“Canada’s Warren Buffett” watches Tembec

MONTREAL — Prem Watsa, dubbed “Canada’s Warren Buffett,” is Tembec’s biggest shareholder—and if its fortunes don’t improve, he may be its saving grace. Bloomberg News reports that shares in the forestry company plunged after it warned investors that without a turnaround, it risks breaking the terms of a bank loan. Running out of options, the firm may have to resort to a bailout from Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings if its own bankers don’t cut it a break, says Ed Sustar, who rates Tembec for Moody’s Investors Service. “Fairfax is behind all of this debt that’s on Tembec’s balance sheet, so they have the ability to lend them money,” he told Bloomberg. “We’re kind of at crunch time.”