Lim Tae-hyuk, managing director of the ETF Management Division at Samsung Asset Management, speaks during a press conference on single-stock leveraged products at a hotel in central Seoul on Tuesday. (Samsung Asset Management) Samsung Asset Management said Tuesday it will launch Korea’s first single-stock leveraged products tied to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix on Wednesday.The firm said it will list the Kodex Samsung Electronics single stock leverage and Kodex SK hynix single stock leverage products, which aim to deliver twice the daily returns of the underlying shares.The two products attracted a combined 2.4 trillion won ($1.6 billion) in assets under management ahead of launch, marking the largest-ever ETF product debut in Korea. Of the total, 1.07 trillion won was tied to Samsung Electronics products and 1.37 trillion won to SK hynix.Samsung Asset Management said the products differ from traditional leveraged structures by relying mainly on spot holdings rather than futures contracts. This helps reduce rollover costs associated with extending futures positions each month.Lim Tae-hyuk, managing director of the company’s ETF management division, said the structure also allows the firm to respond more flexibly to spot and futures market conditions while generating dividend income from direct stock holdings.The asset manager also said it is the first in Korea to adopt an in-kind creation and redemption structure for leveraged single-stock products, instead of a cash-based model.The company said the structure could reduce annual trading costs by 1.1 percent to 1.4 percent by lowering brokerage commissions and securities transaction taxes.Samsung Asset Management added that it secured 25 authorized participants and 15 liquidity providers — the industry’s largest network — to support trading liquidity and tighter bid-ask spreads from launch.The products arrive as Korean regulators open the market to single-stock leveraged and inverse products tied to highly liquid blue-chip shares.He added that while foreign omnibus accounts are currently barred from investing in ETFs under existing regulations, regulatory changes could help channel more capital into the domestic market.Financial authorities, however, warned Tuesday that the products carry significant risks because losses can be amplified sharply during volatile market swings.To distinguish them from conventional exchange-traded funds, regulators prohibited the use of the term “ETF” in product names and instead require the label “single stock.”