--- title: "Fairfax Financial's 2025Q4 13F: Prem Watsa's Deep-Value Tape" type: research slug: fairfax-financial-2025q4-13f-prem-watsa-deep-value-tape canonical_url: https://13finsight.com/research/fairfax-financial-2025q4-13f-prem-watsa-deep-value-tape published_at: 2026-05-12T21:52:14.361Z updated_at: 2026-05-12T21:52:19.458Z author: Marcus Chen author_title: Senior Market Analyst author_url: https://13finsight.com/authors/marcus-chen word_count: 1164 locale: en source: 13F Insight --- # Fairfax Financial's 2025Q4 13F: Prem Watsa's Deep-Value Tape > Fairfax Financial's $2.08B US-listed 13F reads as a textbook deep-value contrarian book — Orla Mining at 20%, Occidental at 12%, and BlackBerry still anchoring at 6.35% of the holdings stack. Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd/Can, the Toronto-headquartered insurer-investor run by Prem Watsa for four decades, filed a 2025Q4 13F showing $2.08 billion of US-listed equity positions across 29 holdings. The filing is small by mega-cap-manager standards, but read closely, it is one of the cleaner reads of the year on deep-value contrarian discipline. The top of the book is anchored in gold (Orla Mining at 20.33%), oil (Occidental at 11.94%), and a stack of unloved consumer and steel names that almost every long-only growth manager has cut to underweight or zero. Watsa's portfolio reads like a list of consensus-bearish ideas — which is exactly the way it has always read, and exactly why it deserves a careful breakdown. The Top of the Book Is the Whole Story Eight positions account for $1.68 billion of the $2.08 billion total — 80.6% concentration in the top eight. None of those eight is a household momentum name; six of the eight have traded sideways or down on a one-year basis. The full ranked list: HoldingReported 13F ValueWeightSharesProfile Orla Mining (ORLA)$423.6M20.33%—Gold miner, mid-cap Occidental Petroleum (OXY)$248.7M11.94%—US oil & gas, Berkshire-co-holder CVS Health (CVS)$215.2M10.33%—Healthcare distribution turnaround Under Armour (UAA)$208.5M10.01%—Apparel turnaround Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF)$197.7M9.49%—US steel, cyclical BlackBerry (BB)$132.2M6.35%—Fairfax legacy holding since 2013 Kennedy-Wilson (KW)$128.8M6.18%—Real estate operator Kraft Heinz (KHC)$124.1M5.96%—Consumer staples, Berkshire-co-holder The signature value-investor pattern is visible in every line. Each of these securities has at least one of three things in common: (a) a multi-year drawdown that scared off momentum money, (b) a structural cyclical exposure (steel, oil, real estate, gold) that benchmark managers underweight, or (c) a long-duration turnaround thesis that needs years of patience to resolve. UAA at 10% of the book is the single boldest expression — Under Armour has been compressed by Nike and Lululemon for four years; Watsa's bet is that the brand survives consolidation and re-rates with a multi-year operational reset. ORLA: The Gold Position That Reframes the Whole Book The single position deserving the most attention is Orla Mining, a mid-cap gold producer at 20.33% of the disclosed portfolio. Fairfax has been macro-hedged for years against deflation risk and US dollar debasement; a concentrated single-name gold position is one of the cleaner expressions of that macro view, far cleaner than a basket of gold ETFs or producers. Orla operates the Camino Rojo mine in Mexico and the Musselwhite mine in Ontario — both lower-cost properties with multi-year reserve lives. The position sizing implies a real macro view, not a barbell tilt. For comparison, the next-largest US-listed manager 13F to hold ORLA at a similar percentage of book is roughly 10× smaller in AUM. This is one of the relatively rare situations in our coverage universe where a multi-billion-dollar 13F carries a single-name exposure that no peer of comparable size is matching. Investors tracking precious-metals factor exposure inside diversified value books can compare this against the broader gold-holder universe via the combined holdings tool. BlackBerry: The Legacy Position Tells You About the Process BlackBerry at $132.2M and 6.35% of the book is the position most worth contextualizing for new readers of Fairfax. Watsa first established this stake in 2013 when BlackBerry was attempting to sell itself; Fairfax was the lead bidder, the deal collapsed, and the firm has retained a structural position ever since. Through twelve years of operational pivots — handset wind-down, QNX automotive software pivot, AI security re-positioning — Fairfax has not exited. This is not a discretionary trading position; it is a near-permanent strategic relationship that reads on the 13F like a stock pick. The pattern is repeated, in less stark form, across multiple holdings: CVS, KW, and KHC are all multi-quarter stable positions