We are sometimes asked for our "investment thesis". The honest answer: we do not have a thesis, we have habits. Here they are.
First conviction: the real can be visited
We have never invested in an asset no one from the house had visited. That rule cost us "obvious" opportunities — several of which ended badly for others. Above all, it spared us the files whose beauty existed only in the memorandum.
Second conviction: alignment is not declared, it is paid for
Saying "our interests are aligned" costs nothing. Co-investing your own capital, at the same price and on the same terms as your investors, costs — and that is exactly why it is credible. We are in the capital of every operation we propose, without exception since inception.
Third conviction: transparency is a discipline, not a speech
Reporting that only arrives when things go well is useless. Ours goes out every quarter, good quarter or not: progress, cashflows, variances, decisions. Our investors access the same documents we do — in their space, not on request.
The scars
Twelve years also means mistakes: an over-optimistic dredging schedule, a hotel operator replaced mid-operation, an exit delayed eighteen months to avoid selling at the wrong time. None cost a vehicle its capital; all of them hardened our criteria. Perhaps that is the most honest definition of experience: better-sharpened refusals.