Andrew Walker

Andrew Walker × David Thomas

Fairfax delivered a 19.2% cumulative annual return from 1985 through 2024 as insurance, investments, and non-insurance operations evolved into three concurrent earnings engines after costly lessons in under-reserving and hedging.Buybacks have retired more than 20% of shares but recently slowed; succession and the 15% long-term book-value-growth objective now test whether this second wind can outlast Fairfax’s “seven lean years, seven fat years” rhythm.

Andrew Walker × Andrei Stetsenko

Maharashtra Scooters offers roughly $4 billion of listed Bajaj shares and no debt at about 50% of marked NAV, while earnings growth—not liquidation—underpins the thesis.Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv provide exposure to underpenetrated lending, insurance, and asset management; SEBI reforms and Bajaj Holdings’ recent share sales could narrow the discount, but collection discipline and cyclical growth remain central risks.

Andrew Walker × Byrne Hobart

Early Buffett’s repeatable edge was “cigar butts plus control” or buying businesses amid company-specific distress, not simply owning mature compounders.Sanborn Map and Dempster Mill show activism and liquidation supplying the catalyst, while GEICO and The Washington Post illustrate crisis-created entry prices.Salomon and LTCM suggest crisis expertise could become valuable, but the missed roughly $3 billion immediate LTCM opportunity highlights execution risk.

Andrew Walker × Byrne Hobart

Expertise offered a probabilistic edge, not immunity from error, as the manager’s March 2008 calls show.Systemic crisis emerged when uncertainty over AAA collateral seized financial plumbing, while cheap funding scaled tiny credit-pricing errors into concentrated books.Hobart says AI economics do not support capex, though shorter asset duration may limit losses; peak spending could be depreciated by 2030 or 2031.