RobecoSAM Global Gender Equality Equities IE EUR

Audrey Kaplan is Portfolio Manager and member of the Global Equity team. She is responsible for fundamental global equities with a focus on gender-based investing and on consumer goods, and portfolio construction. She joined Robeco in 2021. Previously, she was Head of Global Equity Strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute (NY). Prior to joining Wells Fargo, she worked as Head of International Equity Team and Senior Portfolio Manager at Federated Investors, Inc. (NY, now known as Federated Hermes). She also held roles in European research at Merrill Lynch International (London) and in Asian research at Salomon Brothers, Inc. (Tokyo) earlier in her career. She holds a Master's in Finance from London Business School and a Bachelor’s in Computer & Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Michiel Plakman is Lead Portfolio Manager and member of the Global Equity team. He is also Co-Head of Robeco’s Global Equity team. He is responsible for fundamental global equities with a focus on SDG investing and on companies in the information technology, real estate & communication services sectors, as well as portfolio construction. He has been in this role since 2009. Previously, he was responsible for managing the Robeco IT Equities fund within the TMT team. Prior to joining Robeco in 1999, he worked as a Portfolio Manager Japanese Equities at Achmea Global Investors (PVF Pensioenen). From 1995 to 1996 he was Portfolio Manager European Equities at KPN Pension Fund. He holds a Master's in Econometrics from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and he is a CFA® Charterholder.

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 incorporates sustainability in the investment process by the means of a target universe definition, exclusions, negative screening, ESG integration, and voting. The fund invests at least two-thirds in companies that have a Gender Equality score of 50 or higher and only invests in companies with positive or neutral SDG scores based on the internally developed SDG Framework. The fund also applies a negative screening to exclude the 20% worst ESG scoring stock issuers from the investable universe and does not invest in stock issuers that are in breach of international norms or where products have been deemed controversial as per 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 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].

Global equity markets took a breather in August (-1% in EUR, -2% in USD) following the S&P 500 and NASDAQ recording the strongest first seven months of the year since 1997 and 1975, respectively. While oil had a double-digit decline earlier in the year, August saw a continued oil price rebound, which helped the energy sector (+3.5%) take the lead, followed by healthcare (+0.8%) – the only sectors in positive territory. Most sectors trailed the MSCI World benchmark and global utilities and materials companies were laggards. The MSCI China made new year-to-date lows last week, down 20%+ from the January high.

Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was -0.86%. The portfolio modestly outperformed the MSCI World Index in August, driven mainly by stock selection in both financials and communication services. Financial service companies Mastercard and Visa – both highly rated on workforce gender breakdown – demonstrated another strong quarter. Within communication services, Alphabet continued its positive momentum, while Meta had a weak month – both positions contributed positively to the portfolio. Meta is unowned in part because the company has a below-neutral gender score. The energy sector underweight was a detractor, while the materials sector underweight benefited the relative performance.

Although some big tech companies seem to have quintessential business models, we continue to be alert due to the parabolic appreciations that we have seen in the valuation levels of some of them. With our investment strategy we will therefore continue to focus on a diverse mix of high-quality companies with strong operational track records and resilient business models. Under our strategy, the portfolio continues to select leading gender equality companies which are working to diversify not only their boards and C-suites but also their senior and junior management and overall workforce. Key performance actions and indicators include equal opportunity, talent retention and gender pay equality.