Remmert Koekkoek is Head of the Sustainable Multi Asset Solutions. In this role he focuses on the management of balance sheet solutions and buy and maintain portfolios for pension funds and insurance companies. He has worked at Robeco since 2011. Prior to joining Robeco, he was part of the insurance and pension solutions group of Credit Suisse in the period 2010-2011, where he was responsible for providing hedging and investment solutions to Dutch pension funds and insurance companies. Between 2005 and 2010 Remmert worked at Robeco's as structurer in the Structured Investment team. He started his career in the industry in 2004 at ING Risk Management. Remmert holds a Master's (cum laude) in Econometrics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Yvo Schoemaker is Portfolio Manager Insurance & Pension Solutions in the Sustainable Multi Asset Solutions team. He manages and develops fully customized client driven solutions across asset classes tailored to specific financial and sustainable objectives. Solutions range from LDI/CDI, Fixed Maturity Products, Buy and Maintain to Multi Asset. In 2006 he moved to the Structured Investments department where he was responsible for trading linear and non-linear exposures on the balance sheet of Robeco and subsequently development of structured investments. Yvo started his career in 2005 at Robeco Quantitative Strategies. Yvo holds a Master’s in Computational Finance from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

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 0,00% 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.

Professional investors are divided into pension funds and non-pension funds. Dutch pension funds may re-claim the 25% dividend tax deducted on cash dividends entirely. Dutch non-pension funds may deduct the 25% dividend tax deducted on cash dividends in their corporate income tax assessment. Dividend tax in that case is tax deducted at source. No tax is deducted at source on interest income. Thus, Dutch pension funds do not owe taxes on interest income. Dutch non-pension funds should specify interest income in their corporate income tax assessment.

The fund incorporates sustainability in its investment process by the means of exclusions, ESG integration and targets for the ESG scores and a minimum allocation to ESG-labeled bonds. The fund integrates ESG factors of countries in the investment process based on Robeco's proprietary Country Sustainability Ranking and ensure the fund has at least an average score of 7. The Corporate Sustainability Ranking scores countries on a scale from 1 (worst) to 10 (best) based on 40 environmental, social, and governance indicators. Besides incorporating the Country Sustainability Ranking, the fund adheres to Robeco's exclusion policy and avoids investments in high sustainability risk names. Lastly, the fund invests a minimum of 5% in green, social, sustainable, and/or sustainability-linked bonds.

Government bond market returns were predominantly negative over May. The 10-year US Treasury yields rose by 24 bps to 4.40%, while the 30-year bond yield broke through the 5% level intra-month. Yields on 10-year German government bonds rose a more modest 6 bps to 2.49%. The US House passed a tax-and-spending bill which is projected to add USD 3.8 trillion to the US deficit; the bill now awaits Senate consideration. Moody's downgraded the US government's credit rating from AAA to AA1 as the last of the major three rating agencies to do so. Meanwhile, in the Eurozone, the ReArm Europe plan was approved, making available EUR 150 billion in loans backed by the EU's shared budget. Risk assets performed strongly in May, helping Italian 10-year government bond spreads over German Bunds tighten 14 bps to a new year-to-date low of 98 bps. The Fed left policy rates unchanged at its May FOMC meeting, as widely expected.

Based on closing GAV, the fund's return was -0.70%. The fund posted a small negative return. We do expect the curve to normalize further as the ECB will continue its path of gradual rate cuts for now, while supply due to increased infrastructure and defense spending should lead to higher long-dated bond yields.

It is becoming clear that US trade tariffs are here to stay, as evidenced by the newly announced, US-UK trade deal, which maintains a general 10% tariff rate on most goods. Tariffs are a negative shock to growth and increase US inflation, at least as a one-off rise, putting the Fed in a difficult situation. At the same time, the US fiscal position is unlikely to improve. The federal budget deficit is projected to remain high, in the order of 6-8% of GDP, with limited political appetite for fiscal consolidation. We expect the German yield curve to continue to steepen on higher upcoming issuance in Europe. We remain cautious with regard to France, as political tensions are bound to return. In May, the IMF warned that without further measures the government's deficit could remain near 6% of GDP in the medium term.