Shinhan Asset Management's SOL AI Semiconductor Materials, Parts, and Equipment ETF Surpasses 1 Trillion Won in Net Assets

Shinhan Asset Management announced on March 11 that the net assets of the 'SOL AI Semiconductor Materials, Parts, and Equipment' Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF), which focuses on investment in leading domestic semiconductor materials, parts, and equipment (commonly referred to as "SoBuJang") companies, have surpassed 1 trillion won.

The net assets, which stood at 464.6 billion won at the beginning of the year, increased by more than 500 billion won in just over two months, surpassing the 1 trillion won mark. During the same period, net purchases by individual investors amounted to 182.4 billion won. As a result, the SOL AI Semiconductor Materials, Parts, and Equipment ETF has established itself as the only mega-sized ETF in Korea's semiconductor materials, parts, and equipment sector to exceed 1 trillion won in assets.

The SOL AI Semiconductor Materials, Parts, and Equipment ETF is a product that selectively invests in domestic AI semiconductor materials, parts, and equipment companies with core competitiveness. The ETF portfolio consists of 20 stocks, including Hanmi Semiconductor, Leeno Industrial, Isu Petasys, Wonik IPS, EO Technics, Hansol Chemical, HPSP, Jusung Engineering, Soulbrain, and ISC. Companies related to High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) account for approximately 45% of the portfolio, while those related to advanced process technology make up about 55%. By category, materials represent about 14%, parts 16%, equipment 45%, and others 25%.

According to the Korea Exchange, as of March 10, the year-to-date return of the SOL AI Semiconductor Materials, Parts, and Equipment ETF was 62.47%, outpacing Samsung Electronics at 56.71% and SK Hynix at 44.09%. The ETF also posted one-month and three-month returns of 21.66% and 56.67%, respectively.

Kim Junghyun, Head of ETF Business Group at Shinhan Asset Management, stated, "The three major memory semiconductor players—Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron—are successively announcing factory expansions, additional investments, and strengthened cooperation with domestic semiconductor materials, parts, and equipment companies." He explained, "As the focus on expanding High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) production intensifies, the supply of standard DRAM may inevitably become relatively insufficient. This creates a need for expanded production space and equipment, suggesting that the benefits are likely to spread across the entire materials, parts, and equipment sector." He added, "With the expansion of the ETF market and continued inflows into semiconductor-themed ETFs, the outlook for semiconductor materials, parts, and equipment stocks is positive not only in terms of industrial momentum but also from the perspective of ETF demand."

Meanwhile, Shinhan Asset Management plans to newly list the 'SOL AI Semiconductor TOP2 Plus' ETF, a strategy that maximizes the weighting of large-cap semiconductor stocks, on March 17. This ETF is characterized by maximizing the weights of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, while also including SK Square with a meaningful allocation to increase exposure to SK Hynix.

Kim further commented, "If the SOL AI Semiconductor Materials, Parts, and Equipment ETF is a broad strategy covering the entire materials, parts, and equipment sector, and the SOL Semiconductor Front-End Process and SOL Semiconductor Back-End Process ETFs are strategies that segment the industry value chain, then the SOL AI Semiconductor TOP2 Plus is a more focused product that adds representative materials, parts, and equipment stocks to a large-cap-centered portfolio comprising Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and SK Square." He added, "Through a portfolio centered on large-cap stocks, we can expect synergy with the existing SOL AI Semiconductor Materials, Parts, and Equipment ETF."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.