SAM and Robeco
RI European
Financial
Institutional
Sales Team
ACT TOGETHER
RI's Global Financial Markets (GFM) in London and Robeco's
sustainable investment boutique, SAM, are set to launch
three sustainable investment indices in April, with three
more indices to follow later this year. The indices will be
based on sustainable stocks and themes, and will range
from direct access to principal protection, designed to suit
the different risk appetites of investors.
Collaborating
on sustainable indices
Confident
SIX
Robeco, a full Rabobank subsidiary, has been
a pure-play asset manager for 80 years. As
more and more clients expressed the wish to
both invest in, and own shares in, companies
based on sustainable criteria (environmental,
social and governance), Robeco decided to
develop a number of responsible investment
products and services to serve these specific
cliënt needs, in cooperation with SAM and
Rl Global Financial Markets.
SAM, Robeco's investment boutique, focuses
exclusively on sustainable investing, and
offers a range of sustainable investment
strategies worldwide. In cooperation with
Dow Jones Indexes and STOXX Limited, SAM
publishes and licenses the Dow Jones Sustain-
ability World Indexes (DJSI). Currently, more
than 70 DJSI licences are held by asset managers
in 16 countries, who manage a variety of
financial products including active and passive
funds, certifïcates and segregated accounts.
In total, these licensees manage over USD 8
billion, based on current DJSI valuations.
The Rl European Financial Institutional Sales
Team is the premier providerof treasury, money
and capital market services to the Dutch
institutional and private banking markets.
The team is responsible for the interface with
all financial institutions in Europe, its main
objective being to deal with the key clients of
Rabobank. It both originates transactions across
funding, risk management and structured
products and acts as a distribution networkfor
Rabobank's products, created specifically for
those clients looking to invest.
8 ISSUE 23 MAY 2010 RI WORLD
GFM approached SAM in early 2009 with
the idea of collaborating on sustainable
indices, says Xavier Ducros, European
Head of Structuring at GFM. The demand
for sustainable investments was greater
than ever, possibly because of the
financial crisis. "We knew SAM had all the
sustainability expertise we needed, so
it was a pretty logical step to approach
them. And they were immediately
enthusiastic." SAM's main role in the
project has been to compile the indices,
using its expertise in sustainability across
a range of industries to piek the stocks
for the indices. To do this, SAM analysts
examine global trends and define
underlying themes and investment
clusters. "The companies that qualify
are those that make the largest share
of their revenue from activities in those
clusters," says Kathelijne Marritt-Alers, a
Relationship Manager at SAM Indexes.
Once this has been decided, GFM defines
the methodology behind an index, such
as the weighting of the various stocks.
For these indices, this is based on a
mix of free-float market capitalisation
and liquidity, Ducros says. "After all, our
traders have to be able to hedge these
products. We'll also be responsible for the
marketing and distribution of the indices
as sustainable investments."
Everyone agrees that it is too early to
predict how successful these indices will
be, but they are confident that these are
the right products at the right time. "It
generally takes between three and five
years to see how well indices perform,
and whether we've picked the right
investment clusters and built the right
products. We are confident of Rabobank's
ability to build successful products and
there is strong momentum for sustainable
investments," Marritt-Alers says. One thing
they have no doubt about is the added
value of the cooperation between GFM
and SAM. Ducros says the combination
of Rabobank's expertise in structuring
products with SAM's in-depth knowledge
of sustainability is compelling. "Leveraging
our knowledge of both indices and
sustainability and working with GFM to
come up with these kinds of products
has been exciting. I hope to work with
GFM and other parts of Rabobank in the
future," Marritt-Alers says. SAM is already