Korea Investment Management Launches "Global Metaverse Tech Active ETF"

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] Korea Investment Trust Management will list the 'Navigator Global Metaverse Tech Active Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF)' investing in the global metaverse (3D virtual world) industry on the 22nd. This is the first time an active ETF investing in overseas metaverse-related stocks has been launched domestically.

The 'Navigator Global Metaverse Tech Active ETF' invests primarily in global leading companies in metaverse-related infrastructure hardware (HW) and software (SW) industries, including head-mounted displays (HMD), 3D modeling and simulation SW, media, content, and platforms. It is characterized by focusing more on HW and SW sectors, which are foundational technologies for realizing virtual reality worlds, rather than areas corresponding to the final outputs of metaverse technology such as media, content, and platforms.

The Navigator Global Metaverse Tech Active ETF is a product where the fund manager actively manages assets to achieve higher performance than the benchmark index while maintaining a correlation coefficient of 0.7 or higher with the benchmark. The ETF is managed by Chan Kwak, Deputy Head of Equity Management at Korea Investment Trust Management and a tech sector analyst with 11 years of experience, who is also the manager of the 'Korea Investment Tech Fund.'

Deputy Head Kwak explained, "Companies at the forefront of the metaverse industry, such as those in content and media, tend to have relatively high thematic volatility, and stock prices can vary significantly depending on competition within the industry. On the other hand, backend companies forming the industry's foundation, such as infrastructure HW and SW, will steadily grow over the long term regardless of which company leads the front-end industry, so it is necessary to invest more heavily in them."

The benchmark index for the ‘Navigator Global Metaverse Tech Active ETF’ is the ‘Bloomberg Global Digital Media & Tech Select Index,’ calculated by Bloomberg. This index consists of the top 200 stocks by free-float market capitalization related to HW, SW, and digital media in the global market. As of the end of October, the sector composition of the index was software (26.7%), semiconductors (23.5%), internet media & services (22.8%), technology hardware (16.5%), telecommunications (6.3%), and entertainment content (4.0%).

Deputy Head Kwak said, "While domestic metaverse companies stand out in media, content, and platform fields, their position in the metaverse infrastructure sector is relatively weak. By utilizing the Navigator Global Metaverse Tech Active ETF, which diversifies investments in global companies possessing core metaverse-related technologies including infrastructure HW and SW, investors can stably invest in the growth of the metaverse industry both domestically and internationally."