Robeco Asian Stars Equities I USD

Asian markets were generally lower in July (down 7.8%), lagging developed markets, which went up by 0.6%. Many Asia-Pacific countries lag behind the US and Europe in reopening their economies. Last year, our region dealt with the pandemic very well and suffered few fatalities. This success pushed many governments to ambitious targets to eradicate Covid-19. However, the new variants underline the fact that the disease will resurface in the community and the 'zero cases' target is impossible to maintain. In many poorer countries, cases are on the rise again and the rollout of vaccines is relatively slow there, resulting in lasting economic damage. The Chinese government came down on the education sector by making tutoring companies non-profit. It also came up with more measures against monopolistic behavior and data security breaches by internet platforms. This put Chinese growth stocks under huge pressure and investors fled from them. Spillover effects led to declines in South Korea (-6%) and Taiwan (-3%). India (+1%) and Singapore (+1%) were able to buck the trend, while Covid resurgence and low vaccine rate worries clouded over the Philippines (-12%) and Thailand (-7%).

The fund is allowed to pursue an active currency policy to generate extra returns.

The fund does not distribute dividends.

Robeco Asian Stars Equities integrates ESG factors into its investment process by analyzing the impact of financially material ESG factors to a company’s competitive position and value drivers. We believe that this enhances our ability to understand existing and potential (long-term) risks and opportunities of a company. The impact of material ESG factors can be positive or negative, reflecting risks or opportunities, that ensue from a company’s ESG analysis. If ESG risks and opportunities are significant, the ESG analysis could impact a stock’s fair value and the portfolio allocation decision. In addition to ESG integration, Robeco also has an exclusion policy and conducts proxy voting and engagement activities focused on specific themes, such as climate change, aiming to improve a company’s sustainability profile.

Robeco Asian Stars Equities is an actively managed fund that invests in stocks of the most attractive companies in Asia. The selection of these stocks is based on fundamental analysis.The fund's objective is to achieve a better return than the index. The fund promotes ESG (i.e. Environmental, Social and corporate Governance) characteristics within the meaning of Article 8 of the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and integrates ESG and sustainability risks in the investment process. In addition, the fund applies an exclusion list on the basis of controversial behavior, products (including controversial weapons, tobacco, palm oil and fossil fuel) and countries, next to voting and engaging. The fund's focus is on the high-growth developing countries in the region. The fund focuses on stock selection and has a concentrated portfolio.The majority of stocks selected through this approach will be components of the Benchmark, but stocks outside the Benchmark index may be selected too. The fund can deviate substanitally from the weightings of the Benchmark. The fund aims to outperform the Benchmark over the long run, whilst still controlling relative risk through the applications of limits (on VaR Ratio) to the extent of deviation from the Benchmark. This will consequently limit the deviation of the performance relative to the Benchmark. The Benchmark is a broad market weighted index that is not consistent with the ESG characteristics promoted by the fund.

Risk management is fully integrated into the investment process to ensure that positions always meet predefined guidelines.