Netherlands-based investment manager Robeco has renamed its multi-asset funds to better reflect its increased sustainability focus, ensuring better transparency for clients. As such, its Multi-Asset Income fund has now become Sustainable Income Allocation, Multi-Asset Sustainable is now Sustainable Diversified Allocation, and Multi-Asset Growth has been rebranded as Sustainable Dynamic Allocation. The three funds have been grouped under a capital growth category, making the multi-asset offering easier to access for those already invested in Robeco’s equity and fixed income strategies. The funds’ flexibility has also been increased, with the investment approach shifting from a ‘fund-of-funds’ to a ‘line-by-line’ model, allowing for more efficient risk management and tactical trades implementation – in line with industry trends. Robeco said this would enable more efficient active risk management of regional biases, factor exposures and liquidity, while reducing the need for extensive completion portfolios. “We’ve made these strategic changes to offer investors the best mix of Robeco’s strategies across quant, fundamental, and thematic approaches,” said Remmert Koekkoek, Head of Multi-Asset Solutions at Robeco. “The sustainability focus has been intensified, aiming for the optimal balance between risk, return, and sustainability.” Robeco’s multi-asset funds have exhibited strong long-term performance, having been assigned the Gold Morningstar Medallist Rating last month. They will continue to be benchmarked within the same peer group, enabling the utilisation of their existing track record. “We’re committed to sustainable investing without compromising performance, hence the benchmarks for performance measurement remain unchanged,” said Colin Graham, Portfolio Manager for Multi-Asset Solutions at Robeco. “The new set-up provides transparency for clients to assess sustainability credentials and verify labels. [Our] ‘5-year Expected Returns’ is a key input for the strategic asset allocation of the funds, explicitly considering the impact of climate change on individual asset classes in return forecasts.”
