Insider Monkey: Which stock picker, other than Warren Buffett, would you like to have managing your money or part of your money for the next 10 years?
Tom Gayner: I have some great friends in this business who are very thoughtful money managers and do a very good job in the way they think about this business. I think Chris Davis is a great guy. I think Chuck Akre is a great guy. I think Preston Athey is a great guy. There are 10 others or 20 others that I would like and trust, and expect will do very well over long periods of time.
Insider Monkey: We have your 13F filing from the end of September (see what stocks Markel reported owning) for Markel and we see that you like Berkshire (find Warren Buffett’s favorite stocks). You like Fairfax Financial, where you have Prem Watsa, a very similar set up (check out Prem Watsa’s stock picks). Do you follow what those investors are doing?
Tom Gayner: I think it is very important to pay attention to what really smart people are doing and incorporate that into your thinking and sort of ask yourself, “Why are they doing that and why are they not doing something else?” And, “How did they come to those decisions?” Or, “What did they see that I don’t see?” It is a very helpful and healthy thing to indeed follow the actions of smart people and think about what they’re doing and why.
Insider Monkey: How do you do that? How do you approach that when you get some sort of information?
Tom Gayner: Well, you just read annual reports, you read four or five newspapers a day, you read a lot of trade magazines and sort of have a general awareness and keep reasonably well informed about that sort of thing.
Insider Monkey: Do you go back to the beginning of your process you described earlier, does it kind of jump to the top of the list so to speak?
Tom Gayner: Exactly. I mean, it’s very important to not blindly follow anybody.
Insider Monkey: Right, we agree.
Tom Gayner: You don’t know why they’re doing things or you don’t know what their circumstances were or what caused them to make a particular decision but, that being said, it behooves you as a professional when you see talented people or smart people that have demonstrated records of excellence, you ought to at least think about why they’re doing something and see whether that fits or makes sense for something you do as well or not.
Insider Monkey: Is there anything you can tell us about what you might like or maybe might have liked about CarMax Inc (NYSE:KMX)? We have that as being one of Markel’s largest positions in September.
Tom Gayner: We have had it for quite a while. We were very fortunate to have bought that when it was a much smaller company than what it is right now and actually at an extraordinary low price and it stumbled a little bit coming out of the gate when they started out. I think it’s a very robust business and one that- like on point number 3 in what I was telling you about in terms of the reinvestment ability. The ability to take that approach in how we do business over, and over, and over again and expand their footprint was dramatic. So, it passed that four point test that I talked about.
