Guinness Atkinson's K-beauty ETF costs more than the beauty fund already trading
Guinness Atkinson's new fund charges 0.55% for an index of Korean beauty stocks, nearly the 0.59% fee on the broad Korea fund.
Key takeaways
On Nov. 12, Guinness Atkinson Asset Management listed the Guinness Atkinson K-Beauty ETF, KBTY, on NYSE Arca. It charges 0.55%, more than the beauty fund already trading and nearly as much as the broad Korea fund.
The Oct. 28 prospectus lists 0.55% as the management fee and the total annual operating expense, with no waiver.
The fund tracks the Indxx K-Beauty Index, from the index provider Indxx. The index typically holds 20 to 35 companies.
A company qualifies if at least 25% of its revenue, income, operating profit or assets comes from Korean beauty, which covers brands, contract manufacturers, distributors and medical aesthetics. The prospectus says most of those companies will be organized, headquartered, or principally listed in South Korea, or otherwise economically tied to the country.
The fund is non-diversified, so a few names can dominate. It does not generally hedge its currency exposure.
"What looks like an overnight sensation on social media is actually a structural shift in global consumer behavior," Jim Atkinson, CEO of Guinness Atkinson Asset Management, said in the Nov. 12 launch release.
In that release, Guinness Atkinson said South Korea recorded $11.4 billion in cosmetics exports in 2025 and had become the world's second-largest exporter in the category, citing South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
The release says the fund is not actively managed and generally will not sell a stock because the company is doing poorly unless the index removes it.
The beauty fund already trading is Corgi Strategies' Corgi Beauty, Skincare & Aesthetics ETF, GLAM. It is actively managed, and its April 30 prospectus sets the fee at 0.35%. It expects most of its stocks to have their primary listing in the United States.
Corgi's site showed $1.5 million in assets on Nov. 12, and an inception date of May 5.
The broad Korea fund is not a beauty fund. BlackRock's iShares MSCI South Korea ETF, EWY, charges 0.59% and had $21.1 billion on Nov. 12, its fund page showed. In that day's holdings file, Samsung Electronics was 23% of the fund and SK Hynix was 21.6%. Amorepacific, a cosmetics company, was 0.54%.
What KBTY adds is a concentration on Korean beauty. The fee is higher than GLAM's and nearly as much as EWY's.
The same day, Canada's Bank of Montreal changed the ticker on its MicroSectors Gold 3X Leveraged exchange-traded notes from SHNY to GLLD. The bank had said in a Nov. 2 announcement that the terms would stay the same.
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