Fairfax renews share buyback to boost shareholder value

Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. (TSX: FFH) has renewed its intent to acquire its own issued subordinate voting shares in a bid to boost shareholder value in the company’s listed equity. Fairfax says that, pending regulatory approval, it will purchase about one million subordinate voting shares that have been issued by the company from between September 22 of this year to September 21 of 2004.The latest share repurchase bid follows a similar action taken last year to acquire the company’s subordinate voting shares in response to a perceived under-valuation of the issued paper. The company bought about 208,000 subordinate voting shares over the past year at an average price of $172.93 a share. Fairfax notes that its latest bid to buy up to one million shares represents less than 10% of the public float of around 13.1 million outstanding subordinate voting shares that have been issued by the company. “Fairfax is making this normal course issuer bid because it believes that in appropriate circumstances its subordinate voting shares represent an attractive investment opportunity, and that consequently purchases under the bid will enhance the value of the shares held by the remaining shareholders.”