Sustainable Pension Return X EUR

Ernesto Sanichar is Portfolio Manager and member of the Sustainable Multi Asset team. He responsible for the Robeco Multi Asset funds, Robeco ONE and Defined contribution funds. His asset specialties are fixed income and FX. He has been part of Robeco's Investment Solutions department since 2005. Previously, he was Treasury Manager for four years. Prior to joining Robeco in 2001, Ernesto worked at ING Barings as a Product controller at the cash equities and derivatives desk for three years. Ernesto started his career in the investment industry in 1998. He holds a Master's in Financial Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

The fund is established in the Netherlands. The fund is closed for corporate-income tax purposes (fiscally transparent). This means that all results are attributed directly to the participants. As a consequence, the fund is not liable to corporate-income tax and withholds no dividend tax.

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 invests a minimum of 80% in other Robeco managed or externally managed funds which are classified under Article 8 or 9 of SFDR and either promote environmental or social characteristics or have sustainable investment as their objective. Sustainability is thus an important considerations in the fund selection.

The global manufacturing cycle picked up steam. For the first time in six months, the JP Morgan Global Manufacturing indicator moved back towards 50, an indication that manufacturing activity is recovering. The Asia-Pacific region is leading the pack, showing the largest positive macro surprises. The combination of stronger macro data and falling inflation was a goldilocks environment for risky assets. There are questions surfacing about how long this will last, given that inflation data has been persistently 'sticky' and has not fallen as quickly as investors had anticipated. US rate cuts for 2023 have been almost fully priced out. It is also becoming clear that the ECB will need to do more. In short, the peak of the rates cycle has been pushed out. Few asset classes delivered a positive return this month. With a loss of -0.1% in EUR, global equities was one of the best-performing asset classes. Both commodities and emerging market equities lost more than 4%. Global investment grade corporates lost 2.7% and lagged behind government bonds and global high yield.

Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was -0.75%. The Sustainable Pension Return portfolio delivered a negative return of -0.71% in February. The negative return was mainly due to the exposure to emerging markets and real estate. Northern Trust - Emerging Markets Custom ESG Fund was the worst-performing fund in the portfolio, with a loss that exceeded 4%.

The funds are managed against fixed strategic weights for global equities (55%), real estate (20%), emerging market equities (15%) and high yield bonds (10%). We do not apply any kind of active management.