Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd is a multinational insurance and financial investment and services holding company headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Fairfax operates its Insurance and Reinsurance segments through its Zenith National, Crum and Forster, Group Re, Advent, Polish Re and Fairfax Brasil subsidiaries. Consolidated investment and liquidity management services are engaged through nSpire Re and Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel Ltd.
Prem Watsa left Hyderabad, India to join his brother David in Ontario, Canada in 1972. He established Fairfax after graduating business school, modelling the business after successful investor Warren Buffett. Initial revenue for the firm after the first year was a little over $12 million. By 2002, Fairfax had grown its property and insurance holdings and, along with its investment management, reported revenues of nearly $218 million.
With the acquisition of U.S. property-casualty reinsurer Skandia America Reinsurance Corp. in 1996, the company’s assets reached $2.3 billion, and its stock price climbed significantly to over $151 per share after the purchase of Paris-based reinsurance firm Compagnie Transcontinentale de Reassurance. The company continued to build its insurance and investment portfolio throughout the 90s and 2000s.
Today, Fairfax generates over $18 billion in annual revenue and holds stakes in companies such as BlackBerry and GE. Prem Watsa remains Fairfax’s chairman and CEO.
- Family name: Watsa family
- Sector: Insurance
- Founded: 1985
- Founder: Prem Watsa
- Country: Canada
- Company headquarters: Toronto, Canada
- Revenue: 9.3
- Employees: 23,576
- Website: fairfax.ca
Connections
Also on Tharawat