Robeco Transition Asian Bonds FH EUR
Finding alpha in opportunities that support the sustainable transition in Asia
Share classes
Share classes
Every share class of a product invests in the same portfolio of securities and has the same investment objectives and policies. However, their parameters might deviate. For instance and amongst others, their distribution type, currency exposure or fees and expenses might differ. The most common share classes at Robeco are:
a) D/DH shares, which are regular shares and available for all Investors;
b) I/IH shares, for institutional investors as defined from time to time by the Luxembourg supervisory authority.
For more information on share classes please go to the prospectus.
FH-EUR
BX-USD
D-USD
DH-EUR
F-USD
I-USD
IH-EUR
Class and codes
Asset class:
Bonds
ISIN:
LU2465792880
Bloomberg:
RSSAFHE LX
Index
JP Morgan Asia Credit Index (hedged into EUR)
Sustainability-related information
Sustainability-related information
Under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, products can be labelled as either Article 6, 8 or 9 fund.
Article 6 - The fund is not in scope of enhanced sustainability disclosures compared to Article 8 and 9.
Article 8 - The fund does not have a sustainable investment objective but promotes environmental or social characteristics and is subject to enhanced sustainability disclosures.
Article 9 - The fund has a sustainable investment objective and is subject to enhanced sustainability disclosures.
Regardless of Article 8 or 9, the companies in which investments are made must follow good governance practices, and sustainable investments must not do any significant harm.
Article 8
- Overview
- Performance & costs
- Portfolio
- Sustainability
- Commentary
- Documents
MISSING: fund.detail.tabs.
Key points
- Stable and attractive income from investing in entities that are leading or enabling the sustainability transition in Asia.
- Leveraging on Robeco proprietary sustainability research and IP with strong expertise in Asian bonds.
- Enables investors to tap into the potential growth of the transition from both financial and sustainability perspectives.
About this fund
Robeco Transition Asian Bonds is an actively managed fund that invests in corporate and government bonds in Asia. The selection of these bonds is based on fundamental analysis. The fund's objective is to achieve a better return than the index. The fund invests at least two-thirds of its total assets in bonds (which may include contingent convertible bonds (also "coco" bonds)) and similar fixed income securities and asset backed securities issued by entities incorporated or exercising a preponderant part of their economic activities in Asia or issued by entities that are part of the Sub-fund’s Benchmark . The Sub-fund aims to make investments in assets with a sustainable objective as well as investments in assets that contribute to a transition. Transition pertains to activities that measurably and credibly contribute to the goals of the Paris Agreement and/or an environmental and/or social objective. This is achieved by investing in entities that have credible emission reduction targets, entities that provide solutions to enable climate change mitigation and bonds to finance sustainability transformation or refinance, in part or in full, new and/or existing projects with an environmental and/or social objective.
Key facts
Total size of fund
€ 10,216,810
Size of share class
€ 103,862
Inception date share class
17-05-2022
1-year performance
7.96%
Dividend paying
No
Fund manager
Thu Ha Chow
Frank Reynaerts
Reinout Schapers
Based in Singapore, Thu Ha Chow is Head of Fixed Income Asia and Portfolio Manager with a focus on Asian credits. Prior to joining Robeco in 2022, she was Portfolio Manager and Asia Strategist at Loomis Sayles & Co and Head of Asian Credit at Aberdeen Asset Management, both in Singapore. Previously Thu Ha worked for 15 years in London where she held senior fixed income positions at Deutsche Asset Management and Threadneedle Asset Management in addition to 3 years in investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston. She started her career in 1998 after obtaining a Master’s in Economics and Philosophy from London School of Economics. Frank Reynaerts is an Emerging Credit Analyst and Portfolio Manager of the Transition Asian Bonds strategy. Frank joined Robeco in 2011 as a Portfolio Manager Emerging Debt. Prior to that, he was Portfolio Manager Investment Grade Credits at Syntrus Achmea, Portfolio Manager Emerging Debt at Lombard Odier and Portfolio Manager Fixed Income at Fortis. Frank started his career in 1997 at ASLK Bank as a Risk Analyst. He holds a Master’s in Commercial and Financial Sciences from EHSAL Business School of Brussels and he is a CFA® charterholder. Reinout Schapers is Portfolio Manager Investment Grade in the Credit team. Prior to joining Robeco in 2011, Reinout worked at Aegon Asset Management where he was a Head of European High Yield. Before that, he worked at Rabo Securities as an M&A Associate and at Credit Suisse First Boston as an Analyst Corporate Finance. Reinout has been active in the industry since 2003. He holds a Master's in Architecture from the Delft University of Technology.
