QI European Conservative Equities IH USD - LU1218876149

Key points

Aims for European equity returns with lower downside risk
Target stable equity returns and high income
Low-risk stocks with attractive valuation and positive momentum

About this fund

Robeco QI European Conservative Equities is an actively managed fund that invests in low-volatility stocks in European countries. The selection of these stocks is based on a quantitative model. The fund aims to achieve long-term returns greater than equity markets with lower downside risk over the full investment cycle, whilst still controlling relative risk through the applications of limits (on countries and sectors) to the extent of deviation from the Benchmark. The fund will take exposure of at least two-thirds of its total assets to equities of companies incorporated or exercising a preponderant part of their economic activities in Europe. The fund will focus on investing in equities that show lower volatility than average European equity. Conservative stands for the focus on equity with low volatility.

Key facts

Per 31-08-2025

Total size of fund	USD 571,046,681.84
Size of share class	USD 436,985.90
Inception date share class	2015-04-23
1-year performance	12.65%
Dividend paying	No

Fund manager

Pim van Vliet
Arlette van Ditshuizen
Maarten Polfliet
Jan Sytze Mosselaar
Arnoud Klep

Pim van Vliet is Head of Conservative Equities and Chief Quant Strategist. As Head of Conservative Equities, he is responsible for a wide range of global, regional, and sustainable low-volatility strategies. He specializes in low-volatility investing, asset pricing, and quantitative finance. He is the author of numerous academic research papers including publications in the Journal of Banking and Finance, Management Science, and the Journal of Portfolio Management. Pim is a guest lecturer at several universities, author of an investment book and speaker at international seminars. He became Portfolio Manager in 2010. Pim joined Robeco in 2005 as a Researcher with responsibility for asset allocation research. Pim holds a PhD and a Master's cum laude in Financial and Business Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Arlette van Ditshuizen is Portfolio Manager Quantitative Equities. She has been portfolio manager since 2007. Arlette’s areas of expertise are portfolio construction and risk management. She chairs Robeco’s Equity Risk Maarten Polfliet is Portfolio Manager Quantitative Equities. Maarten specializes in portfolio construction and investment style analysis. Until 2014, Maarten was a Quant Client Portfolio Manager at Robeco. From 2002, he was Equity Portfolio Manager at Bank Insinger de Beaufort, until he joined Robeco in 2005. He started his career as a Portfolio Manager for private and institutional clients at SNS Bank Nederland in 1999. He has a Master’s in Financial Economics from Tilburg University and a Master’s in Financial Analysis from the University of Amsterdam. Jan Sytze Mosselaar is Portfolio Manager Quantitative Equities. He is responsible for quant equity strategies and specializes in quantitative stock selection as well as portfolio and market analysis. Jan Sytze is the author of ‘A Concise Financial History of Europe’, published by Robeco. He started his career in 2004 at Robeco and worked for ten years as a multi-asset portfolio manager, responsible for multi-asset funds, quant allocation funds and fiduciary pension mandates. He holds a Master’s in Business Economics with a specialization in Finance & Investments from the University of Groningen. He is a CFA® Charterholder. Arnoud Klep is Portfolio Manager Quantitative Equities. Arnoud specializes in portfolio construction and sustainability integration within quantitative equities. Previously, Arnoud was Head of Structured Investments with Robeco, managing various quantitative investment strategies. He started his career in the Robeco Quantitative Research department in 2001. Arnoud holds a Master’s in Econometrics from Tilburg University.

Per period	Fund	Reference index
1 month	0.80%	1.47%
3 months	-0.15%	1.93%
YTD	15.25%	12.86%
1 year	12.65%	9.60%
2 years	15.09%	14.12%
3 years	12.48%	15.15%
5 years	10.29%	13.11%
10 years	8.20%	9.34%
Since inception 04/2015	7.29%	7.96%

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.	6.54	6.98
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.	-0.31	-0.31
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.	1.03	0.81
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..	2.12	1.45
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.	0.58	0.63
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).	8.05	9.67
Max. monthly gain (%) The maximum (i.e. highest) absolute positive monthly performance in the underlying period.	5.86	7.25
Max. monthly loss (%) The maximum (i.e. highest) absolute negative monthly performance in the underlying period.	-6.04	-6.04

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.	0.60%
Included management fee A fee paid by the fund to the asset management company for the professional management of the fund.	0.45%
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.	0.05%

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 IntegrationVoting & Engagement

Sustainability

Per 31-08-2025

The fund systematically incorporates sustainability in the investment process via exclusions, ESG integration, ESG and environmental footprint targets, engagement and voting. The fund does not invest in stocks issued by companies that are in breach of international norms or where its activities have been deemed detrimental to society following Robeco's exclusion policy. Financially material ESG factors are integrated in the portfolio construction to ensure the ESG score of the portfolio is better than that of the index. In addition, the environmental footprints of the fund are made lower than that of the benchmark by restricting the GHG emissions, water use and waste generation. With these portfolio construction rules, stocks issued by companies with better ESG scores or environmental footprints are more likely to be included in the portfolio while stocks issued by companies with worse ESG scores or environmental footprints are more likely to be divested from the portfolio. In addition, where a stock issuer is flagged for breaching international standards in the ongoing monitoring, the issuer will become subject to engagement. 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 Europe Index (Net Return, hedged into USD).

Performance explanation

Per 31-08-2025

Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was 0.80%. The fund aims to achieve long-term returns greater than equity markets with lower downside risk over the full investment cycle. The selected low-risk stocks are characterized by high dividend yields, attractive valuations, strong momentum and positive analyst revisions. This results in a diversified, low turnover portfolio of defensive stocks that aim to achieve stable equity returns and high income.

Expectation of fund manager

Pim van Vliet
Arlette van Ditshuizen
Maarten Polfliet
Jan Sytze Mosselaar
Arnoud Klep

The European Conservative Equities Fund invests in low volatility stocks with lower expected downside risk and good upside potential. The more stable stocks tend to be overlooked by investors, though they offer relatively high returns given their risk profile. We expect the fund to do particularly well during down markets and volatile market conditions. In a very bullish environment, the fund could lag the overall market, yet still deliver good absolute returns. In the long term, we expect stable equity returns and high income with considerably lower downside risk.

Robeco QI European Conservative Equities IH USD

Systematically investing in low volatility stocks in Europe

Key points

About this fund

Key facts

Fund manager

Performance

Statistics

Costs

Fiscal product treatment

Fiscal treatment of investor

Fund allocation

Policies

Profile

Sustainability

Performance explanation

Expectation of fund manager

Fund documents

Annual and Semi-Annual Reports

Announcements

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