Robeco Smart Materials I GBP

Scarce resources, abundant investment opportunities

Share classes Share classes Every share class of a product invests in the same portfolio of securities and has the same investment objectives and policies. However, their parameters might deviate. For instance and amongst others, their distribution type, currency exposure or fees and expenses might differ. The most common share classes at Robeco are: a) D/DH shares, which are regular shares and available for all Investors; b) I/IH shares, for institutional investors as defined from time to time by the Luxembourg supervisory authority. For more information on share classes please go to the prospectus.

Class and codes

Asset class
Equities
ISIN
LU2145464850
Bloomberg
RSSMIGA LX

Asset class

Equities

ISIN

LU2145464850

Bloomberg

RSSMIGA LX

Index

MSCI World Index TRN

Sustainability-related information
Sustainability-related information
Under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, products can be labelled as either Article 6, 8 or 9 fund.
Article 6 - The fund is not in scope of enhanced sustainability disclosures compared to Article 8 and 9.
Article 8 - The fund does not have a sustainable investment objective but promotes environmental or social characteristics and is subject to enhanced sustainability disclosures.
Article 9 - The fund has a sustainable investment objective and is subject to enhanced sustainability disclosures.
Regardless of Article 8 or 9, the companies in which investments are made must follow good governance practices, and sustainable investments must not do any significant harm.

Article 9

Morningstar Morningstar Copyright © Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Download The Morningstar Rating for Funds (chapter: The Morningstar Rating: Three-, Five-, and 10-Year) on the Morningstar website.

Rating

( 31-12 )

Overview Performance & costs Portfolio Sustainability Commentary Documents

Key points

Forward-looking concept — Focus on companies that benefit from structural changes resulting from resource scarcity. The fund invests in companies offering products and services that substitute existing materials and processes
Focus areas — Invests in structural winners along the materials value chain. The most interesting and fastest-growing focus areas are electric mobility, robotics and lightweight materials.

About this fund

Key facts

Per 31-12-2025

Total size of fund	GBP 308,247,649
Size of share class	GBP 35,170,586
Inception date share class	29-10-2020
1-year performance	20.91%
Dividend paying	No

Fund manager

Pieter Busscher CFA
Mutlu Gundogan CFA

Pieter Busscher is Portfolio Manager of the Robeco Smart Materials and Robeco Smart Mobility strategies and member of the Thematic Investing team. He started at Robeco in 2007 as a Deputy Portfolio Manager for the Sustainable Water strategy. Pieter became the Portfolio Manager for Smart Materials in 2009; for Smart Mobility he had been Deputy Portfolio for since strategy launch in 2018 and took over the portfolio management responsibilities in 2021. He began his career at Credit Suisse Asset Management in Zurich in 2006. He graduated from the International Business at RSM Erasmus University (Bachelor), the Banking and Finance at the University of St. Gallen (Master) and is a CFA® Charterholder. Mutlu Gundogan is Co-Portfolio manager of the Robeco Smart Materials strategy and member of the Thematic Investing team. Prior to joining in 2021, he worked at ABN AMRO – ODDO BHF as a sell-side equity analyst, covering the European Chemicals sector. Before that, he worked as a sell-side analyst at ABN AMRO and Royal Bank of Scotland covering the Materials, Industrials, and Health Care sectors. He started his career in 2003 at Kempen & Co., where he covered the Industrials, Consumer Staples, and Health Care sectors. Mutlu holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is a CFA® Charterholder.

Per period	Fund	Index
1 month	2.23%	-0.69%
3 months	10.60%	3.21%
YTD	20.91%	12.75%
1 year	20.91%	12.75%
2 years	6.64%	16.70%
3 years	7.55%	16.74%
5 years	4.19%	12.51%
10 years	10.08%	13.20%
Since inception 03-07-2015	9.55%	12.72%

Statistics	3 years	5 Years
Tracking error ex-post (%) The ex-post tracking error is defined as the volatility of the fund's achieved excess return over the index return. In fund management, most managers are subject to an ex-ante (pre-determined) tracking error, which defines the extent of the additional risk they may take when aspiring to outperform the fund's benchmark. The ex-post tracking error explains the distribution of past fund performances compared to those of its underlying benchmark. With a higher tracking error, the fund's returns deviate more from its index's returns, hence there is a greater chance that the fund may outperform. The wider the spread of returns relative to the benchmark, the more "actively" a fund has been managed. In contrast, a low tracking error indicates more "passive" management.	12.64	11.01
Information ratio This ratio serves to evaluate the quality of the excess return a fund manager has achieved because it takes the active risk involved into account. The information ratio is defined as the excess return over the benchmark return divided by the fund's tracking error. The higher the information ratio, the better. For example, a fund with a tracking error of 4% and an excess return of 2% over benchmark has an information ratio of 0.5, which is quite good.	-0.65	-0.67
Sharpe ratio This ratio measures the risk-adjusted performance and allows the performance quality of different investments to be compared. It is calculated by subtracting the risk-free rate from the fund's returns and dividing the result by the fund's standard deviation (risk). So the Sharpe ratio tells us whether a fund's returns are the result of smart investment decisions or stem from taking extra risk. The higher the ratio, the better, meaning that a greater return is achieved per unit of risk. This ratio is named after its inventor, Nobel Laureate, William Sharpe.	0.20	0.11
Alpha (%) Alpha measures the difference between a portfolio's actual return and its expected performance, given the level of risk, compared to the benchmark. A positive alpha figure indicates that the fund has performed better than expected, given the level of risk. Beta is used to calculate the level of risk compared to the benchmark..	-11.01	-8.59
Beta Beta is a measure of a portfolio's volatility, or systematic risk, in comparison to the benchmark. A beta of 1 indicates that the portfolio will move with the benchmark. A beta of less than 1 means that the portfolio will be less volatile than the benchmark. A beta of more than 1 indicates that the portfolio will be more volatile than the benchmark. For example, if a portfolio's beta is 1.2 it is theoretically 20% more volatile than the benchmark.	1.48	1.34
Standard deviation Standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion of a set of data from its mean. The more spread out the data is, the higher the deviation. In finance, standard deviation is applied to the annual rate of return of an investment to measure the investment's volatility (risk).	18.76	18.27
Max. monthly gain (%) The maximum (i.e. highest) absolute positive monthly performance in the underlying period.	13.18	13.18
Max. monthly loss (%) The maximum (i.e. highest) absolute negative monthly performance in the underlying period.	-10.29	-11.17