that have weathered drawdowns without trim. The portfolio turnover rate inside Fairfax's US book has historically been below 20% per quarter — well below the active-manager median. Concentration Curve and AUM Stability The eight-quarter AUM history shows a portfolio that has been deliberately small and deliberately stable. AUM has ranged from $1.87B to $2.08B over the period — a 10% band — while the holding count has stayed in the 27-31 range. That is the inverse of the Sequoia-style venture-distribution shape that produces big sequential resets; Fairfax's US 13F is engineered to be steady, with positions sized to weather multi-year drawdowns rather than to capture short-cycle mean reversion. The 2024Q3 to 2025Q4 progression — $1.95B → $2.08B with 30 → 29 holdings — confirms the patience profile. Note the data quirk visible in the 2025Q4 holdings list: every position is flagged "NEW" by the comparison engine. This is not a real portfolio reset. It reflects a Form-vehicle reclassification — Fairfax has historically split its US 13F filings across multiple registered subsidiaries, and the canonical filer-CIK we display here picked up a clean set of holdings in 2025Q4. The economic positions did not change; the reporting vehicle did. WhaleScore on the consolidated portfolio sits at 74.75, the high end of the value-disciplined cluster. What This Means for Long-Only Investors Three reads are actionable for institutional investors who do not directly mirror Fairfax: Cross-reference the Watsa names against your factor model — ORLA + OXY + CLF + UAA + KHC together capture a precise factor exposure (commodity + cyclical + value + brand turnaround). If your existing US large-cap value sleeve carries similar dollar weight in these names, the implied factor concentration is double-counted. If your sleeve carries zero, this is the active manager's read of where deep value lives. Read the ORLA holder list as the macro proxy — A 20% Fairfax stake in Orla Mining is a sizeable absorption of the available float. If you want exposure to gold via an active-money lens rather than via an ETF, the ORLA holder page shows who else is sized similarly. Watch the next 13F for any structural trim of BB or UAA — These are the two positions most likely to signal a thesis change, because Fairfax has held both through multiple drawdowns. A trim greater than 25% in 2026Q1 would be the cleanest possible signal that Watsa's patience has run out on one of these resolution stories. Track both via the Fairfax filer page. What to Watch Fairfax's 2026Q1 13F (due May 15, 2026) — first full quarter for trim direction on the eight top positions. Specifically watch ORLA share count: any reduction below the 2025Q4 share count flags a macro view change. Fairfax's Q1 2026 quarterly letter (typically released late April) — Watsa's commentary on macro positioning is usually the cleanest interpretive layer over the 13F mechanics. Berkshire's Q2 2026 13F — Fairfax and Berkshire co-hold OXY and KHC. Cross-comparison of position changes between the two value-disciplined managers is the closest thing to a second opinion on these long-duration names. The Q2 2026 Berkshire filing is due August 14, 2026. The 2025Q4 Fairfax 13F-HR is on EDGAR under CIK 0000915191; the underlying AUM-by-quarter trajectory, position turnover summary, and full holder cross-reference live on the Fairfax filer page. For the SEC primary, search the EDGAR 13F filing history. ## FAQ ### What is Fairfax Financial's largest 13F holding in 2025Q4? Orla Mining (ORLA) at $423.6 million and 20.33% of the $2.08B US-listed disclosed portfolio. The position is one of the largest single-name gold exposures inside any 13F of similar AUM scale and reflects Fairfax's long-standing macro hedge. ### How much does Prem Watsa's Fairfax own of BlackBerry? Fairfax holds $132.2 million of BlackBerry (BB) at 6.35% of the 2025Q4 13F portfolio. The position dates to 2013 when Fairfax was the lead bidder in a failed BlackBerry buyout — twelve years later, the strategic stake remains. ### What sectors does Fairfax Financial favor in its US 13F? The 2025Q4 top of book concentrates in gold (ORLA 20%), energy (OXY 12%), healthcare distribution (CVS 10%), apparel turnaround (UAA 10%), steel (CLF 9%), and consumer staples (KHC 6%). All are deep-value or cyclical names underweight in growth benchmarks. ### How stable is Fairfax's US 13F portfolio? AUM has stayed in a tight $1.87B-$2.08B band across the prior eight quarters, with holding counts between 27 and 31. The portfolio turnover rate is below 20% per quarter — well under the active-manager median. --- Source: 13F Insight — https://13finsight.com/research/fairfax-financial-2025q4-13f-prem-watsa-deep-value-tape Author: Marcus Chen — https://13finsight.com/authors/marcus-chen Last updated: 2026-05-12T21:52:19.458Z