Robeco Global Credits IH EUR

Reinout Schapers is Portfolio Manager 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. Matthew Jackson is Portfolio Manager Global Investment Grade in the Credit team. He joined Robeco in 2024 from Western Asset Management in London where he started his career in the industry in 2003 and consequently held roles of Risk Analyst, Portfolio Analyst, Research Analyst and Portfolio Manager of numerous dedicated credit funds and mandates. He holds a Bachelor’s in Economics (Hons) from the University of Sheffield. Evert Giesen is Portfolio Manager Investment Grade in the Credit team. Previously, he was an Analyst, responsible for covering the Automotive sector within the Credit team. Prior to joining Robeco in 2001, Evert worked at AEGON Asset Management for four years as a Fixed Income Portfolio Manager. He has been active in the industry since 1997 and holds a Master's in Econometrics from Tilburg University. The Robeco Global Credits fund is managed within Robeco’s credit team, which consists of nine portfolio managers and twenty-three credit analysts (of which four financials analysts). 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 dedicated quantitative researchers and fixed income traders. On average, the members of the credit team have an experience in the asset management industry of seventeen 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 0.01% 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.

Investors who are not subject to (exempt from) Dutch corporate-income tax (e.g. pension funds) are not taxed on the achieved result. Investors who are subject to Dutch corporate-income tax can be taxed for the result achieved on their investment in the fund. Dutch bodies that are subject to corporate-income tax are obligated to declare interest and dividend income, as well as capital gains in their tax return. Investors residing outside the Netherlands are subject to their respective national tax regime applying to foreign investment funds. We advise individual 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.

The fund incorporates sustainability in the investment process via exclusions, ESG integration, a minimum allocation to ESG-labeled bonds, and engagement. 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. In the credit selection the fund limits exposure to issuers with an elevated sustainability risk profile. Furthermore, the fund invests at least 5% in green, social, sustainable, and/or sustainability-linked bonds. Lastly, where issuers are flagged for breaching international standards in the ongoing monitoring, the issuer will become subject to engagement.The following sections display the ESG-metrics for this fund along with short descriptions. For more information please visit the sustainability-related disclosures.The index used for all sustainability visuals is based on Bloomberg Global Aggregate Corporates Index.

August saw significant volatility in global financial markets, triggered by a weak US jobs report that raised fears of a potential economic downturn. The VIX briefly surged to March 2020 levels, while Japan's TOPIX dropped over 12% in a single day amidst a sharp unwinding of global carry trades. Credit spreads widened by more than 20 basis points in just a few sessions. Despite initial turmoil, investor sentiment improved after positive data and a dovish speech from Fed Chair Powell, driving a recovery in both US equities and government bonds. Most government bond markets had a strong month, with short-term bond yields declining – 2-year US Treasury yields dropped by 34 basis points to 3.92%, and 10-year yields fell by 13 basis points to 3.90%. German government bonds also rallied, with 2 and 10-year yields decreasing by 14 and 1 basis point, respectively. Both USD and EUR primary markets saw record-high issuance volumes during August, driven by strong investor demand for new deals to lock in relatively high yields. This demand has led to deals being priced with minimal or no new issue concessions, underscoring the continued heightened interest in corporate bonds.

Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was 1.04%. This month, the Global Aggregate Corporate Bond Index posted a return of 1.21% (hedged to EUR), with excess returns at 1.92%. Yields on underlying government securities tightened during the period, with German 10-year yields dropping by 1 basis point and US 10-year Treasury yields falling by 13 basis points, reaching 2.29% and 3.90%, respectively. Additionally, the credit spread of the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Corporate Bond Index widened by 1 basis point, ending at 102 basis points. The underlying portfolio outperformed its benchmark Index before fees. Relative performance was driven by beta positioning and issuer selection, consistent with our investment process. The beta contribution was neutral, as our beta remained close to 1 throughout the month. Consequently, all of August's performance came from issuer selection. We saw gains from overweight positions in Carnival, OCI, Bayer, Paramount, and Cellnex, among other individual names, while our underweight position in Intel also added value.

For IG portfolios, we target a close to neutral position in terms of risk relative to the benchmark. We maintain an overweight in the banking sector given strong fundamentals combined with superior relative valuation. Recent developments in Europe may well lead to underperformance in the French banks in the near term, but we see little reason for this to ultimately evolve into something truly systemic. We believe we will derive outperformance from deep research-driven name selection opportunities in the near term, as opposed to beta management. We intend to maintain a conservative stance regarding overall risk in portfolios. Recency bias is a powerful thing and we have seen numerous episodes in the past 20 years where investors become too comfortable with the idea that low volatility and unattractive valuation can persist indefinitely. It rarely does. By employing a patient and disciplined approach, we will be in a strong position to capture more compelling opportunities as they arise.