We are talking about different things.
I agree about the overall record - that's why I'm a shareholder.
What I am criticising is their record in non-insurance private/control investing.
I think there is a difference in skillset between the various sources of value creation at Fairfax:
1) building and running (and sometimes selling) insurance companies
2) public market bond investing
3) public market equity investing
4) private/control equity investing
These are, roughly speaking, presented from best to worst in terms of what I think Fairfax are good at. By the time you get to (4), I don't think there is any evidence that they have created value in any real way, and I think the monetisation effort is an admission of that fact.
I think an examination of Fairfax's private/control equity investing activities would be a very worth while exercise. Performance in this segment of Fairfax's portfolio has been underwhelming at best. Why is that?
To answer this question I think we need to agree on the investments we are talking about. I assembled the following list after a quick review of the recent annual report----feel free to add names that I may have missed:
Retail Segment
-Golf Town/Sporting Life
-Toys R Us Canada
-Kitchen Stuff Plus
-William Ashley
-Praktiker (in Greece)
Other Segment
-AGT Foods
-Peak Performance (Bauer and Easton brands)
-Boat Rocker
-Rouge Media
-Davos Spirits
-Farmers Edge
Dexterra would have been listed under the Other segment however its recent merger with Horizons Logistics with Fairfax taking back shares of the resulting public company seems to take this one off the table.
My thoughts on the list of private investments:
-very heavily focus on retail
-none large enough to move the needle at the overall Fairfax level
-a number of them were decent turnaround/restructuring opportunities however do not make for very good long term cash generating holdings
-Praktikar (in Greece)---really---why bother?
-a number operate in industries requiring massive scale and investment (e.g., Boat Rocker) which Fairfax cannot provide
-Toys R Us Canada -- if the value was in the underlying real estate than steps should have been taken immediately upon completing the acquisition to realize on that valuu. One has to wonder why this was not done?
-Some offer good longer term value although the extent of that value is hard to assess: AGT, Farmers Edge
Overall I sense the private equity holdings are small, don't really offer much upside, are currently providing a poor return on invested capital, require considerable management time and attention and generally are operating in segments of the economy that have been hit very hard by Covid and will take years to recover.
Thoughts/comments of others?