Fast reading
- South Korea’s Kospi index surged 83% last year1, and in light of our overweight to the country, significantly boosted the Strategy’s overall performance.
- We estimate that about half of the rise in the Kospi during 2025 was because of improvements to corporate governance in the country, and about half was because of investor enthusiasm around artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors. We believe our own efforts played a potentially significant role in spurring the corporate governance overhaul in South Korea, with all six key recommendations we made in our February 2024 note The Unpersuadables? in various stages of adoption and implementation.
- We have reduced some of our holdings in South Korea in response to the sharp rise in equities. However, we consider our remaining South Korean stocks to still be attractive in a market that has ‘risen for a reason’ and remain overweight. A number of our holdings are linked to the fortunes of tech giant Samsung Electronics, but are also supported by additional reform-led factors.
FHL Asia ex-Japan Equity Letter to Investors February 2026
For further insights on Asia ex-Japan Equity.
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1 Specified in US dollars. Bloomberg as at 31 December 2025.
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