6 februari 2012
Robeco Group (“Robeco”) announces today that it is considering transforming its French subsidiary, Robeco Gestions, into a sales office fully dedicated to the distribution of funds and Robeco’s expertise to the French market.

After reviewing its 2010-2014 strategy and taking into account the limited potential for substantial growth of assets under management, Robeco no longer considers its money market capability in France as strategic and therefore proposes discontinuing this capability.

This intention would lead to the closure of Robeco’s money market funds, in turn making Robeco Gestions’ distribution business outweigh its asset management activities. Moreover, the organizational costs of operating a full scale asset manager in France would hurt the competitiveness of Robeco. Therefore, it would be proposed to focus on distribution only. As a result, the sales activities in France would consist of sales of dedicated institutional funds and the wholesale distribution of the Robeco fund range.

Robeco has had a distribution presence in France since 1959 when Robeco funds were listed on the Paris stock exchange. It intends to continue its long history with French investors despite the possible end of its local asset management activities. Robeco continues to consider France a strategic sales market for its global asset-management activities and will maintain its service there to institutional investors and large corporate groups.

The target start date of the new organization is expected to be in the third quarter of 2012, once the consultation procedure with the employee representative has been finalized and subject to regulatory approval and due process.