Robeco FinTech X EUR

Patrick Lemmens is Lead Portfolio Manager within the Trends Equities team. He has a focus on financials/fintech. Prior to joining Robeco in 2008, he managed the ABN AMRO Financials fund from October 2003 to December 2007. Previously, he held the position of Analyst of Global Financials at ABN AMRO and was Global Sector Coordinator of the Financial Institutions Equities Group at ABN AMRO. Patrick Lemmens started his career in the investment industry in 1993. He holds a Master's in Business Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam and is a Certified European Financial Analyst. Michiel van Voorst is Co-Portfolio Manager within the Trends Equities team. He has a focus on financials/fintech/next digital billion. In 2019, Michiel rejoined Robeco from Union Bancaire Privée in Hong Kong where he was CIO Asian Equities. Besides this role, Michiel is a Board member of a Hong Kong based Fintech startup offering regulated software services (SaaS) for Independent ?nancial advisors globally. Prior to that, Michiel spent 12 years at Robeco in several senior positions including senior portfolio manager Rolinco Global Growth fund and Robeco Asian Stars. Prior to joining Robeco in 2005, Michiel was Portfolio Manager US Equity at PGGM and Economist with Rabobank Netherlands. Michiel started his career in the investment industry in 1996. Michiel van Voorst holds a Master’s in Economics from University of Utrecht and is a CFA® charterholder. Koos Burema is Co-Portfolio Manager within the Trends Equities team. He has a focus on financials/fintech. Koos was an Analyst with the Emerging Markets team covering Korea and technology in Taiwan and Mainland China. Besides this, he was responsible for the integration of ESG in the investment process. Before joining the team in January 2010, he worked as a Portfolio Manager for different sector teams within Robeco. He started his career in the industry in 2007. Koos holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Groningen and 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 0.05% 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 incorporates sustainability in the investment process through exclusions, ESG integration, engagement and voting. The fund does not invest in issuers that are in breach of international norms or where activities have been deemed detrimental to society following Robeco's exclusion policy. Financially material ESG factors are integrated in the bottom-up investment analysis to assess existing and potential ESG risks and opportunities. In the stock selection the fund limits exposure to elevated sustainability risks. 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.

What a difference a month makes. Certainly, China has shown a tremendous rebound since it, very unexpectedly, reopened from a nationwide 2-3-year Covid lockdown. Travel is restarting, theaters are full and shopping has returned to pre-Covid levels. We were positioned for this rebound as we had increased our exposures to Asia and LatAm during 2022. If you look at price charts over the past couple of months, you could argue that the market has already rebounded significantly and it is time to take some profit. Although that may be tempting, we also believe fundamentals are still not discounted in today's valuations. While we do still see a potential (mild) recession in the US and Europe, we have also seen that Q4 earnings reports for our investments so far have shown decent results and reasonable 2023 outlooks, which supports our positioning.

Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was 10.42%. During January, the fund had a clearly higher return versus the reference index, mainly due to our investments in payments, financial management and digital assets. Financial infrastructure and data analytics generated a positive performance as well, but were the less exciting parts of our fintech investment universe. On a regional level, Asia was a relatively strong performance contributor next to North America, which has a 61% portfolio weight. On a total portfolio level, the best relative performance originated from MercadoLibre, Coinbase and Block. The largest detractors from performance were Charles Schwab, Network International and VEF.

After a tough 2022, there has been a significant valuation reset. We still see solid growth potential across the fintech investment universe. Though, not surprisingly, there is a significantly larger focus on the ability to generate cash, to be profitable. While it will take a while to see higher multiples, we do believe that fintech companies that can grow faster will be rewarded with higher valuations. Enhancing financial inclusion remains a very important raison d'être for fintech, while we also see increasing importance of B2B business models in especially international/cross-border payments as well as in digital assets applications focused on wholesale business models. After a tough 2022, which followed a too good to be true 2020/2021, the year 2023 and beyond will hopefully show that fintech offers great long-term growth opportunities at much lower valuation multiples.