Robeco Investment Grade Corporate Bonds ZH EUR

The spread performance in the corporate bond markets was close to zero in March, while sentiment in the equity markets remained positive. At the same time, we see more and more late-cyclical idiosyncratic events happening. The latest development was the unwind of Archegos, a large hedge fund disguised as a family office. This unwind caused large price declines for several popular growth stocks and some significant losses for individual banks that provided the leverage. The largest victim was Credit Suisse, a bank that had already been hurt by the fall of Greensill Capital. Spreads for Credit Suisse bonds widened, but the overall credit market remained largely unscathed, with credit spreads flat for the month. Government bond yields continued to rise in the US, while European yields were fairly stable. An amount of EUR 67 billion was issued in new bonds in the euro investment grade market. Almost half of this supply was in the 10Y+ bucket, so issuers are rushing to the market to lock in low yields. The duration extension of the index was higher than usual last month. Still, duration in the European corporate bond market has only increased marginally over the past years.

The fund invests in Euro denominated securities only.

Robeco Investment Grade Corporate Bonds make use of derivatives for hedging purposes. These derivatives are very liquid.

The fund does not distribute dividend. Any income earned by the fund is reflected in its share price. This means that the fund's total performance is reflected in its share-price performance.

Our analysis of issuers goes beyond the traditional financial factors and includes the issuers’ performance on ESG factors. We deem it essential for a well-informed investment decision to take into account those ESG factors that have the potential to materially impact the financial performance of the issuer. This perfectly matches the basic need to avoid the losers in credit management, as many credit events in the past can be attributed to issues such as poorly designed governance frameworks, environmental issues, or weak health & safety standards. The aim of ESG integration is to improve the risk/return profile of the investments and does not have an impact goal. ESG analysis is fully integrated in the bottom-up security analysis. We have defined key ESG factors per industry, and for every company we analyze how the firm is positioned versus these key ESG factors, and how this impacts the fundamental credit quality.

Robeco Investment Grade Corporate Bonds is an actively managed fund that invests in Euro denominated securities. The selection of these bonds is based on fundamental analysis. The fund's objective is to provide long term capital growth. The fund aims for a better sustainability profile compared to the Benchmark by promoting certain ESG (i.e. Environmental, Social and corporate Governance) characteristics within the meaning of Article 8 of the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and integrating 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. The investment process combines a top-down market view to assess credit attractiveness and factors that drive credit market returns in the short term with skillful issuer selection to create a broadly diversified portfolio. The fund has a conservative profile and has a limited exposure to derivatives.The majority of bonds selected will be components of the Benchmark, but bonds outside the Benchmark may be selected too. The fund can deviate substantially 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 currencies and issuers) 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 embedded in the investment process to ensure that the fund's positions remain within set limits at all times.