Robeco Asian Stars Equities D EUR

Asian markets declined in June and slightly underperformed the global markets. The US dollar rebounded versus most Asian currencies, supported by the Fed talking about a reduction of money printing. Though this sounded hawkish, most bond yields actually fell in June. Lower rates are better for growth stocks, so value stocks lagged in June. China shrugged off the flatlining in its growth profile and maintained its resolve to tighten credit conditions and clamp down commodity prices in an attempt to rein in factory inflation. The Chinese yuan dropped from its strongest level since 2018. While north Asian governments focused on getting as close to zero cases as possible, the Covid-19 resurgence in India and ASEAN countries led to local lockdowns. Currency losses pulled India (-0.8%) into the red, while South Korea (1.2%) was lifted by interactive media stocks (23.3%). ASEAN (June: -3.4%; YTD: -3.4%) was dragged down by steep losses in Indonesia (-6.7%), Malaysia (-4.2%), Thailand (-3.4%) and Singapore (-2.6%).Most countries have only reached vaccination rates of 5-15% so far and therefore lag behind Europe and the US in reopening.

The fund is allowed to pursue an active currency policy to generate extra returns.

The fund does not distribute dividends

Robeco Asian 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 Asian Stars Equities is an actively managed fund that invests in stocks of the most attractive companies in Asia. The selection of these stocks is based on 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 voting and engaging. The fund's focus is on the high-growth developing countries in the region. The fund focuses on stock selection and has a concentrated portfolio.The majority of stocks selected through this approach will be components of the Benchmark, but stocks outside the Benchmark index may be selected too. The fund can deviate substanitally 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.