Robeco QI European Conservative Equities D EUR

Pim van Vliet is Head of Conservative Equities and Chief Quant Strategist. As Head of Conservative Equities, he is responsible for a wide range of global, regional, and sustainable low-volatility strategies. He specializes in low-volatility investing, asset pricing, and quantitative finance. He is the author of numerous academic research papers including publications in the Journal of Banking and Finance, Management Science, and the Journal of Portfolio Management. Pim is a guest lecturer at several universities, author of an investment book and speaker at international seminars. He became Portfolio Manager in 2010. Pim joined Robeco in 2005 as a Researcher with responsibility for asset allocation research. Pim holds a PhD and a Master's cum laude in Financial and Business Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Arlette van Ditshuizen is Portfolio Manager Quantitative Equities and Co-Head Quant Equity Portfolio Management. She has been portfolio manager since 2007. She focuses on managing the wide range of regional and global Conservative Equities strategies, Robeco’s Low-volatility strategy. Arlette’s areas of expertise are portfolio construction and risk management. She chairs Robeco’s Equity Risk Management and Quant Portfolio Management Committees. Previously, she was Risk Manager within Robeco for two years and held a position as Portfolio Manager and Head of Derivatives Structures with Robeco for six years. Arlette started her career as a researcher at Robeco in 1997. She holds a Master's in Econometrics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Maarten Polfliet is Portfolio Manager Quantitative Equities. He focuses on managing the wide range of regional and global Conservative Equities strategies, Robeco’s Low-volatility strategy. Maarten specializes in portfolio construction and investment style analyses. Until 2014, Maarten was a Quant Client Portfolio Manager at Robeco. From 2002, he was Equity Portfolio Manager at Bank Insinger de Beaufort, until he joined Robeco in 2005. He started his career as a Portfolio Manager for private and institutional clients at SNS Bank Nederland in 1999. He has a Master’s in Financial Economics from Tilburg University and a Master’s in Financial Analysis from the University of Amsterdam. Jan Sytze Mosselaar is Portfolio Manager Quantitative Equities. He focuses on managing the wide range of regional and global Conservative Equities strategies, Robeco’s Low-volatility strategy, and the factor investing portfolios, such as Value-, Momentum-, Quality- and Multi-Factor portfolios. Jan Sytze is the author of ‘A Concise Financial History of Europe’, published by Robeco. He started his career in 2004 at Robeco and worked for ten years as a multi-asset portfolio manager, responsible for multi-asset funds, quant allocation funds and fiduciary pension mandates. He holds a Master’s in Business Economics with a specialization in Finance & Investments from the University of Groningen. He is a CFA® charterholder. Arnoud Klep is Portfolio Manager Quantitative Equities. He focuses on managing the wide range of regional and global Conservative Equities strategies, Robeco’s Low-volatility strategy. Arnoud specializes in portfolio construction and sustainability integration within quantitative equities. Previously, Arnoud was Head of Structured Investments with Robeco, managing various quantitative investment strategies. He started his career in the Robeco Quantitative Research department in 2001. Arnoud holds a Master’s in Econometrics from Tilburg University.

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 0.05% 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.

The fiscal consequences of investing in this fund depend on the investor's personal situation. For private investors in the Netherlands real interest and dividend income or capital gains received on their investments are not relevant for tax purposes. Each year investors pay income tax on the value of their net assets as at 1 January if and inasmuch as such net assets exceed the investor’s tax-free allowance. Any amount invested in the fund forms part of the investor's net assets. Private investors who are resident outside the Netherlands will not be taxed in the Netherlands on their investments in the fund. However, such investors may be taxed in their country of residence on any income from an investment in this fund based on the applicable national fiscal laws. Other fiscal rules apply to legal entities or professional investors. We advise 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 systematically incorporates sustainability in the investment process via exclusions, ESG integration, ESG and environmental footprint targets, engagement and voting. The fund does not invest in stocks issued by companies that are in breach of international norms or where its activities have been deemed detrimental to society following Robeco's exclusion policy. Financially material ESG factors are integrated in the portfolio construction to ensure the ESG score of the portfolio is better than that of the index. In addition, the environmental footprints of the fund are made lower than that of the benchmark by restricting the GHG emissions, water use and waste generation. With these portfolio construction rules, stocks issued by companies with better ESG scores or environmental footprints are more likely to be included in the portfolio while stocks issued by companies with worse ESG scores or environmental footprints are more likely to be divested from the portfolio. In addition, where a stock issuer is flagged for breaching international standards in the ongoing monitoring, the issuer will become subject to engagement. Lastly, the fund makes use of shareholder rights and applies proxy voting in accordance with Robeco's proxy voting policy.

Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was 1.63%. The conservative equities that the fund typically selects as part of its investment strategy, performed in line with the market last month.

The European Conservative Equities Fund invests in low volatility stocks with lower expected downside risk and good upside potential. The more stable stocks tend to be overlooked by investors, though they offer relatively high returns given their risk profile. We expect the fund to do particularly well during down markets and volatile market conditions. In a very bullish environment, the fund could lag the overall market, yet still deliver good absolute returns. In the long term, we expect stable equity returns and high income with considerably lower downside risk.