IIFL (BOM:532636, Financial). Under the exceptional leadership of Nirmal Jain and R. Venkataraman, IIFL has established a leading, well-established national financial services company serving over 4 million customers from 1,900 branches in India. It also has an international presence with offices in New York, Singapore, Dubai, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Mauritius and Toronto. Through its subsidiaries, it offers a wide array of services including loans and mortgages, asset and wealth management and capital market related activities such as financial products distribution, investment banking, institutional equities and realty services. Over the past five years, IIFL has grown book value per share by 20% annually and earnings per share by 25% annually, yet its shares still trade at only 11x expected earnings. In 2018, IIFL announced its intention to divide its three business groups into three separate companies, with each to be listed on the Indian stock exchanges, as IIFL believes that this is the best structure for its business and will further enhance value. We are very excited about the prospects of IIFL going forward.
From Prem Watsa (Trades, Portfolio)'s fourth-quarter 2018 Fairfax Financial shareholder letter.
