Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.‘s acquisition of a major stake in Under Armour Inc. has pushed the struggling apparel maker’s shares higher, as the Canadian insurance firm follows a playbook similar to Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s investment strategy.
Under Armour shares rose as much as 7.2% in late trading Monday after Fairfax disclosed it now holds nearly 42 million Class A shares, representing 22% of the total, according to Bloomberg. The stake marks an increase of almost 36 million shares from Fairfax’s previously disclosed position.
Toronto-based Fairfax was founded in 1985 by Indo-Canadian Prem Watsa, sometimes called “the Warren Buffett of the North,” according to the Financial Post. The firm has a history of acquiring significant stakes in diverse businesses, including insurers, retailers, and hospitality firms.
Buying undervalued companies to turn them around is a rare strategy in the insurance space that has similarities to Berkshire, Raymond James analyst Stephen Boland told the Financial Post. “Sometimes they assume control to provide more capital support to the management and the board.”
The comparison with Buffett partly reflects Watsa’s penchant for acquiring insurance businesses, such as US workers’ compensation firm Zenith National Insurance Corp. in 2010 and multinational Allied World Assurance Company Holdings in 2017, according to the Financial Post.
Fairfax’s approach to diversifying its portfolio beyond insurance includes numerous retail and consumer brands. The firm purchased 75% of the Toronto-based sporting goods and apparel brand Sporting Life in 2011, and in 2017 acquired assets of Performance Sports Group Ltd. through an investor group alongside Sagard Holdings Inc.
These deals resemble Berkshire Hathaway’s purchases of retail names such as Dairy Queen in the late 1990s and underwear maker Fruit of the Loom in 2001, Financial Post noted.
More recently, Fairfax added Canadian restaurant chain Recipe Unlimited Corp. to its portfolio in 2022 and the country’s mattress and bedding retailer Sleep Country in 2024, taking all companies private.
As a long-term investor, Fairfax may “take the business private to get it out of the public spotlight” before returning it to the market years later, Boland said to the Financial Post.
The Baltimore-based sportswear company has struggled with declining revenues and lost NBA star Stephen Curry as a brand partner in November. Shares fell 40% over 2025, according to Bloomberg.