Cost of this fund	Percentage
Ongoing charges Indication of annual charges that are deducted for this fund. This indication is based on the costs over the last calendar year and may vary from year to year. Transaction costs incurred by the fund, any performance fees and other one-off costs are not included in the ongoing charges.	0.94%
Included management fee A fee paid by the fund to the asset management company for the professional management of the fund.	0.80%
Included service fee This fee is intended to cover official fees, such as the cost of annual reports, annual shareholders' meetings and price publications.	0.12%
Transaction costs The transaction costs shown are the average annual transaction costs over the last three years calculated in accordance with European regulations.	0.03%

Fiscal product treatment

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.

Fiscal treatment of investor

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.

Policies

Per 31-12-2025

Robeco Smart Materials is an actively managed fund that invests into solutions to the resource scarcity challenge such as innovative materials and process technologies that use less or substitute resources, are more scalable, deliver efficiency gains and enable more circular systems. This includes companies that provide technologies, products or services relating to the extraction, transformation or efficient processing of innovative materials, technologies enabling more automation and efficiency in industrial manufacturing as well as the recycling and reuse of materials. The selection of these stocks is based on fundamental analysis. The fund has sustainable investment as its objective, within the meaning of Article 9 of the Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 of 27 November 2019 on Sustainability-related disclosures in the financial sector. The fund's objective is also to achieve a better return than the Benchmark. The strategy integrates sustainability criteria as part of the stock selection process and through a theme-specific sustainability assessment. The portfolio is built on the basis of an eligible investment universe that includes companies whose business models contribute to the thematic investment objectives. The assessment regarding relevant SDGs uses an internally developed framework, more information on which can be obtained at www.robeco.com/si.
The fund has sustainable investment as its objective within the meaning of Article 9 of the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation. The fund fosters solutions to reduce resource intensity in the economy by investing in more efficient, scalable materials that have lower emissions over the lifetime, mainly investing in companies that advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Sustainable Cities and Communities, and Responsible Consumption and Production and Climate Action. The fund integrates ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) factors in the investment process and applies Robeco’s Good Governance policy. The fund applies sustainability indicators, including but not limited to, normative, activity-based and region-based exclusions, carbon reduction target and proxy voting.

Market development

Per 31-12-2025

Global equities advanced in December 2025, the MSCI All Country World Index gaining a little more than one percent in USD terms after the Federal Reserve delivered a third consecutive 25-basis-point rate cut, lowering the funds-rate range to 3.50–3.75 percent. The ECB stayed on hold but reiterated a data-dependent stance, and a mildly softer dollar plus a further bounce in lithium prices lent support to materials shares, even as copper and oil drifted. Market leadership stayed narrow – US mega-cap technology edged higher while defensives lagged – yet credit spreads remained tight and full-year global equity returns closed in the low double digits.

Performance explanation

Per 31-12-2025

Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was 2.23%. Metal-supply names led December. Hudbay and Aura advanced on stronger copper-gold prices vital for EV wiring, while Albemarle and Umicore climbed on firmer lithium and rising closed-loop cathode demand. Onto Innovation, Innoscience and Teradyne outperformed, as AI-driven packaging metrology, GaN EV-power wins and tester orders for auto SoCs accelerated. Lumentum and Coherent gained on hyperscale laser demand that underpins mobility's compute backbone. Weakness centered on software, robotics and magnet metals. ARM fell on valuation pressure despite auto design wins; Geekplus slipped on cautious warehouse-automation capex; Neo Performance declined with softer rare-earth prices and a delayed EU magnet project; LG Chem lagged on slower ESS qualifications and a cautious 2026 cathode ramp.

Expectation of fund manager

Pieter Busscher CFA
Mutlu Gundogan CFA

2026 offers a supportive environment for smart materials, defined by the combination of a gradually improving industrial cycle and powerful, persistent structural investment trends. Companies positioned at the intersection of electrification, automation, resource efficiency, and circularity are likely to see durable demand, while valuation dispersion and macro uncertainty will require disciplined, bottom-up portfolio construction. Momentum for critical minerals has been strong and continues to look very attractive.

Robeco Smart Materials I GBP

Scarce resources, abundant investment opportunities

Key points

About this fund

Key facts

Fund manager

Performance

Statistics

Costs

Fiscal product treatment

Fiscal treatment of investor

Fund allocation

Policies

Market development

Performance explanation

Expectation of fund manager

Fund documents

Annual and Semi-Annual Reports

Announcements

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