South Korea’s asset management industry posted stellar growth in the first half of 2025, buoyed by a 28% surge in the country’s benchmark Kospi index, the strongest rally in 26 years.
Industry giants and nimble mid-tier players alike capitalized on booming investor demand, with Samsung Asset Management Co. solidifying its dominance by assets thanks to the country’s burgeoning exchange-traded fund (ETF) market, which has surged past 200 trillion won ($147 billion) this year for the first time.
According to data compiled by the Korean investment banking industry on Wednesday, Samsung Asset boasted the country’s largest assets under management (AUM) of 391.93 trillion won as of the end of the first half of 2025, up 33 trillion won from the end of 2024.
Over the same period, its share in the ETF market climbed from 38.23% to 38.67%, as institutional investors poured funds into safer, liquid products such as the KODEX Money Market Active ETF, which alone drew 2.43 trillion won.
Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. ranked second with an AUM of 224.57 trillion won, up 22 trillion won in the same period. Its flagship TIGER S&P500 ETF attracted 1.35 trillion won in net inflows. The firm holds 33.55% of the ETF market.
KB Asset Management Co. and Shinhan Asset Management Co. ranked third and fourth with 165.24 trillion won and 140.15 trillion won, respectively, in AUM.
FIERCE COMPETITION IN THE ETF MARKET
Competition remained fierce further down the league table.
Korea Investment Management Co. narrowly retained third place in the ETF market with a 7.79% share, just ahead of KB Asset Management’s 7.77%.
Shinhan Asset Management rounded out the top five at 3.70%, driven by inflows into short-duration bond funds and thematic ETFs, such as SOL US AI Software and SOL Shipbuilding TOP3 Plus.
Hanwha Asset Management Co. rose to sixth place, up from seventh at the end of last year, fueled by the runaway success of its PLUS K-Defense ETF. The fund returned 149% in the first half, drawing 451 billion won in new money.
Hanwha placed four products in the ETF return top 10, including PLUS Hanwha Group (118.3%), PLUS Solar & ESS (85.9%) and PLUS Aerospace & UAM (75.9%).
UNDERDOGS SHINE IN PUBLIC FUND RANKINGS
Smaller asset managers swept the public fund performance rankings, taking the top seven positions during the period.
Assetplus Asset Management’s Korea Rich Together Fund delivered a 65.9% return, more than double the Kospi’s advance, thanks to concentrated bets on defense and cosmetics stocks.
Other high performers included SPARX Asset Management’s Korea Selected (63.2%), DS Asset Management’s DS Maestro (59.1%) and Truston Asset Management’s Truston Pincette Small/Mid-Cap (58.2%).
Gold-themed offshore funds also shone, with iM Asset Investment & Management’s World Gold fund returning 45.5%, followed by IBK Asset Management Co.’s Gold Mining fund (40.6%) and NH-Amundi Asset Management’s Global Aerospace fund (40.5%).
By Man-Su Choe, Su-Ji Na and Ji-Yoon Yang
bebop@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.
