Robeco Can Look Back On A Successful Year

Rotterdam, 13 January 2006, Robeco’s funds have produced good investment results in 2005. They benefited to a certain extent from the positive stock market environment but on the whole also outperformed their benchmarks.

Europe
After the deduction of fees, 89% of the assets invested in the Rotterdam equity funds beat their benchmarks and for the bond funds this figure was 90%.

The two flagship funds Robeco and Rolinco produced an investment result of 28.3% and 33.6% respectively, an outperformance of 1.5% and 8.3% relative to their benchmarks. In addition, Robeco Emerging Markets generated an investment result of 60.8%, which is an outperformance of 5.7%. Robeco DuurzaamAandelen performed well in comparison to its Dutch competitors with an investment result of 25.3%, an outperformance of 4.2%. The range of fixed-income funds remained in Morningstar’s European top 3 for most of the year.

Despite these solid results there is still room for improvement. Although Robeco European Equities and Robeco European MidCap Equities recorded a performance of 26.1% and 24.7% respectively, these results were in line with and 11.9% below their benchmarks.

United States
Harbor Capital’s funds were top performers again this year. The two flagships of the Toledo, Ohio-based company, Harbor Capital Appreciation (USD 8.3 billion in invested assets) and Harbor International (USD 11.8 billion in invested assets) yielded dollar returns, after the deduction of fees, which outperformed the benchmark by 8.8% and 7.3% respectively. Harbor’s average Morningstar rating is now 3.4 (on a scale of 1 to 5).

Robeco Investment Management in New York also had a good year in terms of its equity funds. After deduction of expenses, more than 95% of the invested capital outperformed the benchmark. Robeco Global Value Equities, realized a return of 26.8% in euro terms, an outperformance of 0.6% versus the benchmark. Robeco North American Equities has outperformed its benchmark by 2.3%. Products geared towards the North American market also showed a solid outperformance of an average 4.1% versus their benchmarks.

RIM’s fixed-income investments, however, had a less positive year and underperformed their benchmarks by 0.3% on average.

Assets under management
Robeco’s total assets under management rose from EUR 111.8 billion at the beginning of the year to EUR 131.5 billion. The net cash flow amounted to EUR 1.7 billion, EUR 0.7 billion was paid out in dividends and interest and investment results totalled EUR 18.8 billion. The EUR 1.1 billion placement of the Hattrick Bond was the largest product launch in the company’s history. Robeco expects that the improved sentiment among investors will result in a higher level of cash flow in 2006, particularly from private clients

About Robeco
Robeco provides discretionary asset management products and services, as well as a complete range of mutual funds to a large number of institutional and retail clients worldwide. Robeco’s product range encompasses fixed-income and equity investments, as well as balanced accounts, money-market funds and alternative investments.

Robeco distributes its funds for the retail market directly, and through other financial institutions. Several of its mutual funds, including the flagship Robeco N.V., are listed on major European stock exchanges such as Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt and London.

Robeco services its clients not only from its head office in Rotterdam but also from its European offices in Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. In the United States, Robeco has offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco (Weiss, Peck & Greer), Boston (Boston Partners), White Plains (Sage Capital Management) and Toledo (Harbor Capital Advisors). Robeco also has an office in Bahrain and an office in Japan.

Robeco is the center for asset management with full operational independence within the Rabobank Group. The combination of the highest credit ratings from the major international rating agencies and the highest Sustainability Cluster Score within the banking sector reflects the high added value Rabobank has always offered its investors, members, clients and employees.

Contact Information

Ronald Florisson

Corporate Communications Robeco

Robeco

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