RobecoSAM Sustainable Healthy Living Equities I USD

Challenging market conditions continued in April. Markets have recovered from the lows at the beginning of March, but April saw some declines in the broad global markets again. The zero infection policy and lockdowns in China have delayed the normalization of global supply chains in the global economy. Currently, increased costs for supply, energy and logistics are creating challenging operating conditions for companies across many sectors and are making them struggle to protect their margins. This mostly requires companies to pass on increased costs through price increases, which in turn raises concerns that higher prices may negatively impact consumer demand. So far, however, the recent company reporting has shown little evidence that this is already the case. Companies have mostly been reporting robust consumer demand, despite price increases. Therefore, it is not surprising that consumer staples was the best-performing sector in April and also benefited from its defensive qualities, followed by energy. Healthcare also played out its safe haven status and moderately outperformed the broad markets, whereas consumer discretionary continued to underperform.

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.

The fund’s sustainable investment objective is to promote good health and well-being and contributing to an efficient healthcare system. Healthy living and sustainability considerations are incorporated in the investment process by the means of a target universe definition, exclusions, ESG integration, and voting. The fund only invests in companies that have a significant thematic fit as per Robeco's thematic universe methodology. Through screening on both Robeco's internally developed SDG Framework and Robeco’s exclusion policy, the fund does not invest in issuers that have a negative impact on the SDGs, are in breach of international norms or where products have been deemed controversial. Financially material ESG factors are integrated in the bottom-up fundamental investment analysis to assess existing and potential ESG risks and opportunities. In addition, where a stock issuer is flagged for breaching international standards in the ongoing monitoring, the issuer will become subject to exclusion. Lastly, the fund makes use of shareholder rights and applies proxy voting in accordance with Robeco's proxy voting policy.

RobecoSAM Sustainable Healthy Living Equities is an actively managed fund that invests globally in companies that promote good health and well-being and contribute to an efficient healthcare system. 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 European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation. The fund aims to mitigate the rising incidence of lifestyle diseases and increasing healthcare costs, by investing in companies that provide technologies, products or services, medical treatments linked to the prevention of disease and reducing the spread of infectious diseases. This is done by investing in companies that mainly advance the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs): Good health and well-being, Zero Hunger, and Clean water and sanitation. 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, and proxy voting. The fund also aims to achieve a better return than the index. 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. Benchmark: MSCI World Index TRN. The majority of stocks selected will be components of the benchmark, but stocks outside the benchmark may be selected too. While the investment policy is not constrained by a benchmark, the fund may use one 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 sustainable objective of the fund.

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