Performance
Per period
Per annum
- Per period
- Per annum
1 month
1.35%
1.45%
3 months
3.86%
3.78%
YTD
4.67%
4.73%
1 year
7.96%
8.88%
2 years
3.54%
3.89%
Since inception 05/2022
1.67%
2.43%
2023
4.53%
4.67%
Statistics
Rating
The average credit quality of the securities in the portfolio. AAA, AA, A en BAA (Investment Grade) means lower risk and BB, B, CCC, CC, C (High Yield) higher risk.
BAA1/BAA2
BAA1/BAA2
Option Adjusted Modified Duration (years)
The interest rate sensitivity of the portfolio.
4.20
4.30
Maturity (years)
The average maturity of the securities in the portfolio.
5.30
5.90
Green Bonds (%)
The percentage of total AuM in the portfolio (market-weight based) that is indicated as Green Bond in Bloomberg. Green bonds are any type of regular bond instrument for which the proceeds will be applied exclusively to environmental projects.
23.10
9.50
Costs
Ongoing charges
Indication of annual charges that are deducted for this fund. This indication is based on the costs over the last calendar year and may vary from year to year. Transaction costs incurred by the fund, any performance fees and other one-off costs are not included in the ongoing charges.
0.71%
Included management fee
A fee paid by the fund to the asset management company for the professional management of the fund.
0.50%
Included service fee
This fee is intended to cover official fees, such as the cost of annual reports, annual shareholders' meetings and price publications.
0.16%
Transaction costs
The transaction costs shown are the average annual transaction costs over the last three years calculated in accordance with European regulations.
0.45%
Fiscal product treatment
The fund is established in Luxembourg and is subject to the Luxembourg tax laws and regulations. The fund is not liable to pay any corporation, income, dividend or capital gains tax in Luxembourg. The fund is subject to an annual subscription tax ('tax d'abonnement') in Luxembourg, which amounts to 0.05% of the net asset value of the fund. This tax is included in the net asset value of the fund. The fund can in principle use the Luxembourg treaty network to partially recover any withholding tax on its income.
Fiscal treatment of investor
The fiscal consequences of investing in this fund depend on the investor's personal situation. For private investors in the Netherlands real interest and dividend income or capital gains received on their investments are not relevant for tax purposes. Each year investors pay income tax on the value of their net assets as at 1 January if and inasmuch as such net assets exceed the investor’s tax-free allowance. Any amount invested in the fund forms part of the investor's net assets. Private investors who are resident outside the Netherlands will not be taxed in the Netherlands on their investments in the fund. However, such investors may be taxed in their country of residence on any income from an investment in this fund based on the applicable national fiscal laws. Other fiscal rules apply to legal entities or professional investors. We advise investors to consult their financial or tax adviser about the tax consequences of an investment in this fund in their specific circumstances before deciding to invest in the fund.
Fund allocation
Currency
Duration
Rating
Sector
Subordination
Top 10
- Currency
- Duration
- Rating
- Sector
- Subordination
- Top 10
Policies
All currency risks are hedged.
This share class of the fund does not distribute dividend.
Robeco Transition Asian Bonds is an actively managed fund that invests in corporate and government bonds in Asia. The selection of these bonds is based on fundamental analysis. The fund's objective is to achieve a better return than the index. The fund invests at least two-thirds of its total assets in bonds (which may include contingent convertible bonds (also "coco" bonds)) and similar fixed income securities and asset backed securities issued by entities incorporated or exercising a preponderant part of their economic activities in Asia or issued by entities that are part of the Sub-fund’s Benchmark . The Sub-fund aims to make investments in assets with a sustainable objective as well as investments in assets that contribute to a transition. Transition pertains to activities that measurably and credibly contribute to the goals of the Paris Agreement and/or an environmental and/or social objective. This is achieved by investing in entities that have credible emission reduction targets, entities that provide solutions to enable climate change mitigation and bonds to finance sustainability transformation or refinance, in part or in full, new and/or existing projects with an environmental and/or social objective. The fund promotes E&S (i.e. Environmental and Social) characteristics within the meaning of Article 8 of the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, integrates sustainability risks 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 engagement. The Sub-fund is actively managed and uses the Benchmark for asset allocation purposes. However, although securities may be components of the Benchmark, securities outside the Benchmark may be selected too. The Sub-fund can deviate substantially from the weightings of the Benchmark. The Portfolio Manager has discretion over the composition of the portfolio subject to the investment objectives. The Sub-fund aims to outperform the Benchmark over the long run, whilst still controlling relative risk through the applications of limits (on currencies) 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 sustainable objective of the Sub-fund.
