Robeco Global SDG Equities Z EUR

Christoph Wolfensberger is a portfolio manager at Robeco within the Global Equity team with over 10 years of experience in Sustainability Investing. He is also the lead portfolio manager for the Global SDG Equities strategy. Prior, Christoph was also a Quantitative Analyst covering Sustainability/Impact Investing within Robeco's Products & Engineering Team with a strong focus on customized solutions as well as portfolio optimizations. Prior to joining in 2011, he served as an Intern on the ESG Research team for six months. He holds a Master's of Science Degree in Chemistry and Business Studies from the University of Zurich.

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’s sustainable investment objective is to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG and sustainability considerations are incorporated in the investment process by the means of a target universe, exclusions and ESG integration. The fund solely invests in stocks issued by companies with a medium or high positive impact on the SDGs. The impact of issuers on the SDGs is determined by applying Robeco's internally developed three-step SDG Framework. The outcome is a quantified contribution expressed as an SDG score, considering both the contribution to the SDGs (positive, neutral or negative) and the extent of this contribution (high, medium or low). Furthermore, the fund does not invest in stock 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 fundamental investment analysis to assess existing and potential ESG risks and opportunities. In addition, where a stock issuer is flagged for breaching international standards in the ongoing monitoring, the issuer will become subject to exclusion. Lastly, the fund makes use of shareholder rights and applies proxy voting in accordance with Robeco's proxy voting policy.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 MSCI World Index TRN.

During August, the MSCI World was slightly up with real estate, healthcare and consumer staples being the top-performing sectors while energy lagged most. Following a weak July jobs report in the US that reinforced recession fears, the market started August quite negatively. However, data points disclosed later during the month soothed the market's fears, leading to an extremely strong rebound that brought most indices close to or at their all-time highs. On the monetary front, Fed Chairman Powell mentioned that the time has come for monetary policy to adjust, making the Fed's intention to cut in September crystal clear. On the macrofront, US Q2 GDP was revised upward to 3% (from 2.8%), driven by strength in personal consumption. On the corporate front, NVIDIA published its quarterly results, which albeit quite strong, failed to impress market participants, showcasing the arguably exuberant level of expectations that has been built around this and other AI hardware names.

Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was 1.63%. In August, the fund outperformed its benchmark, MSCI World, supported by positive stock selection, especially within information technology. One of our largest contributors during the month was Fortinet which posted better-than-anticipated results, rallying strongly on the day of the results (+24.3%). Another large contributor was AstraZeneca, which continues to be supported by positive pipeline developments. The company posted solid Q2 results and raised its 2024 revenue and EPS guidance. Among the largest detractors was TopBuild. After being among the largest contributors last month, the environment for the US housing-exposed basket remains difficult. During the month, the company reported solid Q2 results but disappointed by slightly adjusting down its full-year EBITDA guidance.

Overall, economic conditions remain challenging. Interest rates remain quite elevated, major economies are faced with substantially tighter lending conditions while geopolitical risk remains high. On the inflation front, strong improvements have undoubtedly been made, but inflation figures are still well above the central banks' targets. With market valuations being well above depressed levels and the balance of risks for global equity markets overall still looking skewed to the downside, it is hard to get overly excited and hence we maintain our defensive positioning. In the meantime, we continue to look out for companies whose risk return profile turned attractive due to market overreactions. We remain confident in our bottom-up approach that focuses on picking companies with strong over-the-cycle fundamentals and resilient business models to identify high-quality stocks at attractive valuations.