Fairfax Financial Holdings Buys General Electric Company and Zenith National Insurance Corp. Shares

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Nov 20, 2009
(GuruFocus, November 20, 2009) The company chaired and managed by Investment Guru Prem Watsa is voluntarily delisting from New York Stock Exchange. US investors of the company will have to trade the stock in Toronto Stock Exchange. Via Reuters:
Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited announced its intention to voluntarily delist its subordinate voting shares from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). After the delisting from the NYSE, Fairfax's subordinate voting shares will continue to be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), where they will be traded in both Canadian and U.S. dollars under the trading symbols FFH and FFH.U, respectively. In accordance with the procedures established by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Fairfax will file a Form 25 with the SEC on or about November 30, 2009 to effect the delisting, and the delisting is expected to be effective ten days thereafter, on or about December 10, 2009. The delisting will not affect Fairfax's continuing obligation to file required reports with the SEC.


Headquartered in Toronto, the company had been long listed in TSX and started to be traded in NYSE in December of 2002. The stock price is high ($360) and the trading volume on NYSE is low (51,000 per day).


The low trading volume could be one of the reason why the company choose to delist from NYSE. The company itself, however, is very active in investing in US traded stocks. GuruFocus tracks the insurance company’s equity investment under “Prem Watsa” and we have recently reviewed its top holdings in this article.


During the quarter that ended on September 30, 2009, the company bought shares from these two companies:


No. 1: General Electric Company (GE, Financial), Add: 2.05% of the portfolio - Total: 26,597,770 Shares


General Electric is one of the largest and most diversified industrial corporations in the world. GE is engaged in developing, manufacturing and marketing a wide variety of products for the generation, transmission, distribution, control and utilization of electricity. Some of GE's products include major appliances; lighting products; industrial automation products; medical diagnostic imaging equipment; motors; electrical distribution and control equipment; locomotives; power generation and delivery products. General Electric Company has a market cap of $167.48 billion; its shares were traded at around $15.76 with a P/E ratio of 13 and P/S ratio of 0.9. The dividend yield of General Electric Company stocks is 2.6%. General Electric Company had an annual average earning growth of 12.7% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated General Electric Company the business predictability rank of 3.5-star.


No. 2: Zenith National Insurance Corp. (ZNT, Financial), Add: 0.2% of the portfolio - Total: 991,100 Shares


Zenith National Insurance Corp. is a holding company. Zenith is engaged through its wholly-owned insurance subsidiaries, Zenith Insurance Company, CalFarm Insurance Company, ZNAT Insurance Company and Zenith Star Insurance Company, in the property-casualty insurance business. Zenith and its subsidiaries conduct business principally in the property andcasualty insurance industry. Zenith National Insurance Corp. has a market cap of $1.07 billion; its shares were traded at around $28.64 with a P/E ratio of 10 and P/S ratio of 1.6. The dividend yield of Zenith National Insurance Corp. stocks is 7%. Zenith National Insurance Corp. had an annual average earning growth of 30.4% over the past 5 years.


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