Robeco Circular Economy I USD

Keeping products in the loop creates value

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.

Class and codes

Asset class
Equities
ISIN
LU2092759450
Bloomberg
ROCEEIU LX

Asset class

Equities

ISIN

LU2092759450

Bloomberg

ROCEEIU LX

Index

MSCI World Index TRN

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 9

Morningstar Morningstar Copyright © Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Download The Morningstar Rating for Funds (chapter: The Morningstar Rating: Three-, Five-, and 10-Year) on the Morningstar website.

Rating

( 31-08 )

Overview Performance & costs Portfolio Sustainability Commentary Documents

Key points

Circular Economy is a need-to-have in order to transition toward sustainable production and consumption practices, and to reach global net zero targets
More than “just” recycling, Circular Economy designs waste and pollution out, and keeps products and materials in use for longer
Regulation, company commitments and changing consumer preferences provide strong tailwinds for winners across various industries, business models and geographies

About this fund

Robeco Circular Economy is an actively managed fund that invests globally in companies aligned with circular economy principles. 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 Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 of 27 November 2019 on Sustainability-related disclosures in the financial sector to finance solutions supporting the paradigm shift to a circular economy. 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 and relevant SDGs using an internally developed framework, more information on which can be obtained at www.robeco.com/si. The fund also has the aim to achieve a better return than the Benchmark.

Key facts

Per 31-08-2025

Total size of fund	USD 543’738’505.71
Size of share class	USD 65’836’941.83
Inception date share class	2020-01-23
1-year performance	16.85%
Dividend paying	No

Fund manager

Natalie Falkman

Natalie Falkman is Portfolio Manager of the Robeco Circular Economy strategy and member of the Thematic Investing team. Before joining Robeco in 2022, she was a portfolio manager for Kapitalinvest, a global equity, 5-star rated by Morningstar and AAA-rated by Citywire (Global blend-category) fund at Swedbank Robur in Stockholm. Prior to that, she worked at Carnegie (largest independent investment bank in the Nordics), first as the Head of Emerging Markets Research and thereafter with Nordic Capital Goods Equity Research. She started her career in 2002 as an equity research analyst at Deutsche Bank in Moscow covering utility and shipping sectors. Natalie holds a Master’s in Finance from Stockholm School of Economics.

Per period	Fund	Reference index
1 month	0.09%	2.61%
3 months	6.64%	8.41%
YTD	18.51%	13.78%
1 year	16.85%	15.68%
2 years	19.04%	19.98%
3 years	17.80%	18.50%
5 years	10.69%	12.89%
Since inception 01/2020	11.91%	12.05%

Statistics	3 years	5 Years
Tracking error ex-post (%) The ex-post tracking error is defined as the volatility of the fund's achieved excess return over the index return. In fund management, most managers are subject to an ex-ante (pre-determined) tracking error, which defines the extent of the additional risk they may take when aspiring to outperform the fund's benchmark. The ex-post tracking error explains the distribution of past fund performances compared to those of its underlying benchmark. With a higher tracking error, the fund's returns deviate more from its index's returns, hence there is a greater chance that the fund may outperform. The wider the spread of returns relative to the benchmark, the more "actively" a fund has been managed. In contrast, a low tracking error indicates more "passive" management.	6.22	6.01
Information ratio This ratio serves to evaluate the quality of the excess return a fund manager has achieved because it takes the active risk involved into account. The information ratio is defined as the excess return over the benchmark return divided by the fund's tracking error. The higher the information ratio, the better. For example, a fund with a tracking error of 4% and an excess return of 2% over benchmark has an information ratio of 0.5, which is quite good.	0.06	-0.19
Sharpe ratio This ratio measures the risk-adjusted performance and allows the performance quality of different investments to be compared. It is calculated by subtracting the risk-free rate from the fund's returns and dividing the result by the fund's standard deviation (risk). So the Sharpe ratio tells us whether a fund's returns are the result of smart investment decisions or stem from taking extra risk. The higher the ratio, the better, meaning that a greater return is achieved per unit of risk. This ratio is named after its inventor, Nobel Laureate, William Sharpe.	0.92	0.51
Alpha (%) Alpha measures the difference between a portfolio's actual return and its expected performance, given the level of risk, compared to the benchmark. A positive alpha figure indicates that the fund has performed better than expected, given the level of risk. Beta is used to calculate the level of risk compared to the benchmark..	0.76	-0.97
Beta Beta is a measure of a portfolio's volatility, or systematic risk, in comparison to the benchmark. A beta of 1 indicates that the portfolio will move with the benchmark. A beta of less than 1 means that the portfolio will be less volatile than the benchmark. A beta of more than 1 indicates that the portfolio will be more volatile than the benchmark. For example, if a portfolio's beta is 1.2 it is theoretically 20% more volatile than the benchmark.	0.98	1.02
Standard deviation Standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion of a set of data from its mean. The more spread out the data is, the higher the deviation. In finance, standard deviation is applied to the annual rate of return of an investment to measure the investment's volatility (risk).	15.26	16.96
Max. monthly gain (%) The maximum (i.e. highest) absolute positive monthly performance in the underlying period.	9.31	11.56
Max. monthly loss (%) The maximum (i.e. highest) absolute negative monthly performance in the underlying period.	-7.00	-9.77

