market in 2008. Cheers!

Waterloo Record article on Prem. Cheers! http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/523889

Thanks Joey! Good stuff. Cheers!

Mohnish had a very tough year, but he's always been honest about his performance. For many years now, he's always warned his investors that the large outperformances can't continue. He doesn't short, hedge or use any sort of derivative. He's also never shut down redemptions from his fund. So, while he's had a bonecrushing year, he's never compromised his principles. He also remains the single-largest investor in the fund. His own personal networth went from over $50M down to $17M, so he suffers in exact proportion to his investors. What more can you want? I'm sure there are many, many managers who would like to do 2008 all over again, but you can't. You learn from your mistakes, become a better investor, and stay true to your partners. That's all you can really do. Cheers!