Robeco announces merger of Robeco Hollands Bezit with RobecoSAM Sustainable European Equities

For clients currently invested in Robeco Hollands Bezit, the foreseen merger will result in a more diversified equity exposure as clients will move from a Dutch-focused to a European-focused equity portfolio. Also the ESG profile of their investments will increase. This will enhance clients’ alpha generation potential and create more opportunities to add value through active management. The proposed changes reflect evolving investor preferences towards more sustainability-focused strategies and funds that offer a broader exposure.

Launched in 1994, Robeco Hollands Bezit is a Dutch-domiciled fund with EUR 221 million in assets under management as of April 2019. Christian Vondenbusch and Steef Bergakker, who jointly manage Robeco Hollands Bezit and also co-manage some of Robeco’s trend funds, will focus fully on managing these trend funds after the merger.

RobecoSAM Sustainable European Equities, to be renamed Robeco Sustainable European Stars Equities, is managed by Kai Fachinger and Mathias Büeler, who are supported by a focused team of dedicated analysts. The RobecoSAM Sustainable European Equities is a truly actively managed strategy that employs a bottom-up approach focused on finding European companies that are characterized by superior fundamental business quality and strong sustainability characteristics at attractive valuations. It has maintained consistently high active share percentages as well as a successful history of beating the market whether bull or bear—a feat demonstrated by high hit ratios and consistent outperformance. The successful and robust investment processes and teams will not be affected by the renaming. As at April 2019, its fund size was EUR 797 million.

Robeco offers a range of ‘Stars’ funds – Robeco Global Stars, Robeco Asian Stars and Robeco Emerging Stars – all with concentrated, high-conviction portfolios. It is now adding Robeco Sustainable European Stars Equities to this group. This renaming is part of an ambition to create clear cut product lines within the field of Sustainable Investing, where the Robeco brand is used for broad ESG integration and sustainability focus strategies and RobecoSAM for Sustainability Impact and Thematic strategies.

Peter Ferket, Head of Investments and member of Robeco’s Executive Committee: “Investors have become more internationally minded and are looking for broader fund exposures. The merger will increase the focus on sustainability and widen the investment universe. We believe this will offer our clients a more future-proof solution and enable us to truly add value through active management. We are confident that by making these changes, we will further enable clients to achieve their investment and sustainability goals.”

*The proposed merger is subject to approval and will be put to a vote during an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders.