Momentum Investments and Robeco launch partnership in Southern Africa

Momentum Investments and Robeco have entered a strategic partnership, affording Momentum Investments access and exclusive distribution rights to Robeco’s quantitative equity portfolios and research support for the Southern Africa Development Community region. The partnership also provides Momentum Investments with broad access to Robeco’s best practices and insights.

As allocators of capital across the investment team in London and South Africa (SA), we identified Robeco as a core partner to deepen integration between the local and global portfolio allocations, deemed as a crucial investment success factor.

Robeco is an international asset manager founded in 1929 and a global leader in quantitative and sustainable investing since 1995. Quantitative or “quant” investing is an investing strategy that uses mathematical models and data analysis to make investment decisions and manage portfolios in a more systematic fashion.

The partnership follows five years of collaboration between Momentum Investments and Robeco. With this partnership, we can achieve more holistic integration and alignment of local and global allocations by using Robeco quants as a core provider in global equity funds. This integration has been created through the alignment and harmonization of investment style factors between SA and offshore equity allocations, as well as portfolio construction that accounts for the complementary characteristics of various equity markets.

Sustainability and responsible investing resonate deeply with us and Robeco, and the partnership will enable Momentum Investments to further improve the environmental, social and governance (ESG) profile and carbon footprint of its global portfolios. We continue to progress on our sustainability journey and integrate the principles encapsulated in our policies on Responsible Investment, Climate Change, Engagement and Proxy Voting.

The continued relaxation of exchange controls has increasingly required assets managed in SA to have strong alignment and integration between the local and global components of portfolios, which also ensures the consistency and integrity of the investment philosophy and risk management. The strategic partnership with Robeco, together with our London office Momentum Global Investment Management, as well as SA based teams, will ensure that we can continue to provide investors with world leading insights and access to global investment opportunities.

As Jeanette Marais, Chief Executive Officer of Momentum Metropolitan, said: “The synergy between Momentum and Robeco empowers us to deliver our clients unmatched, integrated portfolios spanning both local and global assets. In the dynamic South African investment landscape, change is upon us. As the need for offshore assets surges, our powerful partnership merges Robeco’s global knowledge with our South African expertise. Together, we are shaping the future of world-class investing.”

We are excited by the prospects afforded by the partnership and look forward to the ability to leverage the complementary skills of Momentum and Robeco to the benefit all our stakeholders.

For more information, speak to your Momentum consultant or go to momentum.co.za.