Prem Watsa’s love affair: BlackBerry to bank

Bengaluru: Prem Watsa, the Canadian billionaire of Indian origin, has floated Fairfax Financial Holdings, which has $1.5 billion invested in India. This includes Bangalore International Airport ($653 million), Sanmar Chemicals ($300 million), IIFL Holdings ($276 million) and National Collateral Management Services ($174 million). Fairfax has also invested over Rs 400 crore in Digit Insurance and is a majority investor in Thomas Cook. In an interview with TOI, he speaks on why he is bullish on India.

How much have you planned to invest in India?
Fairfax has around $40 billion of investments and we have around $5 billion in India, of which $3 billion is ours and the rest is raised from others. In America, regulations do not allow a lot of money to be invested in India. So, we floated Fairfax India as a separate publicly listed company, where we raised a billion and a half. We expect Fairfax India will grow substantially over time.