John Pinto
Executive Director
j.pinto@robeco.com
+1 646 690 9385
www.robeco.com/us/insurers
230 Park Avenue, Ste 3330, New York, NY 10169 USA
About Robeco
Robeco is a pure-play international asset manager founded in 1929 with headquarters in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and 16 offices worldwide. A global leader in sustainable investing since 1995, its unique integration of sustainable as well as fundamental and quantitative research enables the company to offer institutional and private investors an extensive selection of active investment strategies, for a broad range of asset classes.
As of September 2023, Robeco had USD 186 billion in assets under management, of which USD 183 billion is committed to ESG integration.
Land of the rising yield
One of the world’s largest experiments in financial engineering may be about to come to an end, spelling a new era of higher yields in Japan.
The alpha and beta of emerging markets equities
Robeco’s approach to emerging markets investing was initially met with considerable skepticism, but the live performance of our model has exceeded our expectations. David Blitz, Robeco’s Chief Researcher, shares his thoughts on quant investing in emerging markets.
Lively AGM season highlighted in proxy voting report
Two-thirds of all shareholder meetings included votes against management in a lively proxy voting season for Robeco’s Active Ownership team.
The new Big Book of Sustainable Investing
In 2018, Robeco published its first Big Book of SI to give investors a comprehensive reference guide to sustainable investing (SI). But even great guidebooks need a periodic revamp.
Quant Chart: Inside the Mind of the C-Suite
As the end of Q2 2023 earnings season approaches, it’s crucial for investors to utilize earnings calls for in-depth insights. More than just a source of numerical data, these calls provide a narrative around financial performance, revealing strategies, risks, opportunities, and market dynamics. C-suite executives provide context to the financial numbers and elaborate on key decisions, while the question and answer sessions can reveal unreported details. Hence, earnings calls are a powerful tool for a comprehensive understanding of a company’s financial outlook alongside public accounting data.
China policy mix broadens to support private sector
China is pivoting policy back to supporting capital markets and the private sector as it seeks to strengthen its post-Covid economic recovery.
‘It's like being in a candy store’
David Blitz, Robeco’s Chief Researcher, provides insights into factor returns across various market conditions in his latest study.
Call for moratorium on deep sea mining
Robeco is supporting calls for a moratorium on deep sea mining, backed by engagement with the companies involved, until the full risks and opportunities are known.
Do investors score with European soccer stocks?
As anticipation builds in Europe for the new soccer season, we delve into the risk and return dynamics of European soccer club stocks.
Leveraging carbon markets for climate investing
Carbon markets are essential to achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement. They assign a monetary value to carbon emissions, channeling capital towards the most economically viable solutions for mitigating climate change. As such, they have the potential to halve the costs associated with tackling global warming.
8 things you should know about next-gen quant
What are '8 things you should know about next-gen quant' - but might have been afraid to ask? Navigating the frontier of quant investing can be confusing, but we’re here to demystify some of the complex concepts that are suddenly becoming household terms. From alternative data and sustainable alpha to NLP and GPT, our new publication covers the whole fabric of next-generation quant investing.
Closure of deforestation theme leads Q2 Active Ownership report
The results of an engagement theme to cut commodity-related deforestation is highlighted in the Robeco Active Ownership team’s Q2 report.
Next-gen quant evolution: using new signals in existing strategies
How has quant investing changed in response to new technological developments, and how have Robeco’s strategies developed in response? We invited Wilma de Groot, Head of Core Quant Equities and Head of the Quant Equity Portfolio Management team at Robeco, to share the company's evolution and perspective on recent advancements in the field.
The term structure of machine learning alpha
Machine learning (ML) models predicting stock returns have been widely celebrated for their high full-sample gross alphas. However, their performance net of costs has significantly dwindled post-2004 for the U.S. market. A recent paper demonstrates that ML models can still be lucrative by employing longer prediction horizons and incorporating efficient portfolio construction rules. While longer-horizon strategies focus more on traditional asset pricing factors and slower signals, we believe they still have the potential to unlock distinctive alpha.
The uphill struggle in tackling commodity-linked deforestation
Progress has been made in managing deforestation risks, though traceability remains a challenging issue for companies, Robeco’s engagement has found.
