IIT Madras graduate Prem Wasta richest savviest guy and Blackberry’s new owner

Prem Wasta 63 year old, graduate from IIT Madras who settled to canada in 1972 is in limelight again for his new deal with Canadian firm BlackBerry Limited for USD 4.7 billion. Wasta is already famous for for his unexpected, unorthodox buying moves and predictions and known as Warren Buffet of Canada.

Last night BlackBerry Limited said it reached a tentative agreement for a USD 4.7 billion buyout by a group led by Watsa-led Fairfax — its biggest shareholder. Fairfax (Investment firm co-founded by Prem Wasta) owns about 10 per cent of the handset manufacturers common shares.

Now all eyes are on Wasta, as to whether he will be able to conclude the deal successfully and turn around the troubled smartphone maker who has been hit hard by Apple and Samsung..

Brief about Prem Wasta:

Hyderabad-born Watsa, who earned a bachelor’s in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Madras in 1971, moved to Ontario in 1972 where he earned his MBA degree from the University of Western Ontario.He met his wife, Nalini Loganadhan, during the final year at IIT and married her a few years later. The couple today has three children – two daughters and a son.

He predicted the crash of 1987, the Japanese collapse of 1990 and also the 2008 meltdown in the US. He gained from the US slowdown by picking up shares at rock-bottom prices when others were counting massive losses.

Beginning his professional career at Confederation Life Insurance as vice-president of Confederation Life Investment Counsel in 1974, Watsa left the firm in 1984 to join as vice president of start-up firm GW Asset Management, where he served for a year.

He co-founded Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel (which was acquired by Fairfax in 1991) in 1984. The following year, Watsa took control of Markel Financial Holdings, which was later re-named as Fairfax.
Watsa, who serves on Advisory Board of the Richard Ivey School of Business, is also the Chancellor of University of Waterloo, a Canadian city where BlackBerry Limited is headquartered.

“I know he is an ardent admirer of Warren Buffett and is sometimes referred to as the Warren Buffett of Canada,” says MG Venkatesh Mannar, the Ottawa-based President of The Micronutrient Initiative, and Watsa’s senior at IIT-Madras. “I remember him then as a shy and reserved person (maybe he still is).”