Cost of this fund	Percentage
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.	0.93%
Included management fee A fee paid by the fund to the asset management company for the professional management of the fund.	0.80%
Included service fee This fee is intended to cover official fees, such as the cost of annual reports, annual shareholders' meetings and price publications.	0.12%
Transaction costs The transaction costs shown are the average annual transaction costs over the last three years calculated in accordance with European regulations.	0.23%

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 0.01% 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

Investors who are not subject to (exempt from) Dutch corporate-income tax (e.g. pension funds) are not taxed on the achieved result. Investors who are subject to Dutch corporate-income tax can be taxed for the result achieved on their investment in the fund. Dutch bodies that are subject to corporate-income tax are obligated to declare interest and dividend income, as well as capital gains in their tax return. Investors residing outside the Netherlands are subject to their respective national tax regime applying to foreign investment funds. We advise individual 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.

Policies

Per 31-08-2025

Market development

Per 31-08-2025

August was a weak month for many tech-driven stocks, as volatile AI sentiment led to concerns across both software and infrastructure segments. We share the concern that AI may pose challenges for some off-the-shelf software. However, we believe that AI will also accelerate growth and serve as a competitive differentiator for select companies. The prevailing market view – treating nearly all software as under existential threat – has weighed on the share prices of even those we see as potential AI beneficiaries. A less expected bright spot in August came from residential stocks. While the overall housing market remains soft, there are signs of bottoming, with a few early green shoots. The rising likelihood of lower interest rates has also supported sentiment. In Europe, France attracted attention for the wrong reasons. The risk of another election weighed on the country's stock market.

Performance explanation

Per 31-08-2025

Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was 0.09%. In August, the fund underperformed versus the MSCI World. There were several reasons for the underperformance. First, the tech-driven weakness, which stemmed from profit-taking in some YTD-winners, investor concerns that AI could disrupt software and fears that AI infrastructure investments will soon plateau or decline. Second, the political uncertainty in France, which weighed on the local equity market. Third, there was little to no visible improvement in the demand for industrial companies. Sector-wise, the fund's two largest exposures – industrials and technology – were the two weakest-performing sectors. The fund is underweight in sectors that held up relatively well – financials, healthcare and communication services. At the stock level, SPIE, Vertiv and Dell were the largest detractors. On the positive side, Cavco, nVent and Organo were the top contributors. The fund also underperformed versus its internal benchmark, although the magnitude of underperformance was significantly smaller than relative to the MSCI World. This is because the internal benchmark includes only companies that are investable for the fund, resulting in smaller sector deviations compared to the MSCI.

Expectation of fund manager

Natalie Falkman

Ahead of the Q2 results, there were hopes that industrial sectors would start to show signs of demand recovery. However, many company management teams – perhaps still shell-shocked by the wave of changes following the presidential elections – seemed to adopt a wait-and-see approach. Investment decisions were still coming slowly and early signs of improvements were interpreted conservatively. As a result, any expectations for green shoots to appear in H2 guidance were premature. Looking ahead, if cyclical demand does pick up, the YoY base effects will help. On a relative basis, some cyclical sectors could even rival structural growth areas in terms of momentum. Given that current investor positioning is heavily skewed toward safer, secular growth, any credible recovery in cyclical areas could benefit from supportive re-positioning flows. Furthermore, looking further into the remainder of 2025, equity strategist sentiment remains cautious, with consensus year-end index targets still below current levels. This disconnect has historically been a contrarian signal – often bullish for equity markets.

Robeco Circular Economy I USD

Keeping products in the loop creates value

Key points

About this fund

Key facts

Fund manager

Performance

Statistics

Costs

Fiscal product treatment

Fiscal treatment of investor

Fund allocation

Policies

Profile

Sustainability

Market development

Performance explanation

Expectation of fund manager

Fund documents

Annual and Semi-Annual Reports

Announcements

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