Who is Prem Watsa ?

Prem Watsa who is well known as “Canadian Warren Buffett”.

One of the sharpest investor Prem Wasta  is the founder , chairman & Chief executive of Toronto based company named “Fairfax Financial Holdings”.

This company is in news recently because of the big deal with BlackBerry.

Prem Wasta

 

Birth & Education of Prem Watsa :

Mr. Prem was born in 1950, at Hyderabad, India.

He did schooling at ‘Hyderabad public School’. Then he did his graduation in the field of Chemical Engineering from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), Madras.

In 1972, he moved to Canada and joined University of Western Ontario ‘s “Richard Ivey School  of Business”  and got the degree of MBA.

Career of Prem Watsa :

Mr. Wasta started his carrer in 1974, by joining at Toronto’s Confederation Life Insurance Co. He served as vice-president there till 1983.

In 1983 he joined “GW (Gardiner Watson) Asset Management firm” , Toronto and left the firm in 1984.

In 1985, he found his own firm named HWIC : Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel Ltd.(Owned by Fairfax)

Meet Prem Wasta

In 1985 he took control of the “Markel Financial” : a trucking insurance company and was suffering from financial crisis and Mr. Wasta worked there as CEO and Chairman and handled everything at that time.

In May 1987, he renamed the company with “Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited” from “Markel Financial Holdings Limited”. According to Mr. Wasta Fairfax stands for “Fair, Friendly Acquisitions”.

In 2012, he was appointed in the board of directors at BlackBerry, Research In Motions (RIM) Ltd. and resigned in august 2013 from company but did not stop investment in that.

On 23rd  September2013, an announcement made by BlackBerry about the intent to be obtained $4.9 Billion  by Fairfax Financial Holdings : a company led by Mr. Prem Wasta. On 24th bid was made for BlackBerry share at $9. FireFax having 10% of holders and is 3rd largest investor.

Personal life of Prem Watsa :

Mr. Watsa met Nalini while studying in IIT, later he got married to her and they have two daughters and one son.

 

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Thanking You 🙂