About Us
Loh-Gronager Partners is an Investment Partnership based on the principles of the original Buffett Partnerships, established by Warren Buffett in the 1950’s. We are concentrated, long-term, value investors, looking to partner with exceptional businesses. Our portfolio businesses demonstrate strong growth potential, widening ‘economic moats’ and are run by high-integrity management, who think as we do: as business owners.
We believe that we must lead by example and operate our Investment Partnership at the same high standards as we hold our portfolio businesses. To align ourselves with our Investor Partners, the majority of our personal liquid assets will, over time, form the single largest investor base in the fund. We treat our Investor Partners, who have entrusted us with their capital, as we would wish to be treated, as true Partners and to this end, do not charge a traditional management fee. Our personal returns mirror those of our Investor Partners and are entirely driven by our Funds’ performance.
Although we accept expressions of interest, our Investment Partnership is accessible by invitation only. For further information please contact us.
Investment Philosophy
“Your goal as an investor should be simply to purchase, at a rational price, a part interest in an easily understood business whose earnings are virtually certain to be materially higher, five, ten, and twenty years from now. Over time, you will find only a few companies that meet those standards – so when you see one that qualifies, you should buy a meaningful amount.”
Warren Buffett, Chairman’s Letter to Shareholders, Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report, 1996
To beat the market over the long-term you have to be doing something different. This sentiment is at the heart of both Loh-Gronager Partners’ business strategy as well as our investment strategy. In addition to our concentrated, long-term, value investing focus, we divide our Global Portfolio between an Emerging Markets Equity strategy focused on China & Southeast Asia; a Developed Markets Equity strategy focused on Europe & North America and a Global Fixed Income strategy whose allocation fluctuates depending on the availability of exceptional equity investment opportunities.
All investing is value investing, whereby we seek to buy an asset for less than its intrinsic value, otherwise known as a ‘margin of safety’. Our objective is to rationally and objectively evaluate each potential investment opportunity to ascertain whether it sits within our circle of competence, whether it meets our investment criteria and how it fits in the context of our existing portfolio. The search for exceptional investment ideas requires both extreme patience and complete intellectual honesty, both of which we incorporate into all aspects of our investment process.
In managing our Global Fund, we follow a modified version of the ‘Yale Approach’, pioneered by David Swensen of the Yale University endowment. We do not sell our individual best performers to average down, we do however, re-balance between the three portfolio strategies to ensure we are adding to the strategy which we believe will have the best relative performance over time. Our variable Global Fixed Income strategy gives us the flexibility to react decisively in times of market volatility. Often it is during these periods when the patience and discipline involved in our investment process comes to the fore and allows us to take advantage of market uncertainty.
A willingness to be contrarian - to stand out from the crowd - is what defines both our business and investment strategy at Loh-Gronager Partners. We believe it will enable us to succeed over the long-term.
Management
Ardal Loh-Gronager
Managing Partner
Ardal Loh-Gronager founded Loh-Gronager Partners as an Investment Partnership in 2021. He is the Managing Partner, responsible for all investment decisions and runs its Global Fund.
Ardal is half Danish, born in the United Kingdom, and was educated across Europe, Asia and Australia, giving him unique exposure to different peoples, cultures and values from a formative age. He attended Durham University in the UK, receiving the Queens Campus Scholarship and graduating with a BA (Hons) in Accounting & Finance.
He has always been entrepreneurial and business-minded having established and run several successful ventures. He fully endorses Warren Buffett’s belief that “I am a better investor because I am a businessman, and a better businessman because I am no investor”.
His passion for finance was sparked when researching ways to grow his steadily accumulating savings from his business ventures. He discovered the seminal work of Value Investing, Securities Analysis by Benjamin Graham & David Dodd, followed by the teachings of Phil Fisher, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, which were used to develop his own ‘latticework of mental models’ about investing.
Ardal has over 10 years’ financial industry experience with both buy-side and sell-side expertise. His career in finance began with internships in Sales & Trading at Goldman Sachs and Swiss Re Asset Management. He subsequently joined Morgan Stanley as an Interest Rates Trader, followed by Credit Suisse as a Credit Trader, before departing to manage an investment portfolio for himself and a small group of family & friends. Ardal decided to formalise the Partnership by forming Loh-Gronager Partners after several successful years, at the request of his investors and to manage external capital.
Jamie Goodman
Chief Operating Officer
Jamie Goodman joined Loh-Gronager Partners as Chief Operating Officer (COO) in 2021. As COO, Jamie has responsibility for all operational and administrative matters of the firm.
