Dutch investment firm Robeco has been the latest to launch a global innovative equity fund.
The Robeco Global Industrial Innovation Equities fund invests in four secular growth trends within the production side of the economy: robotics, digital manufacturing, energy transition and cybersecurity.
The stock selection process relies on firm’s exposure to the selected trends, fundamental analysis, and integrated sustainability and risk analysis.
The fund is managed by the Robeco trends investing team, with Marco van Lent as lead portfolio manager, and will have a concentrated portfolio of around 40-60 stocks.
Henk Grootveld, head of Trends Investing said: “In our trends investing team we believe that the world will change substantially in the decades to come and this fund has been developed to capitalise on the production side of the trends we see. It will focus on four producer trends.”
Grootveld argued that robots will replace most of the heavy-duty work which is currently still done by humans and also that artificial intelligence will boost the productivity of the traditional white-collar worker.
“Third, we expect cheaper renewable energy to fuel more and more local production. The fourth trend is based on our view that in this digital world cyber insecurity is a threat that can only be mitigated with the best possible defense,” he said.
The fund, which is aimed at both retail investors and wholesale distributors, will be domiciled in Luxembourg, and will be available for investors in Robeco’s key markets upon investors demand.
Robeco’s trends investing team managed approximately €2.8bn at the end of April 2017.
