Mirae Asset’s Canadian subsidiary’s asset under management exceeds W20tr

Mirae Asset Global Investment’s Canadian subsidiary Horizons ETFs’ assets under management have exceeded 20 trillion won ($16.4 billion), showing more than a sixfold increase in the last decade.

On Monday, the Korean asset manager said Horizons ETFs’ assets under management had reached $18.1 billion, or 22.2 trillion won. The figure has increased more than sixfold since Mirae Asset acquired Horizons ETFs in 2011, when it was managing assets of 3.6 trillion won.

Horizons ETFs’ assets under management have been gaining at a fast pace in recent years, with the figure gaining 5.4 trillion won last year and 2.8 trillion won in the first three months of this year.

The Canadian asset manager rolls out various exchange-traded funds with active, passive, leveraged and inverse exposure to the market. Last year, it launched two ETFs tracking the value of Bitcoin futures alongside a fund investing in stocks in the battery, biotechnology, internet and gaming industries, referred to collectively as the BBIG sectors.

Regulators in most global markets, including the US and South Korea, have rejected listing applications of cryptocurrency ETFs due to concerns about manipulation and criminal activity. Canadian financial authorities, however, have been taking a more lenient approach toward cryptocurrency-linked ETFs.

Horizons ETFs’ main product is “Horizons S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index ETF,” which is designed to measure the performance of the broad large-cap market segment of the Canadian equity market, according to Mirae Asset.

“We are growing alongside Mirae Asset and making efforts to help our investors reach their goals by providing solutions that could help them thrive in the Canadian market with fresh investments,” Horizons ETFs CEO Steve Hawkins said.

Horizons ETFs is one of the four largest ETF firms in Canada, operating some 90 ETFs.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)