Robeco Global Credits - Short Maturity FH EUR

The Global Aggregate Corporate 1-5 Year Index' excess return was 0.27% (EUR hedged) last month. Credit spreads tightened, while interest rates were mixed. The 5-year US Treasury yield was unchanged at 0.36%. The German 5-year yield tightened 1 bp to -0.74%. The credit spread on the Global Corporate Bond 1-5 year Index tightened 5 bps to 0.68%.The final month of a very interesting year. Fiscal and monetary actions removed most if not all systematic risk in the market. A Brexit deal was signed at the last possible moment. And new lockdowns materialized in Europe during Christmas. In the US, transfer payments and additional unemployment benefits have been increased until mid-March. The ECB has announced more of the same: a rolling over of the PEPP program and TLTROs. Sectors that have been hit hardest by the virus, such as leisure, are still slow to recover, while we have seen increased occupancy levels at hotels. The positive sentiment changed again in December, as fund flows slowed down, valuations tightened, macro rhetoric increased and most important of all, Covid-19 cases increased in developed markets. And yet, simply the best set of possible outcomes is priced in by the markets.

All currency risks are hedged.

The fund make use of derivatives for hedging purposes as well as for investment purposes.

The fund does not distribute a dividend. The income earned by the fund is reflected in its share price. This means that the fund's total performance is reflected in its share price performance.

Our analysis of issuers goes beyond the traditional financial factors and includes the issuers’ performance on ESG factors. We deem it essential for a well-informed investment decision to take into account those ESG factors that have the potential to materially impact the financial performance of the issuer. This perfectly matches the basic need to avoid the losers in credit management, as many credit events in the past can be attributed to issues such as poorly designed governance frameworks, environmental issues, or weak health & safety standards. The aim of ESG integration is to improve the risk/return profile of the investments and does not have an impact goal. ESG analysis is fully integrated in the bottom-up security analysis. We have defined key ESG factors per industry, and for every company we analyze how the firm is positioned versus these key ESG factors, and how this impacts the fundamental credit quality.

Robeco Global Credits - Short Maturity is aimed at investors seeking higher yields than those offered by government bonds, but without the higher risk of a pure high-yield corporate bond fund. The fund invests in the global credits markets with investment grade credit acting as the core of the global strategy. It invests mainly in investment grade credits with a short maturity. It does have the freedom to invest into other asset classes within the fixed income credit universe. The fund is managed by an experienced team with a proven track record capable of generating good performance in both rising and falling bond markets. Robeco Global Credits - Short Maturity offers the flexibility of an integrated strategy. The fund invests in the best-of-class credits with a short maturity across all asset classes regardless of type or location, and does not adhere to a benchmark (though it has a reference index). The flexibility of an integrated credit strategy is increasingly required as central bank policies continue to desynchronize and as different credit markets reprice securities as their economies and companies improve at different rates. Robeco uses investment strategies that can provide solid returns in both rising and falling bond markets as proven by its strong track record. The fund benefits from the ample resources at its disposal to cover the credit markets .The investment team is highly experienced and stable with clear split in responsibilities between the portfolio managers and the credit analysts. The investment process is well structured and has a disciplined approach and is based both on a top down macro outlook of the credit markets and an in depth and comprehensive bottom up fundamental credit analysis. The fund applies a total return approach with the flexibility to invest in asset classes such as securitized, high yield and emerging markets. This allocation is based on attaining the best risk reward profile for the fund.

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