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January 19, 2017 at 09:00 AM
Now that Prime Minister Theresa May has laid out Britain’s plan to exit the EU, a new study released by State Street finds that professional investors are unlikely to unload their U.K. assets in the short term.
Sixty-three percent of institutional and alternatives investors surveyed expected their own firm to maintain their holdings of U.K. assets in the coming six months. Sixteen percent believed assets would decrease, while 13% said they would increase.
State Street and PollRight, a market research agency, conducted a poll in December and early January of 111 institutional and alternatives investors, including hedge funds, real estate and private equity. This followed from an initial study conducted earlier in the fourth quarter among 161 professional investors.
Michael Metcalfe, head of global macro strategy at State Street Global Advisors, said in a statement that markets seemed to have “mostly moved on” since the Brexit referendum result.
“The extremely gloomy pre-Brexit predictions for the U.K. economy and asset markets look well off the mark,” Metcalfe said.
However, the new poll found that 48% of investors expected foreign investment levels into the U.K. to drop in the coming quarter and the country to continue to suffer as a result of Brexit.
Forty-three percent had a neutral outlook on medium-term global economic growth, down from 47% in the fourth quarter. Thirty-three percent expressed a positive view, up a percentage point from the third quarter, and 19% a negative outlook, up three points from the third quarter.
