La Rioja is known worldwide for its wines, its gastronomy and its landscapes. Not for your financial sector. And yet the best investment fund in Spain in 2022 was managed from Logroño. Also the best fund of 2021. And of 2020. For three years in a row, the capital of La Rioja hosts the best investment vehicle in the country. How is this possible when Barcelona and Madrid concentrate more than 90% of professionals in the wealth management industry?
The profitability these products have achieved is stratospheric. Three years ago, the Alcalá Multigestión Oricalco fund returned 157% investing in companies related to blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. The following year added another 55% return to its participants.
When Bitcoin and the rest of virtual currencies were deflated, they took away much of the industry and also funds like Oricalco (which lost 52% of its value in 2022). But another product from the capital of La Rioja, the Alcalá Multigestión GARP, has taken over. Over the past year it has been 96% occupied thanks to its exposure to companies in the oil sector. Once again La Rioja has won the gold medal for investments.
Although the two funds are very different thematically, they share two very important characteristics. On the one hand the wealth manager: Creand Wealth Management. This company is owned by the Andorran bank Crèdit Andorrà, which operated in Spain through its subsidiary Banco Alcalá and the management company Gesalcalá, which is now using the new brand. The second similarity is that both are products that have an external consultant. What is this character? These are products that are nominally managed by a fund management company, Gesalcalá SGIIC, which is responsible for everything related to regulatory compliance, but where investment decisions are made by a person or entity outside of the manager.
In the case of the Oricalco fund, he will be advised by La Rioja firm Driemut, managed by Diego Bernabéu Ugarte. It’s a finance startup. In the meantime, the Alcalá Multigestión GARP is being advised by Ignacio José Irigoyen Ramírez, a businessman from Logroño who has several companies related to tourist rental housing.
According to financial sources in Logroño, the sponsor of these vehicles is a private banker from Creand, Pedro Marín. “It is he who suggested to several people interested in the world of investments to become fund advisors of Gesalcalá,” they comment.
Creand Wealth Management prefers to keep the advisors of these funds in the background, who in both cases have little wealth: 3.4 million euros for Oricalco and 17 million euros for GARP.
Luis Buceta, Creand Investment Director, explains that “a fund like Alcalá Multigestión GARP is a very specific product with a very delicate investment policy and is not designed for any type of investor.”
The GARP consultant has rotated his portfolio after 12 months with very powerful positions in oil prospecting companies, in shipping companies specializing in natural gas and in gold mining companies. Now his main position is the Galician photovoltaic company EIDF, listed on BME Growth and with a market capitalization of almost 1,600 million euros after being revalued by 478% last year.
His investment method is to buy companies that are showing strong growth in their accounts but are still trading at reasonable prices.
How are these vehicles?
- orichalcum. It is a fund specialized in the new industry that has sprung up around cryptocurrencies. Invest in companies specializing in data storage and processing to mine these digital assets. Also in mediation platforms or consultants for the development of this type of product.
- GARP. The collective investment institution with the highest profitability in Spain last year, which practically doubled its net asset value in 12 months, has achieved this in a year of decline in almost all variable income markets. His adviser achieved it by betting everything on the oil sector, with all its ancillary industries, as well as some companies specializing in gold extraction.