Issue Comments

FFH.PR.E / FFH.PR.F and FFH.PR.M To Be Redeemed

Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited has announced:

its intention to redeem (i) all of its 5,440,132 outstanding Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Preferred Shares, Series E (the “Series E Shares”), (ii) all of its 2,099,046 outstanding Cumulative Floating Rate Preferred Shares, Series F (the “Series F Shares”), and (iii) all of its 9,200,000 outstanding Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Preferred Shares, Series M (the “Series M Shares” and, collectively with the Series E Shares and the Series F Shares, the “Preferred Shares”) on March 31, 2025 (the “Redemption Date”) at a redemption price equal to C$25.00 per share, for an aggregate total amount of approximately C$420.5 million, together with all accrued and unpaid dividends up to but excluding the Redemption Date (the “Redemption Price”), less any tax required to be deducted and withheld by Fairfax.

Formal notice will be delivered to the sole registered holder of the Preferred Shares in accordance with the terms of the Preferred Shares of the applicable series as set out in Fairfax’s articles.

Separately from the Redemption Price, (i) the final quarterly dividend of C$0.198938 per Series E Share will be paid in the usual manner to holders of Series E Shares on March 31, 2025, (ii) the final quarterly dividend of C$0.34773 per Series F Share will be paid in the usual manner to holders of Series F Shares on March 28, 2025, and (iii) the final quarterly dividend of C$0.312688 per Series M Share will be paid in the usual manner to holders of Series M Shares on March 31, 2025, in each case to shareholders of record on March 14, 2025.

Non-registered holders of Preferred Shares should contact their broker or other intermediary for information regarding the redemption process for the series of Preferred Shares in which they hold a beneficial interest. Fairfax’s transfer agent for the Preferred Shares is Computershare Trust Company of Canada (“Computershare”). Questions regarding the redemption process may be directed to Computershare at 1-800-564-6253 or by email to corporateactions@computershare.com.

Following the redemption on March 31, 2025, the Series E Shares, the Series F Shares and the Series M Shares will be delisted from and no longer trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”).

Fairfax is a holding company which, through its subsidiaries, is primarily engaged in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance and the associated investment management.

FFH.PR.E commenced trading 2010-2-1 as a FixedReset, 4.75%+216, after being announced 2010-1-21. It reset in 2015 to 2.91% and I recommended against conversion; there was a 31% conversion to the FloatingReset, FFH.PR.F, anyway. The issue reset to 3.183% in 2020.

FFH.PR.F commenced trading in 2015 as a result of the 31% conversion from FFH.PR.E noted above.

FFH.PR.M is a FixedReset, 4.75%+398, that commenced trading 2015-3-3 after being announced 2015-2-20. It reset to 5.003% in 2020.

These issues have been tracked by HIMIPref™ but were originally relegated to the Scraps-FixedReset (Discount) subindex on credit concerns. DBRS upgraded the credit rating to Pfd-2(low) in 2023 and the issues were moved to the regular indices.

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