The all-weather route to alpha
The time is now for Robeco Global Stars, the all-weather, high conviction, actively managed strategy which is tailor-made for the volatility of 2025 and beyond. Uncertainty inevitably leads to market turbulence. Volatile markets can shake investor confidence, but your portfolio doesn't have to suffer. This is where an investment approach that targets high-quality stocks becomes essential.
Investing with high conviction
Robeco's Global Stars strategy invests in 40 to 60 of our best high-conviction ideas, or as we call them, ‘stars', from an investable universe of more than 4,000 companies. This delivers an all-weather portfolio free of sector, geographical or style bias – perfect for your core allocation to equities.
A track record of success come rain or shine
Robeco Global Stars has generated alpha – outperformance of its benchmark index – against a wide variety of market backdrops, and the strategy has delivered annualized performance of 11.04% since it was launched in 2008[1], compared to the MSCI World index at 9.4%.
In more volatile markets impacted by geopolitical stress and trade dislocation, we believe an active high conviction strategy is the right vehicle to generate attractive returns through careful stock selection and effective management of risk.
Why global equities?
Global equities expose long-term investors to the growth of the global economy and the accelerating productivity gains from new technologies. The impact spans all sectors, delivering inflation protection as well as the potential for long-term returns.
In 2025 a resilient investment strategy is needed to manage:
- Policy uncertainty: The prospect of sweeping policy change from a new US administration, with uncertain outcomes.
- The economic cycle: Risks of slowing global growth, persistent inflationary pressures, and diverging central bank actions add complexity to the outlook.
- Geopolitics: Tensions and evolving alliances in international relations create unpredictable risks and opportunities.
A global equity strategy gives you access to leading companies from developed economies across the world including the US, UK, Europe, Australia and Japan, providing your portfolio with geographic diversification.
Investing in the companies powering the future
Global Stars are companies chosen from across the whole economy and the strategy is not limited by any pre-defined sector allocation. Sectors we track include AI, semiconductors, data analysis, smart agriculture, electrification, aerospace, robotics, energy, materials, next-gen pharmaceuticals, consumer healthcare, travel and tourism, luxury, cosmetics, and finance.
Quality – How do we identify Global Stars?
Global Stars doesn't select stocks based on hype, sector or geography – we only focus on quality via three key pillars:
- Financial quality: We assess how effectively a company uses capital to generate profits via measuring return on invested capital (ROIC).
- Valuation quality: We evaluate free cash flow (FCF) because ‘earnings are opinions, but cash is a fact'. Ulitmately, using ROIC and FCF as criteria to select stocks delivers relatively stronger investment performance over time.
- Sustainable quality: Robeco's sustainability analysts independently assess companies' opportunities and risks through use of ESG factors, providing a more holistic understanding of a company's risk profile, adding to our traditional fundamental analysis. This helps our portfolio managers make better decisions.
Building a balanced portfolio across the style spectrum
Using our quality focus, Global Stars invests in stocks across the style spectrum. This is unlike a growth investing style, for example, which involves only purchasing companies that are growing fast in terms of revenue, earnings or market share, and are typically trading at a higher level than the broader market valuation. It is also different from value investing, which focuses on buying stocks that appear to be undervalued by the market, with the view that their true value will eventually be recognized. We invest in both these styles and everything in-between, producing a balanced all-weather portfolio for clients.
Why Robeco?
The Global Stars strategy management team led by Michiel Plakman, Chris Berkouwer, and Yanxin Lu (working at Robeco since 1999, 2010 and 2011, respectively) is stable, experienced, highly-skilled and intuitive. The team are supported by 75 professionals in Robeco Fundamental Equities who provide investment ideas, sector and company analysis.
Invest in high conviction global equities today
[1] Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The value of your investments may fluctuate. Source: Robeco, MSCI. Portfolio: Robeco Global Stars Equities strategy. Index: MSCI World Index. All figures in EUR. Data end of February 2025. If the currency in which the past performance is displayed differs from the currency of the country in which you reside, then you should be aware that due to exchange rate fluctuations the performance shown may increase or decrease if converted into your local currency. Performance since inception is as of the first full month. Periods shorter than one year are not annualized. Returns gross of fees, based on gross asset value. Values and returns indicated here are before cost; the performance data does not take account of the commissions and costs incurred on the issue and redemption of units. These have a negative effect on the returns shown.
Important information: This information is for professional investors only. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. The value of investments and any income derived from them can go down as well as up, and investors may not get back the full amount invested. Active strategies, including the Robeco Global Stars strategy, are subject to investment risks, including market fluctuations, and the potential for underperformance. While the strategy aims to generate excess returns, there is no guarantee that it will achieve its investment objective. The views expressed are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment advice or an offer to buy or sell any financial instrument. Alpha refers to the excess return of an investment relative to a benchmark index and is a measure of performance.
