Watsa's Wager on Equity Slump Sends Fairfax Financial to Record
- Contrarian investments paying off amid global market upheaval
- Beating Berkshire with stock up almost 8% in past year
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Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. is surging near a record high as Chief Executive Officer Prem Watsa’s bearish bets pay off amid global market turmoil.
The insurance and investment firm rose 0.4 percent to C$717.96 for a market value of C$16.9 billion ($12.2 billion) at 12:15 p.m. in Toronto after climbing to a record C$734.91 on Feb. 2. The stock is up 7.6 percent in the past year, compared with an 8.6 percent slide in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and a 15 percent decline in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., to which the Toronto-based firm is often compared.