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Fairholme: May Also Be Participating in Sears loan via St Joe (JOE)

http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/bruce-berkowitzs-fairholme-affiliate-in-talks-with-sears-holdings-corp-shld-regarding-short-term-loan-328818/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-19/sears-needs-10-times-loan-from-lampert-corporate-finance.html

"St. Joe Co. (JOE) may contribute as much as $100 million to the loan, according to a filing yesterday. St. Joe, a real estate and timber company, is 24 percent-owned by Bruce Berkowitz’s Fairholme Capital Management, which also has a 24 percent stake in Sears."

Comments

  • Can Berkowitz please complicate our lives some more? Sheeesh !!!
  • Lessee here.... you own part of Fairholme and they own part of Sears; they also own part of St Joe; now St. Joe also owns part of Sears, but just sorta- but Sears ain't worth too much other maybe than it's properties, but now Eddie Lampert owns most of those, and maybe St Joes too, some, depending, so that leaves you and Berkowitz owning... jeeze, hard to tell...
  • I think Berkowitz is going off the deep end with respect to Sears, St Joe, having 49% of the Fairholme Fund invested in one stock, AIG, owning Fannie and Freddie which supposedly are going to "end" as companies.

    Hmmm......Bruce Berkowitz has always said that his first rule is, Don't Lose Money....and his second rule is, Don't forget rule number 1.

    St. Joe (JOE) is a risky company. Sears (SHLD) is a risky company. Above it says that Fairholme Capital Management owns 24% of each of those risky companies.
    Add that to the 49% weighting of AIG in FAIRX;
    Owning Fannie and Freddie which are scheduled for termination.......a 14.4% weighting in BAC in the Fairholme Fund

    Can anyone convince me that Bruce is investing according to the rule of "Don't Lose Money"? Are these the actions of a risk averse investor whose stated objective is not to lose?

    No, they are the actions of a risk taker whose first rule is Take Risk To Make As Much As Possible

    Don't get me wrong, I think Bruce Berkowitz may very well succeed, and hit home runs and grand slams. He may one day again be the Morningstar Manager of the Decade. But don't do it under the guise of being a risk averse investor who is trying to protect his shareholders from capital loss.

    Check out his returns in 2000, 2001 and 2002. They were brilliant.
    But also look at the return of FAIRX in 2011.


  • I bought FAIRX when it was in the dumps in 2011. I guess I am just going to stick to my guns and just ignore the tape. Let Berkowitz do whatever he wants. At least Fartiromo has left CNBC and he is not fawning all over her. Incidently I think that was the reason his fund didn't do well in 2011. He wasn't focused. I guess I should owe Fartiromo.

    WTF am I saying ?!?! Let me just stick to Technical ANALysis instead of PsychoANALysis.
  • I guess At least Fartiromo has left CNBC and he is not fawning all over her. Incidently I think that was the reason his fund didn't do well in 2011. He wasn't focused. I guess I should owe Fartiromo.

    VintageFreak, did Berkowitz do an interview with Maria Bartiromo on CNBC. And was "fawning all over her"?

    Anyway, good move buying it in the dumps....the lower, the better. I think it went down 32% in 2011
  • When are they going to change the fund name to Sears Strategic Allocation Fund? Sounds like they should.
  • edited September 2014
    rjb112 said:



    Hmmm......Bruce Berkowitz has always said that his first rule is, Don't Lose Money....and his second rule is, Don't forget rule number 1."

    Wasn't it Buffett who said that?

    Berkowitz has always been "ignore the crowd", although sometimes following the crowd works quite well.

    I think my question in regards to Fairholme and St Joe (JOE) is if Fairholme owns 24% of JOE and is influencing them to take on Sears loans, what are the other 76% of shareholders thoughts on that?

  • edited September 2014
    Or...maybe not.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-25/sears-investor-fairholme-says-st-joe-won-t-participate-in-loan.html?cmpid=yhoo

    "The St. Joe Co. was unable to agree on terms for such a participation in light of its investment criteria and has declined the opportunity to participate,” Fairholme said today in a filing."

    Edited to Add:

    Berkowitz selling shares:

    Sep 25, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
    Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
    15,900 Indirect Sale at $26.05 per share. 414,195
    Sep 24, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
    Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
    10,500 Indirect Sale at $26.40 per share. 277,200

    My question is: is this Berkowitz selling personal shares (It would appear so?) If so, is he selling before the mutual fund is....?
  • edited September 2014
    deleted
  • $700,000 is a rounding error for Berkowitz. Too soon to tell if he's selling.
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