Robeco Multi Asset Sustainable D EUR

July saw continued economic expansions across the developed economies. The current economic conditions index improved but with new Covid variants spreading globally, the business expectations outlook dimmed somewhat. Emerging markets are slowing down more notably given lower vaccination rates, less fiscal thrust and central banks raising rates to tame inflation. The IMF held global growth for 2021 steady at 6% in its latest outlook, but upgraded developed economies by 0.5%, while downgrading emerging markets by 0.5%. Yet, despite these upgrades for developed economies, macro data in the US started to lag elevated expectations, causing the US Citi macro surprise index to turn negative. US second quarter GDP came in at 6.5% annualized, but was below expectations. The shortages in goods and labor markets are starting to weigh on output growth. The Chinese economy continued to expand, but at a slower pace. The Caixin manufacturing leading indicator fell from 51.3 to 50.3. The regulatory crackdown in China on large tech and education companies caused a stir in local Asian markets. However, for now the spillover effects to global markets have been limited.

This share class of the fund does not distribute dividend.

Robeco Multi Asset Sustainable integrates ESG at different stages of the investment process. We use sustainability performance rankings to focus our fundamental analysis on companies that have demonstrated superior sustainability performance compared to their peers. We then analyze 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 risks and opportunities of a company. If ESG risks and opportunities are significant, the ESG analysis could impact a stock’s fair value and the portfolio allocation decision. Throughout the investment process, we strive for a low environmental impact, as measured by GHG emissions, energy consumption, water use and waste generation, with the aim of realizing 20% better levels than the index. In addition to ESG integration, Robeco conducts proxy voting and engagement activities focused on specific themes, such as climate change, aiming to improve a company’s sustainability profile. Furthermore, the fund will not invest in companies exposed to the following controversial sectors or business practices: military contracting, controversial weapons, fire arms, UN Global Compact breaches, tobacco, palm oil and thermal coal, according to strict revenue thresholds.

Robeco Multi Asset Sustainable is an actively managed global multi asset fund. 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, while avoiding investment in thermal coal, weapons, military contracting and companies that severely violate labor conditions, next to voting and engaging. The fund invests in sustainable equity and bond funds of Robeco and RobecoSAM. The asset allocation strategy is subject to the investment restrictions and a limit on ex-ante volatility. The majority of investment instruments selected through this approach will be components of the Benchmark but investment instruments outside the Benchmark index may be selected too. The fund can deviate substantially from the weightings of the Benchmark. The investment policy is not constrained by a benchmark but the fund may use a benchmark for comparison purposes. The fund can take a substantial active risk. The fund can deviate substantially from the issuer, country and sector weightings of the Benchmark. There are no restrictions on the deviation from 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.