Mirae Asset Global Investments is launching its first exchange-traded fund in Japan focused on South Korean semiconductor companies including Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS), through its local subsidiary Global X Japan. With the spread of artificial intelligence drawing greater attention to Korean firms that dominate the global memory market, the asset manager is using semiconductor products listed in Korea to broaden its global ETF business.
Global X Japan plans to list the Global X Korea Semiconductor Top 10 ETF on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on the 9th, according to financial investment industry sources on the 8th. Japan Exchange Group approved the listing on August 20. "This is the first product among the ETFs managed by Global X that invests purely in Korean semiconductor companies," a Mirae Asset official said.
The ETF is a fund-of-funds product that invests in Mirae Asset Global Investments' TIGER Semiconductor Top 10 ETF, which is listed on the Korean market. Money raised in Japan flows through the domestic ETF into Korean semiconductor stocks such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.
The underlying benchmark is FnGuide's Semiconductor Top 10 Index, converted into yen. The index allocates 25% each to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, for a combined 50%, with the remaining half spread across eight companies in Korea's semiconductor value chain. The index currently includes Samsung Electronics and SK hynix along with SK Square (402340.KS), Hanmi Semiconductor (042700.KS), Jusung Engineering (036930.KS) and Isu Petasys. Actual weightings may shift with stock price movements, and the index is rebalanced twice a year, in April and October.
Rising memory demand driven by AI and the competitiveness of Korea's semiconductor supply chain are cited as the main reasons behind the product launch. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix held revenue-based shares of 39.4% and 24.9% of the global DRAM market in the second quarter, for a combined 64.3%, according to industry data. In the high-bandwidth memory market, SK hynix retained the top position with 50%, while Samsung Electronics sharply raised its share to 33% from 21% in the previous quarter.
Mirae Asset has already used its TIGER ETFs as building blocks for Japanese products once before, with success. In April, Global X Japan listed the Global X Nasdaq 100 Daily Covered Call ETF on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The product invests primarily in the domestic TIGER U.S. Nasdaq 100 Target Daily Covered Call ETF, and its net assets grew to about 55 billion yen (roughly 470 billion won) in a little over four months after listing. The firm is now extending that fund-of-funds structure from a benchmark U.S. index to a Korean semiconductor theme.
Mirae Asset's ETF business in Japan is expanding quickly. Global X Japan was established in 2019 as Japan's first ETF-specialized asset manager, a joint venture between Mirae Asset affiliate Global X and Daiwa Securities Group. Its assets under management topped 1 trillion yen for the first time as of the end of June, reaching 1.14 trillion yen. Assets have grown about 7.5-fold over the past three years, and the company posted its first annual profit since its founding on a Japanese fiscal-year basis, indicating that profitability is also on track.
