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Prem Watsa

Prem Watsa

Fairfax Financial Holdings
Last Update: 2013-06-12

Number of Stocks: 42
Number of New Stocks: 1

Total Value: $2,678 Mil
Q/Q Turnover: 0%

Countries: USA
Details: Top Buys | Top Sales | Top Holdings  Embed:
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Prem Watsa Sold :

Top Buys | Top Sells | Top Holdings
Download this portfolio to ExcelDownload (PremiumPremium Members Only)


Total Records: 80   Page:1 2 3 4 Next Page
TickerCompanyDate Action
 Impactdown Price Range
(Average)* 		Current Price Change from Average Comment Current Shares
FTR Frontier Communicati... 2013-03-31 Sold Out -2.7%$3.82 - $4.66
($4.26)		 $ 4.03-5%Sold Out0
WFC Wells Fargo & Co 2013-03-31 Reduce-0.58%$34.18 - $38.2
($35.63)		 $ 40.6614%Reduce -24.26%1,323,663
NXY Nexen, Inc. 2013-03-31 Sold Out -0.08%$26.68 - $27.06
($26.94)		 $ 27.412%Sold Out0
AUQ AuRico Gold Inc 2013-03-31 Sold Out -0.01%$6.02 - $8.35
($7.07)		 $ 4.57-35%Sold Out0
MHK Mohawk Industries, I... 2012-12-31 Sold Out -0.03%$78.22 - $91.29
($83.61)		 $ 114.6937%Sold Out0
BRO Brown & Brown, Inc. 2012-12-31 Sold Out -0.02%$25.15 - $27.01
($26.07)		 $ 32.3124%Sold Out0
NEU NewMarket Corporatio... 2012-12-31 Sold Out -0.01%$233.15 - $277.43
($255.13)		 $ 272.337%Sold Out0
USG USG Corp 2012-09-30 Reduce-6.76%$15.65 - $23.73
($19.81)		 $ 25.2628%Reduce -99.37%42,800
USB U.S. Bancorp 2012-09-30 Reduce-2.25%$31.91 - $34.93
($33.31)		 $ 35.196%Reduce -30.03%3,112,579
WFC Wells Fargo & Co 2012-09-30 Reduce-2.11%$32.85 - $36.1
($34.06)		 $ 40.6619%Reduce -40.65%1,754,687
JAKK Jakks Pacific, Inc. 2012-09-30 Sold Out -0.01%$14.16 - $16.64
($15.95)		 $ 9.87-38%Sold Out0
TWN Taiwan Fund Inc. (Th... 2012-09-30 Sold Out -0.01%$14.34 - $16.53
($15.39)		 $ 16.135%Sold Out0
BMY Bristol Myers Squibb... 2012-06-30 Reduce$32.37 - $35.49
($33.66)		 $ 46.0537%Reduce -30%7,000
MMI Motorola Mobility Ho... 2012-06-30 Sold Out -0.03%$38.31 - $39.99
($38.99)		 $ 39.982%Sold Out0
NEU Newmarket Corporatio... 2012-06-30 Reduce-0.01%$183.05 - $228.58
($205.03)		 $ 272.3333%Reduce -50%1,000
WFC Wells Fargo-new 2012-03-31 Reduce-2.34%$28.43 - $34.39
($29.19)		 $ 40.6639%Reduce -34.46%2,956,660
MMI Motorola Moblty 2012-03-31 Reduce-0.02%$38.2 - $39.79
($36.81)		 $ 39.989%Reduce -37.5%15,000
DELL Dell Inc. 2011-12-31 Reduce-9.33%$13.91 - $16.62
($15.36)		 $ 13.41-13%Reduce -59.67%9,152,489
MMI Motorola Mobility Ho... 2011-12-31 Reduce-0.02%$37.71 - $39.17
($38.7)		 $ 39.983%Reduce -36%24,000
FPFC First Place Financia... 2011-12-31 Sold Out -0.0004%$0.15 - $1.01
($0.63)		 $ 0.7925%Sold Out0
Premium Real Time Picks are included for Premium Members only!!
*The price and date might not be the actual time and price at which the transactions were made. In the case of institutional owners, the date is stated as the last day of their fiscal quarter. The prices are estimates if no accurate information available. Foreign holdings may not be included.
Total Records: 80   Page:1 2 3 4 Next Page

Prem Watsa's Profile:

Prem Watsa was born on Aug. 5, 1950. His parents were originally from the small Christian community in southern city of Mangalore.

