Robeco, The Investments Engineers

Thematic investing

Open your portfolio to the power of themes

For over 25 years, Robeco has been a pioneering leader in constructing thematic strategies. We recognized early on the power of megatrends to drive structural change and the potential of themes to harness them for long-term growth. Our convictions push us to dive deeper and explore farther to discover diverse sources of returns for client portfolios.
View all themes


3

megatrends


14

themes


∼1,300

companies


The core of thematic investing

We live in a world of constant evolution. Scientific discoveries, technological breakthroughs, demographic shifts, and geopolitical alliances are all examples of megatrends – the strong structural forces that impact how we live, work, communicate and consume.

Financial markets are reflections of these changes but often with a substantial time lag. This creates timely opportunities to enhance attractive long-term performance for client portfolios. Thematic investing spots early patterns in the data, anticipates their game-changing potential and begins building early positions in tomorrow’s leaders ahead of the market.

Putting themes to work for your portfolio

We believe three megatrends will direct and dominate future economic growth – Preserving Earth, Changing Socio-demographics, and Transforming Technologies. We have built a comprehensive suite of thematic investment strategies that draw from a combined investment universe of more than 1,300 companies to capture that growth for client portfolios.

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Monthly highlight - November

The rise of local brands

A decade ago, the gospel of globalization was still going strong. Offshoring of both materials and manufacturing was the path to profits and nearshoring or friendshoring was nigh on heretical. But the Covid pandemic along with intensifying protectionist policies in the US and China have shaken the faith in the power of global supply chains, driving companies to embrace consumers and suppliers closer to home. The result is disrupting multiple consumer segments and opening new and perhaps contrarian investment opportunities.

A picture is worth a thousand words

In addition to our monthly highlight, we publish daily key trends shaping global markets and our world.

Explore our Daily Sketch


The benefits of Robeco’s thematic investing approach

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Gear your portfolio for a compelling future

Many mainstream and benchmark-based portfolios are backward-looking and over-exposed to yesterday’s legends whose business models face stagnation or outright disruption. Our thematic strategies focus on leading companies successfully monetizing a theme in today’s market as well as the newcomers who are poised to become tomorrow’s thematic champions. This enables investors to benefit from quality stocks now while also positioning them to capture forward-looking growth.

Discover hidden gems and avoid flashy hype

Innovation is everywhere. But beyond high-priced tech stocks, few investors know how to access it, or how to separate hyped-up fads from the truly transformative trends. Deep thematic knowledge, specialized analysts, targeted research and proprietary investment tools give us an edge in detecting emerging technologies with enduring profit potential and the companies best able to translate innovation into increased earnings, market share, and shareholder value.

Stay ahead of the market

Thematic investing is narrow by design. It helps investors efficiently target areas of the economy with high-profit potential where they can zoom-in on tomorrow’s industry champions. The pure-play approach applied to many of our strategies leads to investments in ‘off the radar’ companies that are under-researched and undervalued. Timely access at lower valuations means enduring upside growth as trends and companies develop and mature.

Robeco's thematic investing team

Our thematic investment team is comprised of more than 30 investment professionals, each dedicated to a specific investment theme. Specialization enables us to perform the focused research necessary to spot patterns and trends missed by broader markets.

Thematic investing teams also leverage the in-house capabilities of Robeco’s world-class SI, quant, credits and fundamental equities teams. Collaboration enables us to share knowledge and ignite innovation to generate superior risk-adjusted performance for client portfolios.

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In all cases where historical performance is presented, please note that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results and should not be relied upon as the basis for making an investment decision. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested. Neither Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. nor any of its affiliates guarantees the performance or the future returns of any investments. If the currency in which the past performance is displayed differs from the currency of the country in which you reside, then you should be aware that due to exchange rate fluctuations the performance shown may increase or decrease if converted into your local currency. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. (“Robeco”) expressly prohibits any redistribution of the Information without the prior written consent of Robeco. The Information is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use is contrary to law, rule or regulation. Certain information contained in the Information includes calculations or figures that have been prepared internally and have not been audited or verified by a third party. Use of different methods for preparing, calculating or presenting information may lead to different results. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. is authorised as a manager of UCITS and AIFs by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets and subject to limited regulation in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority. Details about the extent of our regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority are available from us on request.