Altum Faith, the fund that triumphs with the Vatican doctrine

Borja Barragán launched a Christian fund with the Julius Baer bank and later created his own firm to invest under the parameters of the Vatican doctrine. In the last two years, the new vehicle that he advises has gone like a rocket, scoring almost 90% profitability in the last 18 months.

Altum Faithful Investing (based in Majadahonda) decides if there are companies that cannot be in the fund because their activity goes against the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, dictated by the Vatican.— Borja Barragán fell from his horse in 2014, as he told passed Paul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus.

This investor from Madrid had worked for Citigroup, RBS and Merrill Lynch in the financial asset brokerage departments, but after completing a master’s degree in Family Ministry at the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences, he decided to reorient his personal life and focus his professional career towards investing under Catholic criteria. He first launched a Christian fund with the Swiss bank Julius Baer.

And then he created his own investment firm. In the last two years, the new fund that he advises under these parameters has gone like a shot, scoring almost 90% profitability in the last 18 months. The vehicle is called Azvalor Lux Altum Faith and it is a sicav based in Luxembourg.

The manager is the prestigious Spanish firm Azvalor Asset Management, but the company that Barragán runs, Altum Faithful Investing (based in Majadahonda, Madrid), is the one that ends up deciding if there are companies that cannot be in the fund because their products or their activity go against the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, dictated by the Vatican.

The investment fund, which accumulates assets of 56 million euros, was launched in 2018. The early days were difficult, due to Azvalor’s strong commitment to gold, uranium and oil mining companies, which did not raise their heads . However, after the 2020 pandemic and with the reopening of economies, the price of raw materials began to fly. And with it, that of companies specializing in the exploitation of minerals or energy sources.

Barragán explains that it is the managers of Azvalor who choose the fund companies, “but we can veto those that we believe, according to our own models, are not complying with Christian precepts. We have a very fruitful dialogue.” In Spain there are few investment funds that follow religious criteria to define their portfolio, but in the United States and in many Islamic countries they are very widespread.

Of the more than 600 products of this type that the Bloomberg firm monitors, Azvalor Lux Altum Faith is the one that has had the greatest revaluation so far in 2022, more than 30% (compared to the generalized falls in all the Stock Exchanges of the world) . Altum Faithful Investing not only advises the aforementioned fund. Its main activity is to offer financial advice to religious congregations, so that they can invest their capital in compliance with Christian commandments.

The company has eight employees and all profits go back to social projects carried out by Christian organizations. The main tool they use is Altum Explorer, an application that allows them to analyze at a glance all the listed companies in the world that do not comply with Catholic values: because they research with stem cells, because they tolerate abortion, because they manufacture contraceptive methods, such as condoms. , or because they promote non-Catholic family models, such as homosexual couples.

For example, the Disney company, which has been at the center of controversy in recent days for including a kiss between two women in its film Lightyear, is outside the Catholic investment universe. On the other hand, according to Altum’s investment parameters, it is possible to invest in tobacco companies such as Scandinavian Tobacco or Karelia Tobacco, in oil or gold producers, in casino companies such as Penn National Gaming or in alcoholic beverage companies.