Wadhwaney's largest holding is Vancouver- based Catalyst Paper (CTL.Canada), which has five mills in British Columbia and hasn't been profitable since 2001. Catalyst makes paper for phonebooks, among other things, and has been cutting costs. In early 2006, the fund manager began building his position at around three Canadian dollars a share (C$1 equals about 84 U.S. cents). "I've avoided this industry. It's a miserable industry that's terribly capital intensive. However, sometimes things get too cheap!" It's been a dramatic relationship, to say the least. When Third Avenue attempted to raise its stake, management introduced a poison pill. Then Wadhwaney led a charge to get four Third Avenue nominees on Catalyst's board. He succeeded. In January, the company's CEO resigned, sending the stock spiraling lower. Investors speculated that Third Avenue, which now owns 38% of the stock, was preparing to sell the company. Third Avenue is in Catalyst for the long term, he maintains. "I haven't thought of an exit strategy. We'd like to build the business." Today, the stock trades close to C$4, but is still 20% to 30% below replacement cost, or the cost of building its facilities from scratch, he says.

BIL International (BRY.Singapore), the fund's second-largest holding, is the former Brierley Investments, a holding company for hotels, gaming, property development and oil and gas. Guoco Group (0053.Hong Kong) owns 51% of BIL International and also provides asset management and other financial services across Asia.

Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (SWP.Canada) is the largest publicly traded agribusiness cooperative north of the U.S. 2.9% of portfolio

Third Avenue also owns a fifth of Canada's Canfor.