“Developments in the stock markets in 2020 were very turbulent. After the initial pandemic losses, the markets gradually recovered rapidly with unprecedented support from governments and central banks, ”states the annual report of the fund managed by ČSOB published in the autumn.
Last year, bonds proved to be an anchor of stability for church money. “During the crisis, the bonds of developed countries worked as a safe haven and their prices rose sharply,” the report added.
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Investments of 2021: Commodities, stocks, cryptocurrencies and bonds • VIDEO Videohub
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It was precisely the bonds focused on the roughly quarter-billion portfolio that managed to bring domestic Catholics almost five percent to the holders of the fund’s investment shares last year before deducting the dividends paid out. The shares of the equity sub-fund then rose by about one and a half percent.
At the same time, world stock prices rose by seventeen percent last year from the perspective of the Dow Jones Global Index, but the Western European stock exchanges, for example, ended the first covid year with a loss of more than three percent.
“In 2020, different regions, as well as investment styles, varied considerably. Technology stocks have driven the entire market, while many traditional sectors have lagged behind. The fund’s return is lower than would correspond to the overall index, but probably due to the strategy of focusing on companies that meet the criteria of sustainable investments, “says Fichtner analyst Tomáš Tyl.
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The performance of the koruna’s exchange rate, which strengthened against the common currency last year and thus reduced the return on foreign investment, also spoke against the performance of Catholic investments, which were generally bought in euros.
While the Catholic Fund’s equity sub-fund invested most of its assets in the instruments of the parent company ČSOB, the Belgian KBC, the bond-targeted sub-fund distributed around a quarter of a billion in instruments across the financial market. The sobering came after the fat year of 2019, when the so-called growth sub-fund was able to earn more than a fifth of the investment at the beginning of the year.
Catholics did worse than a similar New Covenant Growth Fund. He also invests according to the rules of so-called socially responsible investment, which avoids, for example, addictive substances or weapons. The fund’s shares rose almost 15 percent last year.
The four sub-funds under the banner of the Catholic Fund are to prospectively concentrate part of the church money obtained from restitutions. Last year’s novelty is a special approximately half-billion real estate fund of around one hundred million crowns, which is used for purchases in Slovakia. The Catholic Fund manages the property of the Czech Bishops’ Conference and all eight Roman Catholic dioceses in the Czech Republic.
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