Labeled the ‘Mega-mind of Miami’ by Forbes, Bruce Berkowitz established Fairholme Capital Management and the flag-ship Fairholme Funds in 1999 along with Keith Trauner and Larry Pitkowsky. Berkowitz was declared as the Domestic-Stock Fund Manager of the Year and Domestic-Stock Fund Manager of the Decade by Morningstar Inc. in 2009.
Investment Philosophy:
The above average performance of Fairholme Funds is due to the strong investment philosophy of Bruce Berkowitz which most find to be similar to that of Warren Buffett. The similarities in investment style of Buffett and Berkowitz is not surprising, as both are firm disciples of Benjamin Graham. Inspired by Graham’s book, ‘The Intelligent Investor’, Berkowitz is a contrarian investor like Buffett who seeks to find undervalued stocks of good companies which has high profitability and growth potential regardless of the financial troubles at hand at time of purchase of stock. Perhaps what sets him apart from Buffett is the fact that Berkowitz is a staunch believer of concentrated portfolio.
Manager Biography:
Prior to founding what is now one of the most prominent hedge funds of Wall Street, Berkowitz kicked of his career in stocks by joining Merrill Lynch & Co.’s brokerage office in 1983 after graduating cum laude from University of Massachusetts in 1980 with a BA in economics. After working for 4 years as the top fixed-income salesman, he was recruited by Lehman Brothers in 1987. He later moved back to U.S and briefly worked at Smith Barney Investment Advisors from 1995 till 1997 as the Managing Director.
The fund has effectively beaten the market every time since 1999 expect for once in 2003. Berkowitz, with his expertise and Graham-inspired investment style, was capable of returning an annualized return of 14.47%, since inception till last year, while the S&P 500 index returned 0.45%. During the initial 5-years, Fairholme Funds realized a cumulative return of 60.8%, a 48.6% excess return compared to S&P 500 index which only returned 12.2% over the years from 2000 till 2005.
Berkowitz has always been selective and firmly believes in holding a concentrated portfolio. He only held stocks of Berkshire Hathaway and Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. at one point in 1994, before Fairholme was established. When Fairholme Funds came into existence, more than 50% of the portfolio was in property/casualty insurers. Currently, 80.6% of his portfolio is invested in the financial services sector.
Since the financial crisis of 2008, Berkowitz, realizing the downfall as an opportunity to find good investments, started investing in financial companies such as Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, CIT, AIG, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Regions Financial. It is worth mentioning that Fairholme Funds currently owns the largest investor share of AIG, after the U.S government and it currently makes up 10.76% of his total assets. General Growth Properties (GGP), until recently, made up the largest chunk of his portfolio as 11.46% of Fairholme’s total assets were made up of GGP stocks. General Growth Properties can be considered as one of the illustrations of Berkowitz’s contrarian investment style as Fairholme bought this real estate developer’s debt and further invested $2.7 million to help the company re-structure and come out of bankruptcy. GGP was able to successfully get back on its feet in 2010 with the help of contributions made by Fairholme, Pershing Square Capital and Brookfield Asset Management. Another one of Berkowitz’s contrarian investments is Sears Holding Corp. which makes up 9.34% of his total assets. He calls himself a ‘premature accumulator’ who efficiently takes advantage of such quick and rare investment opportunities by holding a considerable amount of cash, which also helps cater to portfolio risks. Currently Fairholme’s portfolio comprises of 25.54% of cash, 70.55% of stocks, 2.39% of bonds and 1.29% of other assets.
The Berkowitz-Einhorn battle over St. Joe, a Florida-based real estate development company, was one of the many Wall Street sagas which captured the attention of many. The triumph of Fairholme at present might not seem to be significant as St. Joe has a market value of $2.4 billion, however, Berkowitz believes the company would be worth much more in the future and the acquisition of four seats on its board of directors provides Fairholme enough power to make that a reality.
SHAREHOLDER LETTERS
MEDIA
St. Joe probe latest blow for Berkowitz’ reeling Fairholme Fund – Investment News, July 2011
Fairholme Leads U.S. Stock Mutual Fund Outflows In Week – Barrons, June 2011
Fairholme Funds Bleed More Than $2 Billion in Three Months – Mutual Fund Wire, June 2011
Investor Berkowitz Catches Break With AIG – The Street, May 2011
Fairholme’s Berkowitz to Helm New St. Joe Board – ABC News, March 2011
Fairholme Fund wants Charlie Crist on St. Joe Co board – BizJournals, February 2011
Bruce Berkowitz: The Megamind of Miami – Fortune, December 2010
Bruce Berkowitz on the Keys to Success for the Fairholme Fund – Advisor Perspectives, January 2010
Berkowitz to Einhorn: ‘Thank You’ – The Street, October 2010
Berkowitz Stays Bullish On Battered Financials – Forbes, July 2010
Get Briefed: The Bulls And The Bears – Forbes, November 2009
Why Buffett Will Make Out Like a Bandit in This Market Crisis – US News, September 2008
Down to the wire – Economist, May 2005
Prepare for Computer Warfare – Star News, August 2001
A Bargain Hunter Stands Tall – Kiplingers, January 2009
Show Bruce the Money – Morningstar
If Not Now, Then When? – Graham and Doddsville, Winter 2009
Interview with Bruce Berkowitz – Value Investor Insight, January 2009
Interview with Bruce Berkowitz – Advisor Perspectives, January 2009
VIDEOS
Opportunity in Bankruptcies – Morningstar
We’re Entering a Constructive Period – Morningstar
Bruce Berkowitz Interview – Forbes (1 of 3)
Bruce Berkowitz Interview – Forbes (2 of 3)
Bruce Berkowitz Interview – Forbes (3 of 3)
Interview of Bruce Berkowitz with Bloomberg
QUOTES
(taken from Fresh Value and The Manual of Ideas):
“Cash is like a financial valium, that you can keep your cool during very difficult times.”
“It’s like the longer we can hold an investment, the better we feel that all the time and effort we put into studying a company- it’s kind of when we sell a position, I feel as if it’s divorce.”
“In order to protect your capital, we will continually challenge ourselves by asking how might our investments fail. To help answer this question, we retain outside experts … devil’s advocates, if you will … who have decades of hands-on operational experience in their respective fields, because knowing what you don’t know and tapping those who do is one of the critical skills of investing.”
