Patient capital — is not long term enough

“I don’t like the term patient capital, that is not long term enough”

This line was spoken last night at dinner by legendary Scots investor Sir Angus Grossart.

He then noted that he is a long term investor and that he feels he thinks longer term than Warren Buffett.

I joked about this with him, wondering what quantum realm of time thinking he uses as such a relative youth (he is 82) to Warren Buffett (88) and Charlie Munger (95), when Buffett famously says: “Our favourite holding period is forever”, so I’m intrigued as to quite how long term Sir Angus is in his thinking!

This nugget of wisdom from Sir Angus was one of many I heard last night at a wonderful “focus dinner” run by Entrepreneurial Scotland with the theme of “Expanding Horizons”.

The speaker was Colin Robertson, recently appointed Chair of Entrepreneurial Scotland and CEO of Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL).

Alexander Dennis makes buses and coaches in Scotland. Though founded in the 19th century, a pivotal moment came in 2004 when they were rescued out of administration by a small group of Scottish investors, including Sir Angus Grossart.

In 2007, Colin Robertson was attracted to lead the business and, over the last ten years they have seen revenues more than…