RobecoSAM Net Zero 2050 Climate Equities I EUR

Chris Berkouwer is Co-Lead Portfolio Manager and member of the Global Equity team. He is responsible for fundamental global equities with a focus on companies in the energy, materials and industrials sectors, climate and portfolio construction. He joined Robeco in 2010. Prior to that, he worked as an analyst for the The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. He conducted country, industry and company research for various equity teams prior to joining the Global Equity team. He a holds Master's in Business Administration and International Public Management from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Yanxin Liu is Portfolio Manager and member of the Global Equity team. She is responsible for fundamental global equities with a focus on all sectors and on portfolio construction. Yanxin spent 11 years with our Emerging Markets Equity team, prior to joining the Global Equity team in 2022. Within the Emerging Markets team her focus was on all sectors in Greater China. Prior to that, Yanxin worked for DSM Pension Services in the Netherlands as an analyst focusing on US large-cap equities. Yanxin has a Master’s in Finance from the Erasmus University Rotterdam and a Bachelor’s in Financial Accounting from Nankai University in Tianjin, China. She became a CFA® charterholder in 2015 and is a native Mandarin speaker.

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 contribute to keeping global temperature rise well-below 2°C by reducing the carbon footprint of the fund. Climate change and sustainability considerations are incorporated in the investment process via exclusions, ESG integration, as well as voting. Firstly, 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. This includes activity-based exclusions of Article 12 of the EU regulation on Climate Transition Benchmarks, EU Paris-aligned Benchmarks and sustainability-related disclosures for benchmarks as applicable. Secondly, the fund focuses on investing in companies that have set Net Zero goals by 2050 and examines other financially material ESG factors in the portfolio construction. Thirdly, by restricting the GHG emissions, the carbon footprint of the fund is made lower than that of the Climate transition benchmark to ensure alignment with the desired decarbonization trajectory of 7% year on year. Further, 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 that are relevant 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 [Index name].

Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was -1.81%. During the month of August, our strategy lagged the climate transition index' return. On the sector level, our positioning in technology and industrials detracted the most from performance. On a stock level, TopBuild continued to ride the wave of positive sentiment in building products and home builders that seem to defy any worries on high mortgage rates given the structural undersupply situation of the housing market in the US. We also saw Aspen Tech making a nice comeback, after good earnings results that took out concerns hurting the stock earlier in the year. However, the main performance detraction came from our positioning within technology. SolarEdge crated, unfortunately, on weak numbers due to worries of too high inventory levels against a weakening demand backdrop. Unfavorable US residential fundamentals and a seasonally weaker Europe caused headaches with most solar names, reflected in weak quarterly numbers, creating a domino effect across the solar space. Semi device maker Infineon also struggled as concerns around the sustainability of peak margins resurfaced again.

The search for new narratives continues now the AI frenzy seems to be slowly fizzling out. Also, the earlier belief that a recession would not arrive, helping market breadth beyond the power of the ‘Magnificent Seven’, is increasingly being challenged. If anything, there seems to be downside risk to the consensus view of reaccelerating growth, instead gravitating to pulling back towards more of a late-cycle mindset. Ironically, this usually means a preference for a barbell positioning of the usual suspect type of growth stocks with quality defensives, much less so heavy cyclicals and small/mid-caps exposure. And although our strategy is pretty diversified across the board, we do remain vulnerable in case such barbell trades continue. We are indeed skeptical about a quick turnaround occurring at this stage, and we think that macro-related data signals are not supportive enough to stage a genuine broadening out of the market.