Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited 2020 Annual General Meeting. At this time, your lines have been placed in a listening-only mode. After the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Questions can be submitted by emailing them to fairfaxagm2020 at shareholderservices.ca. Your host for today's call is Prem Watsa. Mr. Watsa, please begin.

Thank you, Maud. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our 35th annual meeting, 34 years since we began in 1985. I am Prem Watsa, chairman of Fairfax. This is the first time our AGM is conducted online, and hopefully it'll be the last time. A warm welcome to all our shareholders and employees across the world, and to all the people who support us. We will miss seeing you in person this year, but we will make up next year. After 13, about 13 years ago, under similar circumstances, I related this story to you at our annual meeting. Pastor Robert Shuler of Crystal Cathedral fame in California was giving a talk to some farmers in the United States. Midwest had gone through some very tough times. No rain, crop failures, many farms were being liquidated. And Pastor Shuler did not know what to say. Just as he walked onto the podium, the words came to him. Tough times don't last. Tough people do. Well, as I sit here speaking to you all, that's the theme of our annual meeting today. Tough times don't last. Tough people do. And that describes all of you, our shareholders and employees. We have just celebrated 34 years, and we have had some great years, and more recently, some tough years. As always, we wanted to discuss our company openly with you, and then open it up to Q&A, where we have Andy Bernard and I to answer your questions. I have always said, and to repeat, we are very blessed to have such a wonderful group of long-term shareholders. who have stood by us through the ups and downs of business life over a long period of time. And like you, I'm very disappointed in what the fear created by COVID-19 has done to our sacrifice. And I'm working hard to ensure we remain strong and thrive in these difficult times. We had a great 2019, and 2020 has begun in an unprecedented way with the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused the whole world to be locked down. I must say, our unique culture is a very valuable asset and something I've taught you in the past. It's not shown on our balance sheet, but the creation and preservation of that culture is the biggest achievement for us over the past 34 years and the continuing driver of our success. And as you know, it's protected for all time. It's fair and friendly culture, which is in our name, is why companies all over the world want to deal with us. It is our biggest advantage, and we got it fiercely. And in tough times like these, it comes to the fore. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank John Palmer who will be retiring from our board at this AGM after eight years on our board. John has been a strong supporter of Fairfax over all these years and we've benefited from his broad range of experience. We wish him and his wife, Tad, well in his retirement. Taking John's place on the board will be Bill Weldon. Bill was with Johnson & Johnson for over 40 years and was chairman and CEO from 2002 to 2012. Bill has been a consultant to Fairfax, giving us the benefits of his experience in running a large, decentralized, highly principled company. So Bill and Fairfax are already familiar with each other. One other board matter, Tony Griffiths would like to continue as a director, but not as a lead director. So I'm pleased to report that Bill McFarland has kindly agreed to assume the lead director role after this meeting. Now, I mentioned this in our annual report, but May 21st, 2019 was the saddest day in our 34 years as we learned of the sudden passing of David Bond, Dave was incredibly bright and disciplined as our CFO with a great sense of humor, quick wit, and caring nature. He was a great chief national officer, colleague, and friend, and we will all miss him greatly. As I also mentioned in our annual report, Paul Rivette told me recently, That for family reasons, he wanted to retire as president of Fairfax. It was with great sadness that I accepted his decision. For 17 years, Paul has given us all and has been instrumental in our success over that time period. He retires with our gratitude and best wishes to him, his wife Janice, and his children in his retirement. Paul has agreed to be involved in certain Fairfax investees, including Recipe and Fairfax Africa. He is, of course, chairman of Recipe, vice chairman of Fairfax Africa. I and other Fairfax executive officers will be assuming Paul's other responsibilities. Now, Ronald Scarking has been a Fairfax officer since 1989, and he will be retiring this year. Ronald has done a great job for us as a treasurer and several financial roles, most importantly in developing and overseeing our international financial operations. Ronald will be retiring as an officer at the end of 2020, although he will continue to be available to us as a consultant. We also wish him and his wife Lisa and his family the very best in his retirement. We were pleased to announce in August that Jen Allen was appointed CFO of Fairfax. Jen has been with Fairfax for over 13 years, more recently serving as Vice President of Fairfax and CFO of Fairfax India and Fairfax Africa. Jen has already done an outstanding job in our first year. At the same time, we were happy to announce that Amy Sherk, who's been with us for 16 years, was appointed CFO of Fairfax India and Fairfax Africa. Both Jen and Amy have demonstrated the qualities we admire as officers of Fairfax. We are so fortunate to have this executive depth within our group. With Paul retiring, I wanted to say that our Chief Operating Officer, Peter Clarke, has more than risen to the occasion, just doing an amazing job. All of us owe a huge thank you to Peter. Our shareholders and our employees, when you meet them, please give them a big thank you. Over a 34-year history, we have always operated at Fairfax with a small team, which, with great integrity, team spirit, and no egos, protects our company from unexpected downside risks and takes advantage of opportunities when they arise. Our outstanding team of officers at Fairfax and Hemingway Watsa is further strengthened by, of course, Andy Bernard, Jonathan Godown, and Bijan Ravshi. This group has worked together for a long time with trust and a long-term focus. So today, even though we're all coming together on the web, we will, as we have done for the past 34 annual meetings, quickly go through the formal meeting, give a short presentation, this time without slides, have a question and answer. You have sent your questions in, and you can still send them in to FairfaxATM2020 at shareholderservices.ca. Jeff Stacey, and Jeff Fenwick will moderate the question and answer. Andy Bernard and I look forward to answering your questions. Just a quick reminder that at 2 p.m. today, we will have the fourth Fairfax India Annual Meeting similarly underway. Just before moving on to the formal part of the meeting, I'll ask Rick Salzberg to make a statement followed by the formal meeting.

Thank you, Prem. Good morning. I'm Eric Salisbury, the Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Corporate Secretary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited. Welcome to Fairfax's 2020 Annual Shareholders Meeting, which, as Prem has said, will be followed by a presentation by him and a Q&A session. Forward-looking statements may be included during these proceedings. Actual results may differ, perhaps materially, from those contained in such forward-looking statements. As a result of a variety of uncertainties and risk factors, the most foreseeable of which are settled under risk factors in our base shelf prospectus, which has been filed with Canadian securities regulators and is available on CDAR, and which now include the risk of adverse consequences to Fairfax's business, investments and personnel resulting from or related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fairfax disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements except as required by applicable securities law. I'll now ask Prem Watsa to begin the annual meeting.