Fairfax CEO urges deregulation

Making a strong case for deregulation, Fairfax Financial Holdings chief executive officer Prem Watsa has urged India to enhance the ease of doing business.

Himself a billionaire and called ‘Canada’s Warren Buffet,’ Watsa told a news platform, “You need regulation but more to help businesses. Who provides all the jobs? Businesses! There used to be socialism but all that is now gone and it should never come back but businesses you have to encourage.”

An admirer of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Watsa met him during his recent visit to India. The Hyderabad-born CEO of the $97-billion Toronto-based giant, “Ten per cent economic growth gets India ahead... [South] Korea did it for three decades, Japan, China also did it. There are a lot of smart people here, so no reason why they won’t do it.”

In India, the Canadian behemoth owns controlling stakes in, among others, Bengaluru International Airport Ltd, Thomas Cook India Ltd, CSB Bank, Go Digit General Insurance, and Quess Corp. “We are backing people who have a track record, good people who are honest and can build a good company going forward… that’s what Fairfax did. I started in 1985. I wanted to build a good company... a little bit of luck and it’s worked out to be pretty good,” he said in response to the question of how he picks investment opportunities.

Watsa refused to comment on the worsening ties between Canada and India.

A champion of free enterprise, Watsa said it was the hallmark of America’s growth and wants it to spread wider in India. “Lee Kuan Yew [Singapore’s former PM] was asked 15 years ago: Has America peaked? He said, absolutely not, and for two reasons. It is the most entrepreneurial country in the world and anyone can become an American. Satya Nadella, an immigrant in America, is running one of the biggest companies in the world—Microsoft.”

He made a pitch for privatization, saying that public sector undertakings are “vestiges of the past,” urging the Indian government to push asset sales. Fairfax is a potential suitor for IDBI Bank that is to be privatized. Fairfax India already owns an Indian lender—CSB (formerly Catholic Syrian Bank).