UK solar remains a destination of choice for investment despite concerns over Brexit due to the market’s ability to diversify investment portfolios, Allianz GI chief investment officer Armin Sandhoevel has said.
Speaking exclusively to Solar Power Portal following his firm’s acquisition of a 100MW portfolio from BayWa r.e., Sandhoevel said the group had made a “great” acquisition in a market Allianz had grown to love.
“We’ve made a great investment in the UK. It was not the first one here so we are quite familiar with the UK market. We also bought [a solar park] here two years ago, so we’ve had a good experience,” Sandhoevel added.
Sandhoevel acknowledged doubts surrounding Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, but insisted the UK would remain high on Allianz’s agenda.
“It’s quite challenging times now, particularly after Brexit, but on the other hand there are not so many opportunities in other European markets and I will see with the UK pound sterling and currency exchange rates, and other interest rates here in the UK, it’s one of the places to be,” he said.
Sandhoevel said that the interest in the UK market stood in Allianz’s – and other investor’s – need to diversify their portfolios to manage the risk of being too exposed to individual markets.
“At the end, for me the UK is one of the places that I love to put into my portfolio because of portfolio diversification… At the end, for me the UK is one of the places that I love to put into my portfolio because of portfolio diversification,” he said.