Robeco Digital Innovations F EUR

The ongoing tug of war between value and growth stocks ended up in a decisive victory for value stocks in March. The combination of unprecedented peace-time fiscal stimulus, ultra-accommodative monetary policy and rebounding economic growth continued to drive inflation expectations and interest rates higher. This led to a massive rotation out of growth into value stocks. While the MSCI AC World Growth Index sur-placed, its value-oriented counterpart leaped forward by 5%. Higher interest rates are anathema to the value of future growth opportunities and, therefore, deflationary for the multiples that investors are prepared to pay for growth stocks. Most of our portfolio holdings qualify as growth stocks and, consequently, saw their strong results being overwhelmed by a downward adjustment of valuation multiples, resulting in sub-par or even outright negative returns. From a long-term perspective, however, we regard this valuation reset as healthy. Unsustainably low interest rates and, as a result, excessively high valuation multiples only produce undesirable short-term volatility, which diverts attention away from the real long-term value driver: compounding economic profits.

The fund can engage in currency hedging transactions. Typically currency hedging is not applied.

The fund does not distribute dividend. The fund retains any income that is earned, and so its entire performance is reflected in the price.

Robeco Digital Innovations integrates ESG factors into its investment process by analyzing the impact of financially material ESG factors to a company’s competitive position and value drivers. We believe that this enhances our ability to understand existing and potential (long-term) risks and opportunities of a company. The impact of material ESG factors can be positive or negative, reflecting risks or opportunities, that ensue from a company’s ESG analysis. If ESG risks and opportunities are significant, the ESG analysis could impact a stock’s fair value and the portfolio allocation decision. In addition to ESG integration, Robeco also has an exclusion policy and conducts proxy voting and engagement activities focused on specific themes, such as climate change, aiming to improve a company’s sustainability profile.

Robeco Digital Innovations is an actively managed fund that invests worldwide in equities from developed and emerging countries. The selection of these stocks is based on a fundamental analysis. The fund's objective is to achieve a better return than the index. The fund promotes ESG (i.e. Environmental, Social and corporate Governance) characteristics within the meaning of Article 8 of the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and integrates ESG and sustainability risks in the investment process. In addition, the fund applies an exclusion list on the basis of controversial behavior, products (including controversial weapons, tobacco, palm oil and fossil fuel) and countries, next to proxy voting and engagement. The fund invests in a number of structural growth trends on the production side of the economy, such as robots and automation, digital enablers and secure digital infrastructure. The fund managers try to select stocks of the structural winners within these trends.The majority of stocks selected will be components of the Benchmark, but stocks outside the Benchmark may be selected too. The investment policy is not constrained by a benchmark but the fund may use a benchmark for comparison purposes. The fund can deviate substantially from the issuer, country and sector weightings of the Benchmark. There are no restrictions on the deviation from the Benchmark. The Benchmark is a broad market weighted index that is not consistent with the ESG characteristics promoted by the fund.

Risk management is fully integrated into the investment process to ensure that positions always meet predefined guidelines.