Manulife's Ehrmann: Technology sector will soon lose renewable energy to utilities

Move will invigorate the sector

Renewable energy producers, such as solar and wind farms, will soon shift from their current home in the technology sector to join traditional electricity, gas, heat and water providers in the utilities sector, according to Manulife Investment Management senior portfolio manager Philip Ehrmann.

Speaking to Investment Week, the emerging markets manager predicted the move would invigorate a sector described by some as the home of "the most conservative and most boring investments". "Wind farms, solar farms and operators will begin to gravitate to the utilities sector because, post the manufacturing of a photovoltaic cell, essentially the application is in a utility-like environment," he reasoned. "So, the whole utility space will evolve and become more interesting to us." There is precedent for such a move, the manager explained, when the former telecoms sector was largely sub...