Quant chart: Whatever you call it, markets are getting narrower and narrower
In the first half of 2023, stock markets experienced a substantial rebound. The MSCI World Index surged by 15% in USD, regaining more than two-thirds of the losses from the previous year. Interestingly, this comeback is largely driven by a handful of prominent US tech stocks, including Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta (Facebook), Nvidia, and Tesla.
A prudent route to effective factor timing
Equity factor investing has become significantly more popular in recent years. The underlying factor portfolios’ returns exhibit distinct cycles, tempting investors to try their hand at dynamically adjusting their factor allocation. However, the key question remains: how can investors best time factors to maximize returns while minimizing risk?
Be patient, EM fundamentals will pay off
After cutting his investment teeth in the emerging markets crises of the 1990s, Wim-Hein Pals, Robeco’s head of emerging markets, says EM economies are now much more stable, and valuations are very attractive.
Half-time report: Interesting times indeed
At the start of 2023 we expected a recession to soon materialize, the Fed to stop hiking as a result, and the US dollar to peak. That hasn’t happened and the US stock market has rallied back towards record levels. We knew at the time the outlook was uncertain so we listed 10 factors that could impact our view. Half-way through the year and a surprising seven out of ten have already come into play.
Into thin air: Earnings likely to blunt current exuberance
The recent tech-driven rally in US equities has been characterized by narrow breadth. With further Fed and ECB rate rises likely, and some economic indicators flashing red, we remain cautious on developed market equities, and believe emerging markets are better placed to lead the next cycle.
Pioneering in climate analytics with Robeco’s Sector Decarbonization Pathway methodology
This tool is the latest in Robeco’s pioneering innovations that help advance sustainable investing with the goal to achieve real-world influence through objective data, rigorous analysis and consistent frameworks.
We’re all psychologists now
As the inflation outlook is key to assessing future bond returns, we recently organized the third Robeco Annual Inflation day where we discussed inflations likely trajectory with guest experts, and here are our key takeaways.
Podcast: In tune with the markets – State of independence
A new episode of Robeco’s biweekly podcast that makes sense of the latest market moves – with a musical twist. Tune in to hear the latest from multi-asset investor Arnout van Rijn.
SI Dilemma: Weighing up double materiality in the chemicals industry
Evaluating investments through a double materiality lens is a challenge that SI analysts face every day. This involves considering the impacts that companies have on the world, and the impact that ESG factors have on the company. For industries such as chemicals, this poses particular difficulties in weighing up complex and potentially opposing impacts. Public opinion about chemicals science and their suitability for general use is also evolving, making investing in this sector a tough choice.
Credit Outlook: Stuck between a rock and a hard place
Markets have been talking about the upcoming US recession for more than a year. Over the past few quarters, we have elaborated about the increased risks of a recession, too. As of yet, a recession has not arrived.
Beach read: Riding the waves of structural trends
This year’s summer read is a collection of 24 of the best Daily Sketches published by our Thematic Investing team on a daily basis. The collection covers how structural trends impact our lives in five key areas: in the home, at the office in the lab, on the economy and, well, on our planet! Enjoy reading and don’t forget to subscribe if you want to receive the Daily Sketch in your inbox moving forward.
Podcast: Credit Outlook: Stuck between a rock and a hard place
Markets have been talking about the upcoming US recession for more than a year. As of yet, a recession has not arrived. But with an outlook of either higher rates or a recession, and valuations in no-man’s land, markets are between a rock and a hard place.
Podcast: Credit Outlook: Stuck between a rock and a hard place
Markets have been talking about the upcoming US recession for more than a year. As of yet, a recession has not arrived. But with an outlook of either higher rates or a recession, and valuations in no-man’s land, markets are between a rock and a hard place.
The next frontier in value investing in credits: integrating machine learning
Robeco is augmenting its existing approach to value investing by incorporating machine learning (ML) techniques. By leveraging ML, our goal was to enhance our assessment of bond valuations, in an effort to improve risk-adjusted returns for our multi-factor credit portfolios.
Fixed Income Q3 Outlook – Tie Break
Central banks are adding a tie break to their hiking cycles, increasing the risk of overtightening, our Fixed Income quarterly outlook says.
The importance of innovative tooling for the management and application of sustainability data
Sustainable investing wouldn’t be possible without sustainability data. It also depends on tooling to manage and apply the data, to generate meaningful insights.
Have your cake, and eat it too: Finding alpha in sustainability
Asset owners and their stakeholders increasingly expect to achieve their financial goals while ensuring positive non-financial results for future generations as well. The key question is whether it’s possible to do both. We develop and explore a process that explicitly focuses on both dimensions instead of treating them as separate goals that must be traded off against each other.