Risk management is fully embedded in the investment process to ensure that positions always meet predefined guidelines.
Sustainability profile
ESG Important Information
The sustainability information below can help investors integrate sustainability considerations in their process. This information is for informational purposes only. The reported sustainability information may not at all be used in relation to binding elements for this fund. A decision to invest should take into account all characteristics or objectives of the fund as described in the prospectus.
Sustainability
Sustainability is incorporated in the investment process by the means of a target universe, exclusions, ESG integration, and a minimum allocation to ESG-labeled bonds. The fund invests in credits issued by companies with a positive or neutral impact on the SDGs. The impact of issuers on the SDGs is determined by applying Robeco's internally developed three-step SDG Framework. The outcome is quantified with a proprietary SDG score methodology, considering both the contribution to the SDGs (positive, neutral or negative) and the extent of this contribution (high, medium or low). At least 50% of the fund is invested in Transition-related Investments contributing to the goals of the Paris Agreement and/or Transition-related Investments with an Environmental and/or Social objective. This is determined through Robeco’s Paris Alignment Assessment, which evaluates companies using a Climate Traffic light. In addition, the fund does not invest in credit issuers that are in breach of international norms or where activities have been deemed detrimental to society following Robeco's exclusion policy. Financially material ESG factors are integrated in the bottom-up security analysis to assess the impact on the issuer's fundamental credit quality. Furthermore, the fund invests at least 15% in green, social, sustainable, and/or sustainability-linked bonds. The fund limits exposure to elevated sustainability risks. Lastly, where a credit issuer is flagged for breaching international standards in the ongoing monitoring, the issuer will become subject to exclusion. The following sections display the ESG-metrics for this fund along with short descriptions. For more information please visit the sustainability-related disclosures. The index used for all sustainability visuals is based on JP Morgan Asia Credit Index.
Market development
In August, the performance of Asian Credit was positive at 1.63% with investment grade and high yield segments posting similar returns of 1.82% and 0.48%. The month started volatile after the Bank of Japan's 25 basis point interest rate hike and a weaker-than-expected US labor market report, leading to significant yen appreciation, a rapid yen carry trade unwind and a sharp but brief correction in equity markets, especially in Japan. US treasury yield ended the month lower as economic activity lost steam, evidenced by a weaker labor market and a soft price inflation print. At the annual Jackson Hole economic symposium, Federal Reserve Chair Powell indicated to start lowering interest rates in the September meeting but did not pre-commit to any size or speed of rate cuts. Powell also mentioned that the Fed does not seek further cooling of the labor market and that the current policy rate allows for ample room to respond to any risks. In China, the economic recovery remains underwhelming, with investors looking for indications of policymakers on domestic policy stimulus. Finally, credit markets remain unfazed by but vulnerable to geopolitical tensions in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Performance explanation
Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was 1.35%. The total return of the index on the month was 1.63% and the fund was 1.61%. Holdings in India and Indonesia detracted from performance. Underweighted positions in China and Hong Kong added to performance. The fund's combined underweight to frontier sovereigns Sri Lanka and Pakistan added to performance.
Expectation of fund manager
Thu Ha Chow
Frank Reynaerts
Reinout Schapers
Spreads are near all-time tights but with attractive all-in yields of around 5.3%, Asian credit markets don't need further spread compression to create attractive total returns. In this low spread environment, we maintain a defensive stance in the weak single-B-rated segment and below, as spread compensation is insufficient to go down in credit quality. Persistent geopolitical tensions continue to burden Europe and tensions in the Middle East keep oil prices volatile. China's economy continues to struggle with weak domestic demand and relies increasingly on external demand which is at risk of slowing as well. A Trump victory in the upcoming US presidential elections could increase the risk of additional tariffs for Chinese exports. Elsewhere in Asia, the Indian economy is more insulated from external demand and the macrostory remains strong. Meanwhile, fiscal policy remains disciplined. Fundamentals in Asia IG remain stable, and the region has coped with the strong Federal Reserve rate hiking cycle relatively well compared to historical episodes and the FOMC's recent comments on coming rate cuts will create space for rate cuts in emerging economies as well.