Robeco Sustainable Emerging Credits FH EUR

Reinout Schapers is Co-Head Portfolio Management Investment Grade in the Credit team. Prior to joining Robeco in 2011, Reinout worked at Aegon Asset Management where he was a Head of European High Yield. Before that, he worked at Rabo Securities as an M&A Associate and at Credit Suisse First Boston as an Analyst Corporate Finance. Reinout has been active in the industry since 2003. He holds a Master's in Architecture from the Delft University of Technology. Christiaan Lever is Portfolio Manager High Yield and Emerging Credits in the Credit team. Before assuming this role in 2016, he was Financial Risk Manager at Robeco, focusing on market risk, counterparty risk and liquidity risk within fixed Income markets. Christiaan has been active in the industry since 2010. He holds a Master's in Quantitative Finance and in Econometrics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. The RobecoSAM Emerging SDG Credits fund is managed within Robeco's credit team, which consists of eight portfolio managers and twelve credit analysts (of which four cover the financial sector). The portfolio managers are responsible for the construction and management of the credit portfolios, whereas the analysts cover the team's fundamental research. Our analysts have long term experience in their respective sectors which they cover globally. Each analyst covers both investment grade and high yield, providing them an information advantage and benefiting from inefficiencies that traditionally exist between the two segmented markets. Furthermore, the credit team is supported by three dedicated quantitative researchers and four fixed income traders. On average, the members of the credit team have an experience in the asset management industry of sixteen years, of which eight years with Robeco.

The fund is established in Luxembourg and is subject to the Luxembourg tax laws and regulations. The fund is not liable to pay any corporation, income, dividend or capital gains tax in Luxembourg. The fund is subject to an annual subscription tax ('tax d'abonnement') in Luxembourg, which amounts to 0.05% of the net asset value of the fund. This tax is included in the net asset value of the fund. The fund can in principle use the Luxembourg treaty network to partially recover any withholding tax on its income.

The fiscal consequences of investing in this fund depend on the investor's personal situation. For private investors in the Netherlands real interest and dividend income or capital gains received on their investments are not relevant for tax purposes. Each year investors pay income tax on the value of their net assets as at 1 January if and inasmuch as such net assets exceed the investor’s tax-free allowance. Any amount invested in the fund forms part of the investor's net assets. Private investors who are resident outside the Netherlands will not be taxed in the Netherlands on their investments in the fund. However, such investors may be taxed in their country of residence on any income from an investment in this fund based on the applicable national fiscal laws. Other fiscal rules apply to legal entities or professional investors. We advise investors to consult their financial or tax adviser about the tax consequences of an investment in this fund in their specific circumstances before deciding to invest in the fund.

Sustainability is incorporated in the investment process by the means of a target universe, exclusions, ESG integration, and a minimum allocation to ESG-labeled bonds. The fund invests in credits issued by companies with a positive, neutral or low negative impact on the SDGs. The exposure to credits issued by companies with a low negative impact is at max 20% and the average SDG score of the fund must be greater than zero. The impact of issuers on the SDGs is determined by applying Robeco's internally developed three-step SDG Framework. The outcome is quantified with a proprietary SDG score methodology, considering both the contribution to the SDGs (positive, neutral or negative) and the extent of this contribution (high, medium or low). In addition, the fund does not invest in credit issuers that are in breach of international norms or where activities have been deemed detrimental to society following Robeco's exclusion policy. Financially material ESG factors are integrated in the bottom-up security analysis to assess the impact on the issuer's fundamental credit quality. Furthermore, the fund invests at least 5% in green, social, sustainable, and/or sustainability-linked bonds. Lastly, where a credit issuer is flagged for breaching international standards in the ongoing monitoring, the issuer will become subject to exclusion.

After the strong total returns in January, credit markets gave up most of these in February. Treasury markets rose 56 bps to 4.18%. In emerging markets, the CEMBI spread was unchanged at 3.29%. The rise in underlying sovereign yields pushed total returns into negative territory. At the beginning of the month, we got a strong US jobs report and unemployment declined to record lows in the US. Although these figures contain good macro news, the data did raise concerns that inflation would prove to be more sticky than previously thought. These concerns were accelerated by an upward revision to the (soft) inflation prints at the end of last year. This led to markets reassessing how fast central banks would react to these inflation figures. Meaning that economic growth would remain strong and the current hiking path would not be sufficient to get inflation figures down. With the economy continuing to do fine, reported corporate earnings were decent over the fourth quarter. The banking sector benefits from higher net interest margins. Only in some sectors like technology hardware, companies are reporting weaker results due to an inventory correction in the market.

Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was -1.89%. Total return of the index was -1.60% for the month. The fund underperformed its index by 3 bps. This month's beta contribution was flat for performance, as spreads moved tighter and we have a beta close to home. Issuer selection had a positive impact on performance. Key contributors were our selection in Brazil (+4 bps), India (+6 bps) and Indonesia (+6 bps). An example on an issuer level is our overweight in Adani Green (+5 bps) that rebounded after a sell-off. Our overweight in Fomento Económico Mexicano also added 3 bps. We lost some performance with our overweights in BBVA, Canpack and Lenovo.

By all standards, we have seen a very significant repricing of assets. Correlations in rates and risk markets have clearly been positive in this regime of financial tightening, taking away the benefits of diversification. If history since 1955 is any guide, we have to conclude as Larry Summers and Alex Domash first pointed out, that from current levels of inflation and labor market overheating, Fed tightening has always resulted in a recession. Within emerging markets we see large divergence already taking place. China is already in a severe slowdown, while Latin American nations continue to do well on the back of commodity markets. As such, China is already moving towards more fiscal support. Commodity tailwinds are likely to turn as the global economy cools off. Spreads on all segments of the credit market are now undoubtedly above median spreads, although divergence is also visible here. Could spreads go wider in a full-blown recession scenario? Yes, they can. However, we do feel comfortable running a beta above 1, as there are clear pockets of value across markets. Active positioning will remain key throughout the volatility.