“K-Beauty, Wall Street’s new investment theme”… Dedicated ETF listed on the New York Stock Exchange

Amid the rapid growth of the Korean cosmetics industry, a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) that focuses on investing in Korean beauty companies has been introduced on Wall Street.

According to Bloomberg News on the 13th (local time), American asset management company Guinness Atkinson listed the 'Guinness Atkinson K Beauty ETF' (KBTY) on the New York Stock Exchange the day before, tracking an index composed of 25 companies, including Korean cosmetics manufacturers.

This ETF contains stocks of cosmetics manufacturers and medical beauty companies such as Amore Pacific, Pharma Research, Kolmar Korea, APR, Pumtech Korea, and Dongkook Pharmaceutical.

On the ETF description page, the management company introduced, "K-pop and K-drama introduced Korea to the world stage, and among them, beauty products benefited the most. Global sales increased by 53% last year, and Korea is now the world's second largest exporter of cosmetics."

CEO Jim Atkinson said in an interview with Bloomberg, "K-beauty products are effective, high-quality, and affordable, meeting all the conditions that consumers want. K-beauty is globalizing very quickly."

CEO Atkinson explained that this ETF is not simply a product based on the social media craze, and that it is characterized by expanding its investment scope beyond traditional cosmetics to medical beauty companies that are expected to benefit from increased demand due to the obesity treatment (GLP-1) craze.

He expected interest from individual investors first, but predicted that if the growth potential is high, it could eventually attract the attention of institutional investors.

Bloomberg said that the K-beauty boom is emerging as Wall Street's latest investment target, but pointed out that popular consumer trends do not necessarily lead to sustained investment demand.

More than 320 ETFs have been closed in the U.S. market this year. Of these, about 20 were thematic ETFs that invested in specific industries or trends.

'Jakota K-Pop & Korean Entertainment ETF' (KPOP), one of the past Korea-related investment products, was designed based on the K-Pop craze such as BTS and Blackpink, but at the time of liquidation last year, the assets under management were only $1.4 million.