Canadian Billionaire Prem Watsa’s Top Picks and New Bets for Current Quarter

ICICI Bank Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:IBN) during Q1

– Number of shares owned by Fairfax as of March 31: 1.50 Million

– Value of Fairfax’s holding as of March 31: $10.74 Million

The Toronto-based firm added a new stake of 1.50 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) in ICICI Bank Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:IBN) to its pool of holdings during the first quarter of 2016, which was valued at $10.74 million at the end of the quarter. ICICI Bank represents one of the top private lender in India, so the bank’s stock performance has been weighted by worries about excessive bad loans on its balance sheet. The private-sector bank recently reported net non-performing assets of $2.0 billion as of the end of March, an increase from $1.5 billion recorded at the end of December. ICICI Bank said the increase reflects the impact of the weak global economic environment, the downturn in the commodity cycle and the gradual nature of the Indian economic recovery on borrowers in sectors such as iron and steel, mining, power, rigs and cement. ICICI Bank’s ADSs are 14% in the red year-to-date. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management has 12.47 million ADSs of ICICI Bank Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:IBN) in its portfolio as of March 31.

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Kennedy-Wilson Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KW)

– Number of shares owned by Fairfax as of March 31: 8.95 Million

– Value of Fairfax’s holding as of March 31: $196.02 Million

Billionaire Prem Watsa’s firm held its equity position in Kennedy-Wilson Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KW) unchanged during the January-March period at 8.95 million shares. The third-largest position was worth $196.02 million on March 31 and accounted for 11.8% of the firm’s entire portfolio. Kennedy-Wilson operates as a global real estate investment company that focuses on multifamily and commercial properties located in the Western United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Italy and Japan. The company’s total revenues for same-property, multifamily units increased 8.8% year-on-year during the first quarter of the year, while net operating income rose 10.9%. Meanwhile, total revenue for same-property commercial real estate grew by only 1.5% year-over-year and net operating income climbed 1.1%. Shares of Kennedy-Wilson have lost 12% of their value since the beginning of 2016. There were 18 hedge funds from our system with stakes in the real estate investment company at the end of March, which amassed 17% of the company’s shares. Alan S. Parsow’s Elkhorn Partners owns 4.03 million shares of Kennedy-Wilson Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KW) as of the end of the first quarter.

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