Korea Investment & Securities Co., a subsidiary of Korea Investment Holdings, said on the 7th it will launch the "Korea Investment JPMorgan U.S. Tech Securities Feeder Investment Trust," which will focus on U.S. technology stocks in cooperation with JPMorgan Asset Management.
The fund is a fund-of-funds product that uses the "JPMorgan U.S. Technology Fund," established in Luxembourg, as its master fund. It invests more than 60% of its total asset in the master fund to invest in corporations that fit the long-term growth trend of the U.S. technology industry.
This product is a follow-up to the strategic business agreement signed in March by Korea Investment & Securities Co. and JPMorgan Asset Management. The two companies will expand the supply of JPMorgan Asset Management's global products to domestic investors and strengthen cooperation for retail customers by providing global market insights through Korea Investment & Securities Co.'s mobile trading system (MTS).
Earlier, the "JPMorgan Global High Yield Fund," the first product introduced after the two companies began collaborating, raised about 81.2 billion won in retail funds about a week after sales began on Mar. 9.
The Korea Investment JPMorgan U.S. Tech Fund does not rely solely on market-cap-weighted methods centered on specific indexes or large-cap tech stocks, but instead selects stocks based on fundamental research.
It will broadly uncover not only large-cap tech stocks such as Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft, but also corporations in networking, power, memory and custom processors that are expected to benefit from the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) computing infrastructure.
The portfolio will be diversified across about 50 to 70 names. Portfolio managers with an average of more than 23 years of experience will determine investment targets based on bottom-up research, conducting comprehensive analysis of corporations' growth potential, profitability and valuation. In particular, the plan is to focus on tech corporations expected to draw attention in this year's stock market.
JPMorgan Asset Management is a global asset manager with about $4.2 trillion in assets under management worldwide. It operates a research platform with an annual research budget of about $480 million and about 100 analysts.
Kim Seong-hwan, president of Korea Investment & Securities Co., said, "By collaborating with JPMorgan Asset Management, we are expanding a variety of products and services so that domestic investors can access investment opportunities in global markets," and added, "We will continue to strengthen our global financial network and introduce investment solutions that can contribute to growing customers' asset."