Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited is a holding company which, through its subsidiaries, is primarily engaged in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance and the associated investment management. Fairfax’s corporate objective is to achieve a 15% growth in book value per share over the long term. Fairfax seeks to differentiate itself by combining disciplined underwriting and investing its assets on a value oriented total return basis, believing that this approach will provide above-average returns over the long term.

Fairfax was founded in 1985 by the present Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Prem Watsa. Prem refinanced a small Canadian insurance company and changed the name to Fairfax Financial, which was derived from the principles of fair and friendly acquisitions, based on the golden rule of ‘treating others as we would like to be treated ourselves’.

Through fair and friendly acquisitions, Fairfax has grown into a leading global commercial lines insurance and reinsurance group, compounding book value per share by 18.4%+ annually since 1985, through a dual focus on underwriting profitability and total-return value investing.

Our companies operate on a decentralized basis and are run by the Presidents, except for performance evaluation, succession planning, acquisitions, financing, and investments, which are done by or with Fairfax. The holding company is also responsible for financial reporting requirements, aggregating the total risk across insurance operations and promoting corporate culture throughout our operating companies. Over the last 39 years, Fairfax has written cumulative premiums of $290 billion and has donated more than $480 million since beginning its donation program in 1991.

Since inception, Fairfax has been focused on the long-term view and not on short-term earnings to the benefit of all shareholders.