Parsad

Is Sardar planning on losing Biglari Holdings to a Leon Spink's type of company a few years later? ;D Maybe Cracker Barrel should acquire Biglari Holdings. I love it when people use great historical winning analogies to explain their defeats, rather than saying we've lost the first four rounds, but are persistent and hope to win eventually. As if he would prefer to go eight rounds with Cracker Barrel, rather than beat them in the first round! Cheers!

Wow! No wonder you had to retire. You and your wife don't have time to do anything else except chauffeur the kids around. The oldest one should be driving in a year and can take the siblings around sometimes. Cheers!

Alan is married and has two teenage kids. So all he has to look forward to are these photographs with the Keg girls! ;D Gio's tall...not 7' tall, but probably 6'3 or so. Gio, what is the exact number? Cheers!

There's no need to pretend when the facts are clear. www.enhancecrackerbarrel.com is a pretty good start to actually understanding this situation. HTH, Ragu Crackerbarrel and Steak'n Shake are two very different animals. Crackerbarrel's executives have done a mediocre job. Steak'n Shake was falling off a cliff and was six months from bankruptcy. So Sardar's arguments about capital allocation aren't quite on comparable levels here, nor completely accurate. Frankly, I'm not sure why he didn't pick an easier target than CBRL! Cheers!

Ajcinc took a few pictures from MPIC Fund's Annual General Meeting. Thanks Alan! Cheers!

He has the longest time horizon and holding period...why move on? Eventually, after five more years, he would have worn management and shareholders down. ;D At that point, they'll pay a premium to him for his shares...just to leave them alone. It's called the "Icahn greenmail premium"! Cheers!

Thanks to Andrew Berger & Dave Polonitza of AB Value Management LLC, for their donation of this year's photographer! Much appreciated! If are looking for a good, reasonably-priced photographer, give Tatiana a call: http://www.tatianafomichovphotography.com/

Some terrific pictures from the AGM, including Alnesh and I manning a booth! Cheers!

The answer to all those questions is either "none/neither of them" or "the first Darrin" That's incorrect. A Coke is definitely better than a Pepsi! Hands down. I do agree about "the first Darrin." Cheers!

I wonder if they would have let me buy a bottle? If so, I should have done that! Cheers!

No, no...don't worry about that at all. I consider that a donation from my part! But it is also a reason to combine the pre-dinner event with the actual dinner. Cheers!

Here is Bob's presentation from our dinner that unfortunately was not available that evening. Cheers! Robotti_Presentation_-_2014_Fairfax_Financial_Shareholders_Dinner.pdf

