[闲谈] Bruce Berkowitz's Fairholme Capital Starts MBIA Position, Raises AIG Stake

wonder

Tuesday, July 13, 2010


Bruce Berkowitz's investment firm Fairholme Capital Management recently filed two 13G's with the SEC regarding two of its positions. Firstly, Fairholme has filed a 13G regarding shares of MBIA (MBI). Due to portfolio activity on June 30th, 2010, Fairholme now shows an 11.1% ownership stake in the bond insurer with 22,736,200 shares. The vast majority of these shares are owned by Berkowitz's mutual fund vehicle, the Fairholme Fund (FAIRX). This is a brand new position for his firm as it did not own shares back when we looked at Fairholme's portfolio from the first quarter.

While Berkowitz is now long MBIA, we've detailed how Whitney Tilson's hedge fund T2 Partners has been short MBIA. This is definitely somewhat of a battleground stock as there are many company naysayers still out there. In the past, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman had also been short the company. The saga surrounding his position is detailed in Christine Richard's book, Confidence Game: How a Hedge Fund Manager Called Wall Street's Bluff. Overall though, Berkowitz's stake in MBIA sticks with his contrarian bent theme.

Secondly, we see that Berkowitz's firm has disclosed a 24.3% ownership stake in the American International Group (AIG) with 32,789,000 shares. The amended 13G filing was made due to portfolio activity on June 30th, 2010. This is an increase in their position as they previously owned an 18.9% ownership stake back in May. So, over the course of the past two months, Fairholme has raised its stake in AIG by a sizable margin and you can see Berkowitz's AIG thesis here. Keep in mind that if the government were to convert its 80% ownership stake in AIG into common shares, Fairholme's ownership position would obviously be diluted. Shares of both AIG and MBIA are up sharply today after this news. In addition to these two portfolio updates, we previously covered Berkowitz's new position in Goldman Sachs (GS) as well.

Taken from Google Finance, MBIA is "provides financial guarantee insurance, as well as related reinsurance, advisory and portfolio services for the public and structured finance markets, and investment management services, including advisory services, on a global basis".

AIG is "a holding company, which through its subsidiaries, is engaged primarily in a range of insurance and insurance-related activities in the United States and abroad. AIG's four reportable segments include: General Insurance, Domestic Life Insurance & Retirement Services, Foreign Life Insurance & Retirement Services, and Financial Services".

Read more: http://www.marketfolly.com/2010/ ... ly%29#ixzz0tcEOl9u4

何鸿燊

何鸿燊

MBIA stock jumps after Berkowitz discloses stake
Morningstar's fund manager of the decade bets big on bond insurer

By Sam Mamudi, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Shares of MBIA Inc. rose 11.5% Tuesday after it was disclosed late Monday that top fund manager Bruce Berkowitz had taken a large stake in the company.

Shares of MBIA (NYSE:MBI) closed at $7.17 after a regulatory filing showed that Berkowitz owned an 11% stake in the bond insurer. The filing showed that Berkowitz's investment-management firm, Fairholme Capital Management, holds slightly more than 22 million shares of MBIA.

The stock is up roughly 80% in 2010. In the past three months, though, it has struggled somewhat, and at Monday's close was down about 15% in that time period.

Berkowitz is best known as the manager of Fairholme Fund (NASDAQ:FAIRX) , which owns $14.6 billion in assets, according to Morningstar Inc. The fund's performance -- it has five-year and 10-year annualized returns of 7.1% and 12.7%, respectively -- earned him the designation of Morningstar's domestic-stock-fund manager of the decade. He was also named domestic-stock-fund manager of the year in 2009. Read more about Morningstar's fund managers of the decade.

"His aptitude for picking stocks sets him apart from his peers, and Fairholme's portfolio is filled with attractively priced firms that generate high free cash flow," wrote Morningstar earlier this year.

Berkowitz made headlines in May when it was reported he'd bought 15 million common shares and 20 million preferred shares of American International Group Inc. (NYSE:AIG) . At the time, the investment was valued at more than $700 million. Read about Berkowitz's first-quarter investments.

Monday's filings also showed that Berkowitz has lifted his AIG stake to 24.3% from the 18.9% disclosed in May. AIG's stock jumped 6.8% Tuesday.

During the financial crisis, MBIA was one of the hardest-hit firms, due to its role in selling derivative-based guarantees on mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations. As house prices fell, MBIA and fellow bond insurer Ambac Financial (NYSE:ABK) were forced to make good on those guarantees.

At the height of the credit boom in late 2006 and early 2007, MBIA shares frequently traded above $70. The shares hit a low on March 5, 2009, closing at $2.29, according to FactSet Research.

Bloomberg reported that Fairholme's stake in MBIA makes it the second-largest holder of the company, behind private-equity firm Warburg Pincus.

wonder

Tuesday, July 13, 2010


Bruce Berkowitz's investment firm Fairholme Capital Management recently filed two 13G's with the SEC regarding two of its positions. Firstly, Fairholme has filed a 13G rega ...
wonder 发表于 2010-7-13 18:06

Thanks a lot for the infor!

wonder

MBIA stock jumps after Berkowitz discloses stake
Morningstar's fund manager of the decade bets big on bond insurer

By Sam Mamudi, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Shares of MBIA Inc. rose  ...
何鸿燊 发表于 2010-7-13 21:26

MBI 这次你有没有抓住？

何鸿燊

5# wonder


9.5 被call走了. 小赚。 在APL上赚到了不少。

wonder

5# wonder


9.5 被call走了. 小赚。 在APL上赚到了不少。
何鸿燊 发表于 2010-9-6 00:09

Congratulations!

MBI 感觉快到阻力点了。
如果pullback, 可以在进。