Circular Economy IE USD - LU2554843545

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 22’843’642.43
Inception date share class	2022-11-28
1-year performance	16.85%
Dividend paying	Yes

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	6.65%	8.41%
YTD	18.51%	13.78%
1 year	16.85%	15.68%
2 years	19.04%	19.98%
Since inception 11/2022	18.32%	19.44%

Date	Amount
23.04.2025	USD 0.31
24.04.2024	USD 0.28
27.04.2023	USD 0.02

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

Profile

Per 31-08-2025

ESG IntegrationVotingTarget Universe

Sustainability

Per 31-08-2025

The fund's sustainable investment objective is to finance solutions that support the transition from traditional production and consumption patterns toward a circular economy. Circular economy and sustainability considerations are incorporated in the investment process by the means of a target universe definition, exclusions, ESG integration, and voting. The fund only invests in companies that have a significant thematic fit as per Robeco's thematic universe methodology. Through screening on both Robeco's internally developed SDG Framework and Robeco’s exclusion policy, the fund does not invest in issuers that have a negative impact on the SDGs, are in breach of international norms or where products have been deemed controversial. Financially material ESG factors are integrated in the bottom-up fundamental investment analysis to assess existing and potential ESG risks and opportunities. In addition, where a stock issuer is flagged for breaching international standards in the ongoing monitoring, the issuer will become subject to exclusion. Lastly, the fund makes use of shareholder rights and applies proxy voting in accordance with Robeco's proxy voting policy.For more information please visit the sustainability-related disclosures.The index used for all sustainability visuals is based on MSCI World Index TRN.

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 IE USD

Keeping products in the loop creates value

Key points

About this fund

Key facts

Fund manager

Performance

Dividend paying history

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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