Hi Folks, I'm pretty much recovered from the flu now, so I thought I would finally give a synopsis of this year's events. It was quite a stellar week (or 3 days essentially) and all I heard were rave reviews from everyone on virtually all of the events. The week started with "The Ben Graham Dinner" hosted by Norm on Monday night at Joe Badali's. We had about 50-55 people or so attend, and Fairfax was generous enough to send a bunch of gift bags and gift cards ahead of time for all of the attendees, so that they had an extra couple of days to use them. Everyone finally met Gio...the man everyone was waiting to meet in person! All I kept being asked during the various events is "Where is Gio? Which one is he?" Sorry they were all boardmembers and guys Gio...we'll get you a couple of nice ladies next year! Dr. George Athanssakos' Ivey Value Investing Conference on Tuesday morning was a big hit this year. A lot of people told me the speakers were great this year, especially Wilbur Ross! From what I hear, Ivey won the stock-picking contest the day before as well! Norm's Pre-Dinner Gathering was quite packed again in the York Station Bar. This year, Francis surprised the attendees with Brian Bradstreet and Mohnish Pabrai. Although Mohnish had to leave shortly thereafter for his daily nap! The man has a routine...don't fu*k it up! ;D The attendees unfortunately did not spend the minimum $500 at the bar, so unfortunately I was stuck with a $250 bill at the end. We are going to open up the Fairfax Financial Shareholder's Dinner from 3pm on next year, so the Pre-Dinner Gathering will actually end up being in the same room as the Dinner from 3-6pm and the dinner from 6pm on. That way, we'll have plenty of space plus the cash bar over there will easily meet its quota for the hotel. The 2014 Fairfax Financial Shareholder's Dinner was a rousing success again! We had about 150 people in attendance, and raised $19,358, with $2,536 coming from Templeton book and Fairfax Brasil soccer jersey sales at the Fairfax AGM. Prem told me he is meeting the difference and getting us to $20,000 exactly for Crohn's & Colitis Canada (CCC) in memory of JoAnn! Thanks very much to all of you, including the silent auction donors, Templeton Foundation and Fairfax! We had some very interesting silent auction items this year including two boardmembers winning a bid on a Lunch or Dinner With Bob Robotti of Robotti & Company! We had four terrific speakers this year: - First, Mark Ram, formerly of Northbridge and now a National Director with CCC, had a very emotional and stirring speech about how the disease has affected his family and forced him to do everything he can to find a cure! - Second, we had Craig Graham speak bluntly about his time and efforts as CEO of Rainmaker Entertainment. Some of the best one-liners and observations about business came from Craig's speech. I think the crowd was very taken with Craig...amazing individual! - Then we had Andrew Berger and Dave Polonitza from AB Value Management LLC speak about their holding Mastech...very expansive and detailed. I don't think we had enough time for them! Also would like to thank AB Value Management for donating the photographer for the evening. Very generous and I'll share the pictures on here once ready! - Lastly, we had Bob Robotti speak. He gave a terrific, detailed explanation of what value investing is and how it is applied by him when searching for ideas. Unfortunately, Bob's slideshow had not arrived, but I received a copy and I'll put it on here in a separate post! After a short break, Prem arrived with about 10-12 executives. Going from memory...hopefully I don't miss any...we had Richie Boucher, Paul Rivett, Sam Mitchell, David Aisenstat, Peter Furlan, Madhaven Menon, Anne Stevenston-Yang, Francis Chou, Ramaswamy Athappan and George Chryssikos up on the head table, as well as a number in the back of the house and spread throughout the room! Thanks very much to Fairfax's team for taking the time to attend and answer questions. Prem left after about half an hour. The rest of the team stayed for about another hour and a half. Paul Rivett left around 11:45pm and Francis escaped by midnight this year! Amazing people...love them! My heartfelt thanks to Rea and Courtney from the CCC, who volunteered their time and efforts this year for the dinner. It would not have worked out so well without them! The next day was the main event...The Fairfax Financial Annual General Meeting! Crowds were huge this year...1,255 people in total. The bottom levels were full this year at Roy Thomson Hall and people had to go to the mezzanine level. Lots of booths and terrific takeaways for shareholders. One of the big hits was a personal manicure set from one of the Fairfax companies, as well as plenty of gift cards to Cara Restaurants, The Keg, William Ashley and Sportinglife! Tons of food for shareholders as well, all prepared in front of them by a battalion of Fairfax restaurant company chefs! Prem had a wonderful presentation as usual, and for those that say to ignore the macro...based on the slides shown, just like before the Financial Crisis of 2008...it's so hard to ignore! Unfortunately, I missed the Q&A, as I had to man the Templeton book table. We had some Fairfax Brasil World Cup jerseys that were a huge hit that Fairfax had donated to raise money for CCC...they went like hotcakes! Again, for anyone attending, it was a fantastic AGM with Prem mingling and trying to greet everyone during the cocktail! He would be the perfect Berkshire CEO! MPIC Funds AGM went quite well this year too! We had about 65 people attend and the room was jam-packed. I brought some Russell Breweries t-shirts to hand out, and they disappeared in seconds! I wasn't feeling particularly well, and we turned the meeting more into a Q&A. Very pleased by the attendance and it was a pleasure meeting everyone! Thanks very much for making this such a successful three days of value investing! We've got something very special here and I really enjoy putting it together. Truly my honor and privilege, and I'm glad the events have a three-fold effect...attention to Value Investing and Fairfax...attention to Corner of Berkshire & Fairfax boardmembers...and attention to Crohn's & Colitis Canada! Thanks once again! Sanjeev

TIG has sued the NHL regarding the NHL's concealment of concussion effects on players. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-16/nhl-sued-by-insurer-over-defense-of-concussion-lawsuits-1-.html?cmpid=yhoo

[amazonsearch]The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap[/amazonsearch] I was told that Chapter 6 in Matt Tabibbi's "The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap" is devoted to Fairfax's tough years. Haven't read it yet, but probably highly recommended! Cheers!

Hi TorontoRaptorsFan, I was looking for you all night. Had no idea you arrived until I saw the headphones. Sorry we didn't get a chance to talk. I was walking around all night with a foggy congested head. Absolutely sick as a dog right now, and I'm just happy I made it through another week in Toronto! All the best, Sanjeev

Correct. Thanks to "first in, first out" tax loss rules in the U.S. Although, it is a true economic cost over the long-run, because you eventually pay tax on the gains if you are correct, or take smaller losses from a lower ACB. The one advantage it does provide is that averaging in to ideas as prices fall will almost always work out for you if you maintain a batting average above 0.500. It allows you to take losses earlier and reduce your average cost earlier, so you overweight, and then adjust the allocation as prices to back up. Cheers!

