Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. intends to offer $150 million in aggregate principal amount of 7.5% Senior Notes due 2019, the company said Wednesday.

The notes offered will be unsecured obligations of Fairfax and will pay a fixed rate of interest of 7.5% per year.

The net proceeds of the proposed offering will be used to augment the company’s cash position, increase short term investments and marketable securities held at the holding company level and for general corporate purposes, Fairfax said.

The Senior Notes will be offered through a syndicate of dealers to be led by BMO Capital Markets that include RBC Capital Markets, CIBC World Markets, Scotia Capital, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, GMP Securities and Cormark Securities.

Fairfax intends to file a prospectus supplement to its short form base shelf prospectus dated April 25, 2008 in respect of this offering with the applicable Canadian and U.S. securities regulatory authorities.

Toronto-based Fairfax is a financial services holding company. Its subsidiaries, is engaged in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance and investment management.

IE