that everyone who attended this year, left Toronto far better for it! Fairfax Financial Shareholders Dinner We arrived Tuesday afternoon at the hotel, and shortly thereafter made ...
our way to Joe Badali's for the Fairfax Shareholders Dinner. We had about 30 people this year, and we were in a ...
were incredibly open, generous and humbly shared their knowledge with us. We talked about Fairfax, Level 3, Abitibi, Odyssey, Canwest, commodities, politics, investing, economics, management, etc. Just absolutely far ...
...
our way to Joe Badali's for the Fairfax Shareholders Dinner. We had about 30 people this year, and we were in a ...
were incredibly open, generous and humbly shared their knowledge with us. We talked about Fairfax, Level 3, Abitibi, Odyssey, Canwest, commodities, politics, investing, economics, management, etc. Just absolutely far ...
...
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Ok folks, I'm finally home from Toronto, and I have the time and energy now to write this for the board. It was one heck of a week and I believe that everyone who attended this year, left Toronto far better for it! Fairfax Financial Shareholders Dinner We arrived Tuesday afternoon at the hotel, and shortly thereafter made our way to Joe Badali's for the Fairfax Shareholders Dinner. We had about 30 people this year, and we were in a private section of the restaurant, which easily faciliated our discussion and enjoyment. I knew that Sam Mitchell had arranged with Prem and Jo Ann Butler to attend our dinner, but I didn't know he was also bringing Francis. The two had just finished dinner and made their way over around 8:30pm or so. They sat down near my table, and we just began talking a little bit. Slowly a couple of people drifted over to listen...then some more...about fifteen minutes later, I noticed that the entire room and formed one large circle around the two, and were completely enraptured by what they were saying. Last year, they stayed for about 45 minutes or so to answer questions. This year, they were there for over one and a half hours. They answered some 50-60 questions that people peppered their way. You do not get access to such great investors any longer in Omaha, as the crowds are just so immense, but we were absolutely privileged to be in the position we were! You name it, we probably talked about it, or they deferred to not comment if they needed to. But for the most part, they were incredibly open, generous and humbly shared their knowledge with us. We talked about Fairfax, Level 3, Abitibi, Odyssey, Canwest, commodities, politics, investing, economics, management, etc. Just absolutely far too much information to try and compact on the board...you really had to be there. One of the most thrilling conversations I've had in some time! For those shareholders that haven't met Sam or heard him speak, he's an absolute gentleman. But he's damn honest and blunt about issues. When he speaks, there is no doubt in your mind he's telling the truth about how he feels. We asked him all about his experience at Fairfax, before and after joining them. He laid it out pretty simple. To paraphrase, he said that they really are exactly who you think they are. That this is a great team, with no egos, and they really do work well together...that they really are people of great character! Francis absolutely bewildered the crowd with his discussion of distressed fixed income securities. For some reason, he believes that no one wants to hear what he has to say. I can tell you that as an investment manager that knows him quite well, I am happy for every opportunity I have to listen to him. He gave some terrific and instructive discussion on fixed income investing, especially certain distressed bonds that are available these days. Fairfax also provided corporate baseball caps to all attendees this year as souvenirs, which was very nice of them..we'd like to thank Jo Ann Butler for that. Joe Badali's let us carry on until well after the restaurant was closed...so we'd like to thank Jessica, Chris and the rest of the Joe Badali's team who were really great at dealing with all of us. Finally, we'd like to thank Sam Mitchell and Francis Chou for making it such a memorable evening for everyone! Fairfax AGM The meeting started off in it's regular format with Prem opening it up and quickly dispensing with the preliminaries of the actual AGM. It was a large crowd...far bigger than last year. After the AGM portion, Prem asked for a minute of silence to remember Mr. Robbert Hartog. A lovely tribute of pictures played silently on the screen showing various times from his life, including pictures with Prem and his family. It was a stirring moment to remember Prem's dear friend and mentor, and certainly a friend to Fairfax shareholders since inception! The presentation moved along relatively quickly...basically, we are in awesome shape, and we are prepared for anything...we had a tough seven years, but now they are well over and we are moving forward! Prem was in fine form, and he certainly looked very upbeat this year. He took a moment to thank Francis for all his years of work at Fairfax, and Mr. Winslow Bennett who has served Fairfax and it's subsidiaries as a director for many years. Prem took a moment to acknowledge a few value investors that had supported him during the "lean" years, including Mason Hawkins and Jeff Stacey. I was terribly honored to have my name thrown in the mix too! Many questions were asked during the Q&A period, but they were relatively benign, indicating that Fairfax has done a tremendous job regaining shareholder confidence. I'd like to tell you more, but there really wasn't much to report this year. Outside of Berkshire, there really isn't another insurance company as well positioned as them! There were a few funny bits. Prem initially showed a cartoon of a man stuck on a ledge, with a caped hero flying in to save him...the caption read "I was really hoping for Prem Watsa!" Another picture showed Brian Bradstreet surrounded by hundreds of people bowing down to him. Finally, I believe the biggest moments of hilarity always arrive when Dennis Gibbs is asked to speak. In his sublime way, he just oozes funny from his pores. I suspect in another life he would have likely been a stand-up comedian! His wry wit and perfect timing are almost like Gary Shandling or Albert Brooks! MPIC Funds Presentation Corner Market Capital sponsered a presentation for the MPIC Funds this year. We held it at the Fairmont Royal York shortly after the Fairfax AGM. We sent out plenty of invites, but received a very small turnout. We're grateful to all that attended, and they had the pleasure of being engaged by Francis again. This time, people marvelled at his memory and ability with numbers. I remember mentioning on this board years ago, that after I met Francis, I found that he could pull out the most uncanny of numbers or facts...basically the most obscure facts one could think of regarding Berkshire. Well, needless to say that people were mesmerized by his ability to pull exact numbers for bond prices and interest rates out of thin air. He showed our attendees a few math tricks as well! Although I had to go back to the hotel and figure them out!  Alnesh and I answered questions for about an hour after our presentation. We'd like to thank our director Andrew Cooke, and all of our other partners (Ajay, Glen, Gary) who attended! If you would like a copy of the powerpoint, just email me at sanjeevparsad@shaw.ca. We had a great time getting together with everyone this year...thanks Peter and Jordan, we had a great time the last couple of days. Many old faces, and many new faces. It was terrific! We expect to do this all over again next year, and look forward to seeing as many of you as we can in Toronto! Cheers! |
