By Ursula Quass and Ulrike Dauer
Allianz SE (ALV.XE), Europe's biggest insurer by market value
and a major asset manager, is "closely eying" investments in
offshore windparks, and individual investments could amount to up
to 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion), provided several conditions are
met, Chief Financial Officer Oliver Baete said Wednesday.
So far, Allianz has only invested in onshore windparks. It
currently owns 34 wind farms and seven solar farms in France,
Germany and Italy. Allianz's total investment is about EUR1.3
billion in renewable energy, which it considers a growth
market.
Mr. Baete's comments reflect heightened interest in offshore
wind energy as in June Allianz only said it was "open for
investments in offshore wind," but that it hadn't so far found a
suitable opportunity where the return outweighed the long-term risk
involved.
Speaking at a press club in Munich, Mr. Baete said a lot of
progress has been made in clarifying liability issues for offshore
wind energy investments, and once the issues are cleared, Allianz
would be "ready to invest."
Once the risk-return profile is appropriate, regulatory issues
are clear and cluster risks can be avoided, Allianz could consider
a bigger individual investment, up to EUR1 billion, Mr. Baete said.
However he added that the company would prefer to take on the
investment as part of a consortium. He declined to comment on when
Allianz could make its first investment in offshore wind
energy.
Germany's government hopes that insurers will become a big
financial investor in its post-nuclear energy strategy. The
financing gap for the switchover to renewable energies has been
estimated at around EUR250 billion. In 2020, the strategy
stipulates that offshore wind parks contribute about 10,000
megawatts of power capacity. This is equivalent to around 10
nuclear plants and is an ambitious target.
Write to Ursula Quass at ursula.quass@dowjones.com and Ulrike
Dauer at ulrike.dauer@wsj.com
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