Source: The Canadian Press

The head of Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. (TSX:FFH) says the financial services and insurance company has no need to make acquisitions at this time, even if opportunities crop up on the international market.

Prem Watsa told investors at the company’s annual meeting Thursday that Fairfax would only attempt to buy assets if it had a suitable amount of cash on hand for the transaction.

The company, one of Canada’s most expensive companies traded on the TSX, has operations in India, Hong Kong, China, North America and recently received approval to expand into Brazil, one of South America’s fastest-growing economies.

Last fall, it also acquired a 15% stake in Alltrust Insurance, a Chinese financial services firm.

Fairfax, which also owns a stake in insolvent Canwest Global Communications, has also widely been considered one of the parties interested in acquiring the newspaper assets of the Winnipeg company, which is restructuring its operations under bankruptcy protection from creditors.

Reports have suggested that Fairfax hopes to partner with newspaper publisher Torstar (TSX:TS.B) as the financial backer for the transaction. It already owns about 19% of Torstar.

The reports also say that the banks are looking for the best upfront cash offer for the papers.

Watsa declined to confirm whether Fairfax was indeed pushing to buy Canwest’s newspapers, but said the big financial services company would look at the assets if, in fact, they offered a suitable rate of return.

Fairfax is a holding company which through subsidiaries writes property insurance, reinsurance and provides investment management services around the world. The company generated nearly $8 billion in revenues in 2008 and earned a net profit of just under $1.5 billion for that year.

In 2009, Fairfax earned a profit of nearly $857 million.

With more than 5,000 employees, Fairfax operates through Northbridge Financial, Lombard, Federated, Crum & Forster, First Capital Insurance, Odyssey Re and many other companies in North America, Asia and elsewhere.

It also has important stakes in well-known Canadian companies, from the Mega Brands toymaker to Torstar and Canwest. It also owns investment stakes in furniture retailer The Brick Group (TSX:BRK.UN), as well as insolvent newsprint giant AbitibiBowater, the Jazz Air Income Fund (TSX:JAZ.UN) airline and B.C. lumber producer International Forest Products (TSX:IFP).

In trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday, Fairfax shares rose 33 cents to $375.90.