Robeco Emerging Stars Equities D USD

In April, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index was flat in euro terms, lagging developed markets, which were up 2.2%. Best emerging countries were Poland, Taiwan, Argentina and Greece, while Chile, Colombia and Peru were the worst performers. Vaccinations are helping the US and Europe to gradually open up, yet the coronavirus still remains an issue for several emerging countries, with rising infections in India and ongoing high infection rates in most South American countries. At the same time, the earnings outlook is actually improving across the board, with analysts estimating upgrades and many companies reporting better-than-expected Q1 numbers. Commodity prices were rising in April, with the iron ore price up 14% and the oil price up 7%. In Peru, presidential elections were held, but did not lead to a clear winner. The final outcome will be determined in June in a run-off between the left-wing candidate Castillo and the more market-friendly candidate Keiko Fujimori.

The fund is allowed to pursue an active currency policy to generate extra returns and can engage in currency hedging transactions.

In principle, the fund does not intend to distribute dividend and so both the income earned by the fund and its overall performance are reflected in its share price.

Robeco Emerging Stars Equities 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 Emerging Stars Equities is an actively managed fund that invests in emerging countries equities all over world. The selection of these shares 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 selects investments based on a combination of top-down country analysis and bottom-up stock selection. We focus on companies that have both a healthy and solid business model growth prospects as a reasonable valuation. The fund has a focused, concentrated portfolio with a small number of larger bets. The majority of stocks selected will be components of the Benchmark, but stocks outside the Benchmark may be selected too. The fund can deviate substantially from the weightings of the Benchmark. The fund aims to outperform the Benchmark over the long run, whilst still controlling relative risk through the applications of limits (on VaR Ratio) to the extent of deviation from the Benchmark. This will consequently limit the deviation of the performance relative to 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.