Q: I am a long-term buy & hold type of investor. There are 3 companies in my portfolio with renewable energy assets--AQN, BEPC, NPI-- with percent weightings in my portfolio of 0.7%, 0.9%, and 0.8%, respectively (2.4% in total). I have an unrealized loss with AQN of ~$40,000, and so was thinking of crystallizing the loss-- temporarily shifting the proceeds to BEPC--with a plan to re-buy AQN in >30 days. HOWEVER, given that AQN is planning to divest its renewable energy assets (correct?) and given that I have lots of other utility exposure (FTS, EMA, with these 2 securities totaling 3.5% portfolio weighting), perhaps it would be better to just keep the proceeds from the AQN sale in BEPC (and perhaps also upping the NPI holding somewhat), and not bother re-buying AQN in >30 days time. With the general caveat that you are hesitant to give "personalized" advice, how would you handle this type of situation?
Ted
Ted
5i Research Answer:
AQN does have assets for sale, but any deal could take time and there is no guarantee the market will like any deal. For us, taking a loss makes sense, and we would consider BEPC a superior company and would be fine adding to it and leaving AQN out of the equation, considering already-good diversification within the sector.