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

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blad 'RI World' (EN) | 2010 | | pagina 8