Steakhouse opulence

In what could probably go down in history as one of the most extravagant dinner at a New York steakhouse, two investors (Mohnish “who” Pabrai and Guy “who” Spier of Aquamarine “what” Capital Management LLC) blew everyone else out of water in a charity auction and put in the winning bid of $650,100 to break bread with billionaire Warren Buffett. By the time they finish that dinner, the “who” and “what” would be long gone.

Frankly, when I had earlier felt auctioning to be the ultimate acid test and the best valuation model, I never expected it to be endorsed so quickly by these star fund managers.

Pabrai will pay two-thirds of the winning bid — about $433,000 — while Spier will pay the other third, about $217,000. His *investment* rationale (you can call that!) - Pabrai attributes much of his own investment success to learning from Buffett and a few other investors. He is the author of the book “The Dhando Investor”.

Another way of looking at it is a beneficiary who chose to repay a debt of generous gratitude for having immensely gained from Buffet logic. [Pabrai manages about $600 million for Pabrai Investment Funds in Irvine, Calif., which follows value investing approach]

Not everyday that you get to dine with a Warren Buffet, a man so rich, he had to hire world’s richest man to spend his money.

Buffett once said “I was wired at birth to do something that pays like crazy.” To dine with someone like that, you ought to do crazy things too….

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