Building the agenda for future research in sustainable investing
The next frontier in sustainable investing research at Robeco is to source data and develop metrics and tooling related to biodiversity, human rights and the circular economy. This is in addition to fine-tuning its recently developed analytics and methodologies for climate-aligned investing.
Catching a brea(d)th
Investors should tread warily as a tech-obsessed stock market is out of sync with economic reality, says strategist Peter van der Welle.
SI Dilemma: Managing short-term pressures with long-term drivers
You might say that sustainable investing had an ‘annus horribilis’ in 2022. High headline inflation was driven by the war in Ukraine and the accompanying energy and food price rises, prompting central banks to raise interest rates. None of this was any good for sustainable strategies, which tend to be invested in growth-oriented companies, and less so in the energy, materials and value stocks that did well in this crisis. Many said this spelled the end of the growth we have enjoyed in sustainable investing – in fact it’s more of a short-term hiccup that, like all hiccups, will eventually pass.
High yield – Please make me good, but not just yet
Despite their persistent valuation advantage over equities, high yield credits are very much a guilty pleasure right now, with credit conditions tightening and recession always just over the horizon, says multi-asset investor Aliki Rouffiac.
Central bank watcher: Ain't no mountain high enough
There’s no mountain high enough to bring inflation back under control. That’s the message from many of the main DM central banks, including the Fed and ECB. That message has been deemed credible if judged by the relative stability of the market’s medium to long-term inflation expectations. But it also comes at a cost.
Robeco Climate Survey: Biodiversity investing is becoming mainstream
Investors are taking a much stronger stance on biodiversity, pushing the once niche topic into the mainstream.
Improving mining safety leads Q1 Active Ownership report
A successful engagement program has led to significant improvements in the impacts of mines, the Active Ownership Q1 report reveals.
Researchers have just been scratching the surface of ML in asset management
Many experts have hailed machine learning (ML) as the next frontier for quantitative investors, with good reason. ML offers strong potential, as it can help uncover exploitable nonlinear patterns and interaction effects that more traditional techniques fail to detect. Yet for all the enthusiasm raised, we also caution: ML is not a magic bullet and faces important implementation challenges.
Harnessing GPT for smarter asset management: prospects and perils
Generative models like GPT have the potential to transform the asset management industry, creating new possibilities and challenges. What are the implications for asset management, and how can the models best be approached?
Global Climate Survey – Investors remain committed to net zero
Almost half of investors are progressing their net-zero efforts in some way, rising to a total of 48% from 45% in the 2022 survey. The number of investors who have already committed to making their assets under management carbon neutral by 2050 fell slightly to 25% from 27%, while those who are in the process of committing to doing so rose to 23% from 18%.
What the 2023 Global Climate Survey means for investors
Investors are keeping the faith in trying to combat global warming, despite growing headwinds led by the macroeconomic chaos and energy price spikes. The number of investors who are still committed to pursuing net-zero strategies through climate investing has remained stable.
Inflation’s bite is worse than its bark
Markets are barking up the wrong tree if they think interest rates will come down before inflation does, says multi-asset investor Colin Graham.
Why the best is yet to come for factor investors
Investors continue climate change efforts despite headwinds
Investors are keeping the faith in trying to combat global warming, despite growing headwinds, the 2023 Robeco Global Climate Survey has revealed. The number of investors for whom climate change is a significant part of their investment policy has remained stable at above seven in ten.
Credit outlook: Buy the dip
We are far enough into the business cycle and rate cycle that when markets become too bearish, like in October, or when banking events like those of recent weeks drive spreads wider, buying opportunities occur.
Quantifying sustainability – the numbers, the data, and the people
This book is a journey. A journey along countries and continents. But above all, a journey along the heart. It contains portraits of men and women dedicated to the cause of sustainable investing.
Fixed income outlook: The cat is out of the bag
Markets never fail to be interesting! After an ‘everything rally’ in January (when yields and spreads eased) and a ‘taper regime’ in February (when both yields and credit spreads rose), March has brought the largest banking failures since 2008 and the largest moves in the US yield curve since 1987.
Goldilocks is awaiting a haircut
Investors looking for a ‘Goldilocks’ soft landing for the global economy may be disappointed, says strategist Peter van der Welle.