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To: moat who wrote (7071)	5/6/1999 6:32:00 PM
From: moat	Respond to of 78486

About Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO or FFXVF), please also see: Message 9357606 and: thestreet.com For those on this thread who knows Fairfax and Mr. Watsa well, please give us you opinion and experience. The thread on SI to discuss Fairfax is at: Subject 27454 The web site for the company is at: fairfax.ca

To: moat who wrote (7071)	5/7/1999 2:08:00 PM
From: James Clarke	Respond to of 78486

I'm not going to go back and redo my analysis of Fairfax just to answer this question, so if I make a mistake I don't want to hear about it, but I recall a chairman's letter designed to pull all the strings of a Berkshire investor. But without the substance. They have insurance operations which are mediocre at best, awful at worst. Management is booking income in some creative ways to hit the ROE targets. And the 41% growth in book value per share came primarily through issuing shares at above book value, not through the business. The guy has had a run in a bull market, but has booked the gains as net income (i.e. he has sold all his winners) to make the return on equity number. You really have to dig through the financials, because the Chairman's Letter, which is apparently all Cramer read, is a work of fantasy. The stock is overvalued, quite possibly by a lot. JJC