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In David's commentary this month, he theorizes that Bruce Berkowicz "might" be positioning himself to convert ST. JOE into the next BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY by replicating Buffet's "hedge fund type" strategies. If this actually works out to be true, then I have a question??
Would you rather be a holder of FAIRX, or St.JOE directly?? Would this have any affect at all on the other Fairholme clone funds like FAAFX???
Slightly tangential, but I've read that a few funds are trying to do some of what BB is doing with FAIRX -- find ways to turn mutual funds into broader-based instruments that can do special private equity deals & etc. I think Romick of FPA has hinted at this, as has the crew at IVA.
I see Berkowitz turning St Joe into something along the lines of Howard Hughes Corporation, which Bill Ackman is the Chairman of the Board on. Or maybe something like Leucadia, which I think would be more interesting. However, I think that's a few years away. If that's of interest and you believe that Berkowitz is capable of working St Joe into that, then you buy St Joe, which - holy crap - is now down to $20 and change and put it away (because there's still likely a bumpy ride between now and when/if its value is realized). Feels like it was $25 just the other day.
I'd love to see more mutual funds take on private equity and other special situations, but if it's going to be largely for getting into overvalued social networking site IPOs (see Will Danoff the other day for Contrafund), forget it.
Yes but don't forget too that for the past 3 years, Microsoft stock has been down for Einhorn as well. At the beginning of the year, MSFT was almost $29 and recently down to $23.
Look at Cisco the past 1 year --- high of over $24 and down to $16 now.
Comments
I'd love to see more mutual funds take on private equity and other special situations, but if it's going to be largely for getting into overvalued social networking site IPOs (see Will Danoff the other day for Contrafund), forget it.
Look at Cisco the past 1 year --- high of over $24 and down to $16 now.