I can give a pretty good idea for a few of these: 1. Pretty obvious that succession planning started sooner at Fairfax than Berkshire. While the old guard is still in place, Andy Barnard's position as chief of insurance and Paul Rivett's position of chief of pretty much anything outside of insurance, suggests that this may be a Tony Nicely/Lou Simpson like division of labor, with quality people working under each. Andy would watch over all insurance subs, and Paul would lead Hamblin-Watsa and non-insurance businesses. I would not be surprised to see a Watsa installed as a figurehead Chairman, not unlike Howard Buffett, to oversee and make sure the culture at Fairfax remains intact. 3. Fairfax has not invested in Dakshana. Prem's personal foundation, The Sixty-Three Corporation, invested the proceeds in Dakshana. Still a good question...did Fairfax invest in the Dhandho raise? 4. Core group is made up of I believe six committee members and Prem, plus one other person (Sam, Roger, Brian, Chandran, Paul, Wade and Prem, plus one that shall remain unnamed). Francis Burke is also on the committee, but I don't think she looks after any capital directly, and focuses on Fairfax's trading. They are each allocated several hundred million plus. Very large investments get the final call by Prem. Analysts also get a portfolio to manage, but much smaller. You've got some of the smartest guys in the business working there together. Going to be hard to replace them...not simply on skill, but their ability to work as a team. Cheers!

Kept averaging down to the bottom...was very overweight...then sold the stuff at higher prices as the stock rebounded. Now it's a big, comfortable position with our average cost at $4.80. I do that with pretty much all of our stocks. We will keep buying till we hit rock bottom, unless I can't buy any more because of ownership limitations, and then we get rid of the excess stock when prices rebound and hold on to the position we want. Although that is US GAAP. In Canada, all you can do is just buy more and more at lower prices, so we tend to buy larger quantities as we hit bottom. The average cost is a bit higher...closer to $4.95 in the Canadian fund. Often, we start nibbling in the U.S. fund, even when we aren't buying in the Canadian fund because of FIFO. So a lot of times, by the time we start buying in the Canadian fund, the discount is greater. Once in a while, we'll miss an opportunity, but most of the time we get to participate. Cheers!

Yeah, that's what is happening to me to. Anyone else having issues like that? Please let me know. We'll also be updating to the newest SMF software in the next week or so, so they can fix any issues we may be having. Cheers!

I would have preferred to see him say he was wrong on Fairfax Financial. He told me flat to my face at the very first Value Investing Conference in New York that he had not read Fairfax's quarterly or annual reports, but that he relied on two very good sources who did their research...hmm, can you guess who they were...one's dead and the other writes a blog! How the worst miscreant journalists escaped Fairfax's wrath in their lawsuit, I don't know. Yes, they would have hid behind the Fifth Amendment, but if you are going to blow $200M on a lawsuit, might as well go after the journalists too, and make them or their publisher fork out legal fees defending them. Really disappointed Fairfax didn't go after these guys too! Cheers!

I agree with that sentiment. Our cost is $4.80. I think it's worth at least $9...likely more. I think patience is warranted here. Also, often market prices aren't in line with improvements in fundamentals. How anyone can say that SD isn't in better shape today, than the last days of Tom Ward's reign are beyond me. Give it time. You have good, solid management in place that is really watching the bottom line...not unlike what we saw with Brian Moynihan at Bank of America. I think things will continue to improve little by little. At some point, they will get offers and it will be sold to someone much bigger. Cheers!

Hi Folks, So the details are below: 2014 Fairfax Financial Shareholder’s Dinner Tuesday, April 8, 2014 Fairmont Royal York Upper Canada Room - 18th Floor 100 Front Street West 5:30-6:15pm - Meet & Greet, and also grab your seat! - For those having dinner, the buffet will be open...we have a full evening, so we want to make sure you've got your food early. - Presentation only guests are welcome to water, coffee, tea and the cash bar. 6:30pm - A few words from Sanjeev 6:45pm - Mark Ram, formerly of Northbridge Financial, and now National Director for Crohn's & Colitis Canada will speak 7:15pm - Craig Graham, CEO of Rainmaker Entertainment, will speak 7:45pm - Andrew Berger & David Polonitza from AB Value Management will speak 8:15pm - Bob Robotti, of Robotti & Company, will speak Around 8:45pm - Prem will arrive with his team If anyone is interested in corporate sponsorship of prizes, or any donors for prizes, please contact me at cornerofberkshireandfairfax@gmail.com. If you are still looking for a ticket...please contact me as well. We are sold out, but there are always cancellations. Look forward to seeing you all there!

From Mohnish, for you guys wanting the list: Sales/Marketing Reading Materials Referenced in Mohnish’s Presentation 1. Marketing High Technology by William Davidow 2. Power vs. Force by David Hawkins 3. Strategic Selling by Miller/Heiman 4. Conceptual Selling by Miller/Heiman 5. Successful Large Account Management by Miller/Heiman 6. The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses by Amar Bhide 7. Inc. Magazine Subscription 8. Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy 9. In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters Cheers!

I have no idea what Mike is doing now! The company seems to be growing at any cost, regardless of dilution, profitability or any rational plan. We sold our shares after he sold the asset management business. I have no idea what is keeping the stock afloat, because the financials get uglier every year and the number of shares outstanding is ballooning! Crazy what has happened. Cheers!