Travis Johnson

Markel More Berkshire-like Than Ever

My argument that the similarities have gotten "just a little bit stronger" refers to the fact (as I noted above) that Gayner, like Buffett before him, recently joined the Washington Post board. As I said in the note, it's just a small thing that I found interesting ... but I suppose the headline by itself is a bit of hyperbole. That's not why I bought shares most recently. I like Markel's specialty focus, their commitment to only selling profitable policies, and their use of long term growth in book value as a measure of success (and the fact that bonuses for management are based on 5-year book value growth, not on share price appreciation or reported earnings). The relationship between the book value and the share price has fluctuated significantly over the years, from priced under book to priced well above the current roughly 2X book, but as long as their underwriting performance and investment strategy continue to add to the book value I'm reasonably confident this investment will work out for me over the next ten to twenty years.