Robeco QI Global Quality Equities F EUR

Guido is Head of Robeco’s Factor Investing strategies and Co-head of the Quant Fixed Income team. He also holds a position as Professor of Behavioral Finance and Financial Markets at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Guido has published in top-ranked academic journals including the Journal of Financial Economics, the American Economic Review and Management Science. He started his career in the investment industry in 2004. Before joining Robeco in 2017, Guido was Head of Quantitative Research Fixed Income and Multi Asset at NN Investment Partners. He has worked together in research projects with the 2017 Nobel Prize laureate Richard Thaler. Guido holds a PhD and a Master's (cum laude) in Financial and Business Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Daniel Haesen is Portfolio Manager Quantitative Equities and focuses on managing Factor Investing portfolios such as the Value-, Momentum-, Quality- and Multi-Factor portfolios. He specializes in factor research and portfolio management. Daniel joined Robeco in 2003 as a quantitative researcher, with a specific focus on quant selection research, working on both equity and corporate bond multi-factor selection models. He was also responsible for quantitative sustainability and quantitative allocation research. He has published in several academic journals, including the Journal of Banking and Finance. He holds a Master's degree in Econometrics and Quantitative Finance from Tilburg University in the Netherlands and is a CFA® charterholder. Wouter Tilgenkamp is Portfolio Manager Quantitative Equities and focuses on managing Factor Investing portfolios, such as the Value-, Momentum-, Quality- and Multi-Factor portfolios. Wouter joined Robeco in 2016 as a Data Scientist, with a specific focus on Equity Trading Research, automatization of portfolio processes, portfolio construction, and optimal execution of strategies. He started his financial career in 2014 as Derivative Trader at Optiver. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from Technical University of Delft and a master’s degree in Quantitative Finance. 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. 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.

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, and engagement. 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.

Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was -0.33%. The fund aims to achieve higher risk-adjusted returns than both the broad market and generic quality indices over a full business cycle by taking an efficient, well-diversified exposure to the enhanced quality factor, present in stocks that exhibit above-average profitability, have high earnings quality and are conservatively managed.

The fund follows a bottom-up driven investment strategy to gain exposure to the proven quality factor. Rather than using generic factor definitions, it uses Robeco's enhanced factor definition to avoid unrewarded risk and maximize return potential. The Robeco quality factor has a multi-dimensional view of quality that incorporates profitability, earnings quality and management policy. Each of these three themes has deeply rooted academic underpinnings, and has shown to have strong stand-alone performance potential. Furthermore, the strategy aims to prevent that exposure to the quality factor results in negative exposure to other factors, like value, momentum and low-volatility. By doing so, the strategy avoids unwanted and unintended factor tilts. It is a rules-based process that tries to avoid unnecessary transaction costs by buying stocks only if the expected gains outweigh the costs of the trade.