"It's a time of volatile markets, which means we do a lot of trades at APG. If only to balance the portfolio over and over again." That is what APG's Thijs Knaap says in the program Zakendoen on BNR Nieuwsradio in a conversation about investments. "I wanted to highlight a transaction that we did in the context of ANET, the ABP Dutch Energy Transition Fund." ANET has taken an interest in the Groningen company enie.nl, which sells and rents solar panels. "Anyone who can calculate knows that the electricity price has become much higher. As a result, the payback period has become much shorter. That has not escaped most people, so there is a lot of demand for solar panels. Enie.nl can now expand with the money they get from ANET. This is good for the returns and good for the energy transition."
Knaap, chief economist at APG, regularly joins the investor panel of Zakendoen. In today's broadcast, he also discusses how APG had for a number of years taken into account an economic shock in which prices of raw materials would rise rapidly and a subsequent growth shock due to economic uncertainty. "We had put in place an investment policy to prepare us for that shock, but for years it was only one percent inflation and commodity prices fell. So basically it was the reverse of such a shock for a long time. But due to the current high commodity prices and the inflation that is skyrocketing, what we have set up is now doing great. Examples are investments in commodities, hedge funds and infrastructure. While with a portfolio with only shares and bonds you would have certainly be at a loss," says Knaap in conversation with presenter Thomas van Zijl and panel member Mary Pieterse-Bloem.
Listen to the entire broadcast here.