RCM takes Grassroots into account

Fund manager RCM has revealed the unique research process it believes gives it a distinct competitive advantage in researching and identifying the best investment opportunities in both domestic and global share markets.

The propriety practice Grassroots Research incorporates three main working parties, including industry contacts numbering over 50,000, 255 field force investigators and 72 investigative reporters.

“Grassroots is the platform RCM started in 1982. After 10 years in business, RCM decided they wanted to add an additional investigative journalist approach to investing by basically doing very extensive channel checks, and so created Grassroots from scratch,” said head of Grassroots Research Mikhail Derkavski.

While competitors in the market are now trying to replicate the platform for themselves, Grassroots Research remains the only process that uses journalists to gather information.

“We feel journalists have very open minds when they approach the subject at hand because they want to learn about the subject from their sources. They can then provide us with a very unbiased view on the subject,” Derkavski explained.

RCM is a manager specialising in growth style investments and, to this end, head of equities Jakov Males feels Grassroots Research is a perfect information-gathering tool.

“As a growth manager it’s ideal because the growth companies of tomorrow are smaller companies today. Part of our job is to understand those companies with a real quality growth outlook, whether they have certain advantages or are in certain market niches which will allow them to grow over the long-term, and we check with Grassroots that those assumptions are correct and, hopefully, it will be a fairly immediate transition to that growth profile,” he said.

RCM is currently an Australian and international equities manager for Allianz Global Investors AG.

Its Australian equities fund is in the process of being assessed by the various chief research houses, with the objective of being included on major wraps and platforms in the coming months.