Fairfax Financial

Fairfax Financial is a Canadian company based in Toronto. The company was founded in 1985. The company offers various types of insurance to its customers. Fairfax Financial, had 2007 net premium income of 4.65 billion U.S. dollars and a total turnover of 7.48 billion U.S. dollars.

History

Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.. has been called " Markel Service of Canada Ltd. " Founded on March 13, 1951. The present name took over the company in Milan in 1987. The company is led by Chairman and CEO Prem Watsa, who owns nearly half of the company. Watsas unorthodox business strategies were compared with those of Warren Buffett.

1985 Prem Watsa took over control of Markel Financial, a specialist truck insurance companies based in Canada, which was previously under the control of the Markel family from Virginia. The company was close to bankruptcy, but Watsa was of the opinion, with a capital injection would have averted this. He was on good terms with Steven Markel, who is still friends with him. In May 1987, he restructured the company and changed the name of Markel to Fairfax (which he as an abbreviation for "fair, friendly acquisitions " ( fair, friendly acquisitions) chose ).