I would like to know how people value holding companies. I guess the most famous one is Berkshire ($BRK.A - $BRK.B). And others exist.
These holdings usually have a lot of exposure to realestate, PE or nonliquid assets. In other words, not everything they own is publicly listed. However, the share prices of these holdings do make big moves.
I wonder how people look at holdings and how they decide to invest in them. The holding discusses their investment strategy in annual reports. However, the holding invests in companies that have no legal obligation to share their strategy with the public. Therefore, I feel like I need to blindly trust these managers to make good investments. Similarly, because as a shareholder you do not have a lot of information about the deals how do you evaluate the decisions? You base yourself on $-growth, dividend increases and compare to peer holdings?
Most important to me, how do you know if you are paying a good price or not.