Partner24

I'm not that surprised that much by that new announcement. Stock is cheap. Business is in good shape. Enough cash on the balance sheet. Give them flexibility to increase intrinsic value per share. But shareholders have red the news....

Thanks Sanjeev for the link. Cheers!

All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone. Blaise Pascal

Let's split it's age instead so we'll create more long term value ;)

Because it would put an unfair additional layer of taxes. If I own shares of a business directly and I receive a dividend, there is two layers of taxes (the operating company and me). If I own shares of a business that own a business, there is three layers. The holding company, the operating company and me. The actual way of not taxing the intercorporation dividends keep neutrality in the system. One tax of the corporation, one tax for the ultimate owner. If I tax the holding company for the operating company dividends, as the ultimate shareholder, I would get unfairly penalized because of that legitimate additional layer of ownership. You could then nearly say "bye bye" to all conglomerates and holding companies and that wouldn't make sense.

That industry is a very volatile one. Competition is fierce and capital can swith hands easily. If you want to invest in public businesses that manage capital, it's better to invest in people who have a permanent base of capital. Just my opinion. Cheers!

berkshiremistery, Thank you for posting. I've seen your posts over the years and they are very informative. Your chart say it all. I see that you are a "newbie" in this new message board. But, to me, you're a "hero member" since you posted a lot of posts with wisdom in them. I hope that you'll post more often. Sanjeev, To me, the key to our countries (US and Canada) is mostly not selective immigration. The key is to keep people that are here motivated, innovative and energic and to keep the great values that has built our country, whatever where they come from. Most of us (value investors) are conservative in nature. As value investors, we ask for a margin of safety, but America has been built with people who put their balls on the table because they believed in what they wanted to build. I come from a small town of business builders and that create jobs and wealth. We need people like that. As to S&P rating, they just...rate things, they are just like critics...they do not build the show. That being said, I do agree with their yellow flag. As a country, you have revenues and you have expenses. You need to focus on both responsibly. Some US politicians will have to take note and realize that an income statement comes with revenues and expenses and both are important. Cheers!

Those panicking "investors" aren't very rational. Greed/panic cycles are business as usual, but what is particular is how they panick even with the best quality businesses that are available to the public investors, like Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, etc. etc. etc. who are selling at discounted prices that one would have dreamed to have in the end of the 90's. It's been a trend over the last years, but this trend has gone deeper than I would have reasonably expected. This time what is particular is how quality rhymes with low price. I guess we'll don't see that often. Cheers!

All these politics threads started by just a handful new members is well beyond the mission of B&F Corner. Indeed.

Well, I hope that some "fraud detectors" like that will still be free when the judges will hear our lawsuit... Cheers!

Those speculators? Good riddance. The government (that's people taxes) cannot always have to pay the price for the crazy-cowboys-at-las-vegas excessive greed.

"I've been wrong. Probably that some honest people lost money because of my "liquidity crunch" wrong point of view about Fairfax Financial Holdings in 2003. For those who have followed my point of view with their hard earned money, I offer my apologies" P. Eavis, February 15th 2053 ;)

Oh these activists... First, he's been able to keep the MSFT huge earnings intact, but still have been able to grow them at a very decent pace for a huge company like that. I'm not saying he has not done any mistake with MSFT capital allocation, but nobody's perfect..... ....except Warren Buffett ;)

One of my friend took less than 2 minutes to get a fairly true picture of Sardar. It was years ago. It took me 1 AGM and two agressive activist letters to get the picture. My friend won on that one ;)

Everytime I get to read something about him, I found how deep this guy can get to make some $. That's shocking. Smart? I find it very easy intellectually, but very tough on the moral side. That's not a smart way to make some money. He's a devil on costs, and that's all. No, I should add that he's a devil on every costs, except the cost he charges to others. He's a sweet little angel on his own cost. What about take all the credit card fees and charge them against his own compensation?

Make sense? Yes.

Agree with the comments above. I also own a home, and the decision was not an investment related one. On a financial perspective, it would have been far better to keep the stocks. You simply don't live in your stock portfolio. I've sold some Found Financial Heaven to buy Found a Family Home ;) Cheers!

Al! It's great to see that you were there once again this year. Seen some others familiar faces too, but not that much. Sanjeev, you've lost some pounds! It's great to see that you seem healthy. Not having a lot of lunches like the FFH stock price days we saw some years ago I guess? ;) Cheers!

That's a great review Sanjeev. I've went to one diner 2 or 3 years ago. We were 20-30 persons I guess. One thing to remember is that it was great for FFH shareholders to meet and greet. I see that now, you have a lot of speachers. That's great! But I wish that the "meet and greet" part will never be forgiven. It's, to me, a very important part of these diners. Needless to say that I highly recommend you attend if a significant portion of your portfolio is in the company. Indeed. I've asked a question when I went to the AGM. The answer's been satisfying and I hope that, like Prem said at that meeting, that they always get that lean years "deeply anchored" in their minds. ALWAYS HAVE A SOLID BALANCE SHEET. Then, rule number 1: don't lose. Rule number 2: don't forget rule number 1. Cheers!

Regarding Mongolia Growth Group. I like his words, but obviously actions speak louder than words (see Biglari Holdings for a 101 course on that particular topic). Somebody knows him? His hedge fund? His track record as an investor?

Guys, it's one thing to have a good jockey to manage assets, but in the end you still have to pay these assets at least at a reasonable price, at best at a bargain price. For those who are confortable enough to value it, how would you assess the intrinsic value of the company? Do potential investors have the assets at a reasonable price and the jockey for free or do they have to pay a premium for it? Thank you very much for your valuable insight.

I like that Fortress Paper guy. He seems to be the classical contrarian value investor who seek to find value where others don't. I always search for talented investors like that. That being said, he's in an industry that is not within my circle of competences. In those circonstances where you don't know jewelry, you have to trust the jewelrer. So, for those who can value that company, what would your intrinsic value range would be for that company? What are the metrics you use to value it? That's a very interesting story. Thanks for sharing it.

...is out! http://www.leucadia.com/c-p_letters/luk_c-p2010.pdf This new one of the best, if not the best, letter that Leucadia Chairman and President have written so far. Leucadia is back on track. Cheers!

Not prob Parsad, as long as it's available one way or another I'll be happy. What would be sad is if it was just available to the lucky few at the AGM and not to anybody else.. Indeed.