TORONTO - The chairman and CEO of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. has spent nearly US$150 million to purchase thousands of additional company shares.

The Toronto-based company says Prem Watsa bought 482,600 subordinate voting shares over the last few days in the market.

Watsa says in a news release that he told shareholders at the company's recent annual meeting and earnings call that the company's shares are “ridiculously cheap.”

In 35 years since Fairfax began, Watsa says he's never seen Fairfax shares sell at a bigger discount to their intrinsic value.

He says he backed up his words by purchasing the shares “as I believe that this will be an excellent long-term investment.”

Fairfax is a holding company which, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance and the associated investment management.