Jamie has more than 20 years’ experience in financial services from both sell-side and buy-side institutions. Prior to joining Loh-Gronager Partners, Jamie spent 7 years in Abu Dhabi as Head of Operations & Risk for the trading function of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), one of the worlds largest sovereign wealth funds. Here he also served as a Member and Secretary of the Executive Committee. In this capacity he was responsible for overseeing Operations, Trading & Regulatory Compliance, Risk, and Technology across Global Equities, Fixed Income, Derivatives and FX Trading.
Previously, Jamie gained experience across multiple operational disciplines at: Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and Jefferies in the UK.
Jamie holds a BA in Economics from the University of Portsmouth in the UK.
Derek Villaruel
Chief Risk Officer
Derek Villaruel joined Loh-Gronager Partners as Chief Risk Officer (CRO) in 2022. As CRO, Derek has responsibility for all aspects of risk management at the firm.
Derek has more than 30 years’ experience in financial services, working for both global sell-side institutions. Prior to joining Loh-Gronager Partners, Derek spent 14 years as the Founder and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of DJV Investments. The firms’ investment strategy was based on a systematic trading methodology, operating in: global equities, foreign exchange, interest rate products as well as derivatives markets. In this role, he gained in-depth knowledge and expertise of the systems, policies and procedures required, to actively manage and mitigate operational and investment risk.
Previously, Derek gained experience across multiple trading and risk disciplines at: JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Head of Intermediate Rates Trading, Lehman Brothers – Director of Proprietary Trading, BNP Paribas – Head of European Proprietary Trading, Credit Suisse First Boston – Head of Core European Rates Trading and Nikko Securities Europe.
Derek holds a BA (Hons) in Business Studies from the University of Westminster in the UK.
Dr. Kristjan Jespersen
Chief Engagement Officer
Dr. Kristjan Jespersen joined Loh-Gronager Partners as Chief Engagement Officer in 2021. As Chief Engagement Officer, Kristjan has responsibility for engagement and monitoring the implementation of sustainability best practices both at the firm and within our portfolio businesses.
Kristjan is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Denmark. In this role, Kristjan is the Director of the Innovation for Impact Lab which focuses on research and experimentation, regarding the construction of new sustainability indicators as well as testing the reliability of sustainability generated data. He is the course coordinator for the ESG Minor, where he educates Finance, Economics, and Accounting students on the intricacies of sustainability aligned investing. Kristjan has also supported the development of an international framework to halt and reverse EU-driven global deforestation.
In addition to his roles in academia, Kristjan provides consultative services to many multi-national corporations on sustainability related topics.
Kristjan holds a PhD from Copenhagen Business School, with a research focus on Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), and the role of Conservation Finance (CF) in managing and protecting natural environments.
Values
Partnership
We have a Partnership mentality in everything we do, working with our: Investor Partners, Investee Partners and Business Partners to ensure a collaborative environment in the pursuit of business excellence.
Focus
We believe that only through dedication and passion, in the relentless pursuit of mastery over our business and investment process, can consistent success be achieved.
Excellence
We aspire to excellence in everything we do, constantly striving for exceptional performance and the achievement of outstanding results for our Partners. While always acting with humility in times of success and resolve in times of adversity.
Reputation
We live by Warren Buffett’s mantra that reputations “take a lifetime to earn and moments to lose” and as such, we strive to keep our promise as a loyal and dependable Partner.
Honesty
We work hard to understand what we know and even more so, what we don’t know and to paraphrase Mark Twain “what we think we know, that just ain’t so”. Intellectual honesty is at the heart of our business philosophy and guides both our investment strategy and the interactions with our Partners.
Integrity
We hold ourselves to the very highest personal and professional standards. We seek to learn from our own past experiences and those of others, to make transparent, long-term, ethical decisions while operating with kindness and respect.
Sustainability Strategy
“I am delighted to be working with Loh-Gronager Partners, who recognise that true innovation and industry-leading change, only comes through long-term, proactive and thoughtful interactions with businesses themselves. I very much look forward to the road ahead and building on-going relationships with our portfolio businesses to help them to reach their sustainability goals.”
Dr. Kristjan Jespersen, Associate Professor of Sustainable Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Copenhagen Business School (CBS).
We believe that businesses can only truly embrace the full power of exceptional performance, through having an engaged and sustainability oriented management team. As committed long-term business owners ourselves, in a wide range of countries and sectors, we look to partner with management to help them formulate, integrate and achieve their sustainability objectives.
Over time, we believe that businesses that lead their respective industries through ambitious sustainability policies will broaden and deepen the ‘economic moat’ around their business, which will in turn lead to increased returns for society at large and for shareholders. To this end Loh-Gronager Partners is proud to work with Dr. Kristjan Jespersen of the Copenhagen Business School, as our Chief Engagement Officer, who will shape our engagement and best practices with our portfolio businesses.
View our Responsible Investment Strategy here.