Grassroots Research provides a reality check for our fund managers' investment decisions |
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Where investment decisions are reality checked
At Allianz Global Investors, we recognise the value you place on careful investment research. That’s why many of our investment trusts, which cover UK and global growth, Europe, income growth, as well as private equity and endowment policies, benefit from Grassroots® – one of the investment industry’s most innovative research facilities.
An idea is born
In late 1982, experts predicted that Atari’s new video game, E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial, would be the must-have item on every child’s Christmas list. The rising share price of Atari’s parent company, Warner Communications, reflected these high expectations. In the event, actual sales of the game were disappointing, and Warner’s stock price fell sharply. This resulted in much head-scratching within the investment community as well as amongst our fund managers. But what we realised was that the gap between expected sales and actual sales could have been spotted earlier if we’d spoken directly to the retailers who were selling the game, or to the mums and dads who were doing their Christmas shopping.
From that experience, the idea for Grassroots® Research was born. The concept’s simple: If you want to know about pharmaceutical prescription trends, why not ask the doctors who do the prescribing? If you want the outlook for corporate software spending, why not talk to the IT managers who are planning their companies’ software budgets?
By 1984, Grassroots® Research was a fully operational department, and an integrated part of our fundamental investment research. Since that time, Grassroots® Research has developed a large number of contacts worldwide who offer on the ground views of their respective industries. Today, through its global network of freelance reporters and Field Force investigators, Grassroots® commissions interviews with consumers, distributors, doctors, IT managers, manufacturers, and yes, video-game retailers, in an effort to bring otherwise unseen business trends to light.
01/06/2007
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