What makes us different?

Investment management should be a long-term business. We base our portfolios on research and insights built up over time. And when we invest clients’ capital, we intend to hold the assets for years longer than is usual in our industry.

So, we believe our company’s status as an independent private partnership plays to our clients’ advantage. We don’t have outside shareholders or external financial obligations. That means we aren’t preoccupied with short-term profits or the need to pay dividends. This gives us freedom to invest in opportunities that might not work out, but those that do may take years rather than quarters to fulfil their potential, where other firms do not have the same alignment. Not every investment takes years to play out, but being able to invest in such opportunities is a critical element of how we differentiate ourselves.

Our organisational structure gives us stability, helping us recruit and retain some of the finest investment minds. Being based in Edinburgh, Scotland, since 1908 has shaped our unique culture. But we do not set our ambitions through that lens. We want to be among the world’s leading growth investors, and to do this, we need to access talent where it exists. So in recent years, we have started to selectively add investors based in China and the US. They’re well placed to build local relationships and find new ideas while retaining the huge benefits of flexibility and collaboration that come with the bulk of the team being together in Edinburgh.