One to Watch: RobecoSAM fund focuses on next generation of commodities

ONE TO WATCH

Annabelle Williams speaks to Pieter Busscher, manager of the top-performing RobecoSAM Smart Materials fund, about the next generation of materials tipped to overtake conventional commodities.

Investors in traditional commodities have suffered a torrid time over the past few years. Although fears of resource scarcity and a vast growth in demand from emerging economies fuelled a decade-long commodity boom up to 2008, the asset class has been on a downward slide since. Oil has suffered from weakened demand as global industry slowed in the wake of the financial crisis, and gold has slumped after reaching record highs last year. The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Commodity index fell to 275.62 in June this year from its peak of 403.6 reached in August 2008, although oil and g...