An Introduction
- about-us
“How are you going to
measure success
?”
A recurring question from former colleagues, clients and consultants upon leaving a partnership that had pursued, and excelled at, its ambition of “adding material value for clients over the long term”. In the context of an industry in which our clients’ legal advisors and investment consultants, particularly in the US, were clear about their key expectations - the delivery of short-term financial performance - this was some accomplishment. Was it always this way? Perhaps the ‘consumerisation’ of finance from the 1960s onwards was one key milestone. Perhaps Eugene Fama and Benoit Mandelbrot’s obsession with the noise of stock price data - and the stockmarket losses of 1973 & 1974 - was another. Either way, the broad investment industry has become a place in which annual, or often monthly performance data, is now seen as the holy grail.
In the abstract, how would you think about investing if you weren’t granted a specific time period? Perhaps a little more like an entrepreneur who understands their ability to have a degree of control over inputs but is humble in the face of the outputs? I doubt many would judge the success of businesses such as Amazon or Adobe on the basis of any month’s or year’s revenues. Liberation from regular measurement rituals saves time, reduces stress and shuns the bizarre notion that long-term investing skill and luck can be disentangled on the basis of statistically insignificant datasets!
“So you are an
ESG investment
company?”
Some good friends were pleased to hear that, beyond profit, we had ‘purpose’ in mind. As with investment performance measurement, we are not interested in measuring the carbon footprint of our investment portfolio. It would be trite to buy carbon-free investments to tick a box. Instead, we are keen to play our part in the transition - a multi-decade process of de-carbonisation - that allows for cost-efficient energy for today alongside innovation and the scale-up of solutions for tomorrow. We understand the critical importance of identifying the right time and place for solutions in our world that is so connected on social media, but so dissonant in reality. Similarly, we have a broad canvas of societal benefit. We ask whether our investees can, directly or indirectly, ‘positively impact a million lives’ in a success scenario. We also consider broader possibilities that may be created through networks or follow-on ‘Eureka’ moments.
We are keen supporters of a striving for continual excellence which is manifested in a slowly evolving board, and of humble but resilient leadership. Our desire to work alongside management teams for more than a few quarters compels us to think about these matters seriously. We ensure we have sufficient relational bandwidth to engage and support on matters of long-term relevance, without wasting management’s valuable time on short-term financial metrics or formulaic questions for the sake of box-ticking. We stay focused on 25-35 highly diverse companies in which we have material, relatively illiquid stakes, and thus a relational, rather than merely transactional partnership. ‘Governance’ is a two-way street!
“So you are a
family office
that invests in private equity and index funds?”
In the context of a world that is becoming increasingly transparent, is it not curious that so many companies wish to stay private and ‘financially invisible’ for so long? Perhaps that is understandable if the dominant set of post-IPO shareholders are passive box-tickers, obsessed with providing low-cost funds without consideration as to what companies actually do, delegating due diligence to the stock exchange and index providers, and voting to proxy advisors.
We are unafraid to embrace the unpopular and the difficult: small, publicly listed companies capable of large-scale change.
We do not have a ‘view’ of the world, other than one that acknowledges its complexity and unpredictability. To cope with this, we diversify, and focus on geographies in which there is a deep understanding of the role of reward for undertaking risk.
Our universe is relatively unconstrained, and by creating space for discovery, we can continuously explore all the lattices of the investment structure. We are style agnostic in terms of ‘growth or value’ characteristics, but growth-oriented in terms of its future possibilities. We are market agnostic too; recognising that domicile is often detached from operational location and risk. Finally, we are relatively sector agnostic: focused on technology, energy, materials and healthcare. Our choices are a response to the potential for growth in these areas. We also hold liquid positions in larger companies to provide liquidity for the irregular timing with which less liquid opportunities arrive.
Why
Inthallo
?
In Greek mythology, Thallo was believed to grant prosperity to the young shoots of plants. Hopefully it captures our commitment to support, redeem or resurrect small companies one by one, safe in the knowledge that ‘what success looks like’ is completely out of our hands.
The content of this website does not constitute financial advice nor a financial promotion. It is provided for general information purposes only as an illustration of Inthallo's work and investments. The information contained on this website shall in no way be construed to constitute a recommendation nor an offer with respect to the purchase or sale of any investment. Investing involves risks, including loss of capital, illiquidity, lack of dividends, loss of investment and dilution. We recommend investors seek advice from a regulated financial adviser.
The information on this section of the website is directed at United Kingdom residents only. The website, including the content of the pages, is subject to English law.