Studied at the Indian Institute of Technology, major in chemical engineering.

On Sept. 11, 1972, Prem Watsa arrived in London, Ontario, with $8 in his pocket and a $600 draft toward the first year's tuition.

Attend the MBA program at what later became the Ivey Business School at the Univesrity of Western Ontario.

Arrived at his first job Confederation Life in 1974. John Watson, the director of research handed him a book "Security Analysis". "

1985: met Francis Chou, then working as a telephone technician at Bell Canada. One day, Francis asked Prem almost casually, "Do you know how Warren Buffett made his money?" Prem thought he knew the answer, but Francis pointed to something he hadn't noticed: insurance float.

Met Steve Markel and set down the terms to buy Markel Financial for $5 million.

1986: Markel Financial was renamed Fairfax Financial. It means "fair, friendly acquisitions".

Book value per share grew from $1.52 in 1985 to $10.5 in 1989, which then grew to $38.89 in 1995.

Made series acquisitions, asset reaches billions.

Fairfax was listed on NYSE in 2002.

Attacked by hedge fund shorts including Jim Chanos, Whitney Tilson etc. Stock price down 40% to Cdn$57.

Regarding to shorts, Prem said, "Our one major worry, was that people would no longer deal with us. It never used to be that way, but now everybody looks at the stock price to get a sense in confidence in a company."

Filed lawsuit against shorts in 2006.

Buy CDS. "We bought our first (CDS) contract in 2003 and our last ones in December 2007. We just keep buying more and more, first five-year, then sever-year, because they were so cheap..." At one investment committee meeting where pre asked, "What's the best idea we've got?" Francis Chou, who's a pretty shy guy, piped up, "buy more credit default insurance." In the fall of 2008, Fairfax started to sell its CDS. The company made about $2 billion from those sales.

Removed its hedge in 2009.

90% hedged as September, 2011.

Prem Watsa Quotes:

"Being an immigrant, you develop qualities you never thought you had, you do things you never thought you'd do. You work harder, because you're at the bottom and the only way is up. I consider my kids less fortunate for not having had the immigrant experience."

"Warren Buffett attributes his success to Ben Graham's work, and in a smaller way, it is the same for me and hundreds of people who've made it as investors. You read that book and wither you get what it's saying in a smap or you never get it. For me it was so simple and made so much sense, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was my 'road to Damascus' moment."

This is by Tony Hamblin, Prem Watsa's partner in starting his investment firm: "It doesn't take a lot of money to start up an investment conselling company. The cost of entry is qualitative. You need to have a track record, contacts and credibility, and fortunately Prem and I had all three.

"Our long-term view has also meant that we have a commitment not to sell our core companies, no matter how attractive the price."

"Anything in the world is possible," as Ronald Regan used to say, "If you don't care who gets the credit."

Having shaken hands on an acquisition, we've never walked away from a commitment or gone back to change the deal.

"Work as hard as you can, as though everything depended on you"



Prem Watsa's Performance:

Average Annual Return of Fairfax Per Share Book Value
5 Yrs 10 Yrs Since Inception
12.8% 11.7% 23.7%
» More Profile & Performance

Prem Watsa's Current Portfolio:

Ticker Shares Value ($1000)
BBRY51,854,700748,686
JNJ5,941,600484,062
RFP24,776,519400,884
LVLT12,931,094262,243
SD32,463,200170,756
DELL8,976,589128,455
USB2,909,27998,625
XCO10,812,20077,091
WFC1,323,66348,923
OSTK3,388,77441,648
» More Current Portfolio

Prem Watsa's Sector Weightings:


SectorsSector Weightings (%)
Healthcare 19.3% 19.3%
Basic Materials 15% 15%
Communication Services 10.3% 10.3%
Energy 9.3% 9.3%
Financial Services 6.6% 6.6%
Consumer Cyclical 1.6% 1.6%
Consumer Defensive 0.9% 0.9%
Technology 0.4% 0.4%
Real Estate 0.2% 0.2%
» More Sector Weightings

Prem Watsa's News:

» More Related News


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