Not Only TSMC Can Be Heavily Weighted: Taiwan’s First 30% Concentrated ETF—00403A Lists Tomorrow With 80 Billion, Is It Worth Investing?

TradingKey - On May 12, 2026, Uni-President Asset Management's "Uni-President Active Upgrade 50" (00403A) will be officially listed, with its fundraising scale reaching NT$80 billion, setting a new historical record for Taiwan-listed ETF fundraising.

This is the 25th active ETF in Taiwan. Its most high-profile core selling point is that, by benefiting from the "Leapfrog Program" incentives granted to Uni-President Asset Management, 00403A's top holding cap can reach as high as 30%, surpassing the 25% limit generally relaxed by the Financial Supervisory Commission in April.

As the TAIEX surpasses 40,000 points and the bias ratio between the index and its quarterly moving average (the degree of deviation from long-term averages, where higher values indicate greater risk of a pullback) exceeds 18% in a high-valuation environment, whether this active ETF with a 30% concentration limit can overcome stock selection challenges has become a market focus.

What is an actively managed ETF? What type of fund is 00403A?

Active ETFs are a new type of financial product that combines active stock-picking strategies with the trading convenience of an ETF. Unlike passive ETFs that track indices, managers actively select individual stocks to seek alpha while retaining the benefits of intraday trading and daily transparency of holdings. Taiwan opened its market to these products in 2025, with 00403A being the 25th such offering.

00403A is positioned as an "upgraded market-cap ETF," focusing its investment theme on AI-related sectors, including advanced manufacturing, power management, networking, and high-speed transmission. The fund aims to hold 50 stocks and adopts a "core-plus-enhancement" strategy: the core allocation targets the top 50 companies by market capitalization, while also incorporating high-growth potential firms ranked between 51st and 200th in market cap.

Comparison of 00403A with Peer Products

In the active ETF market, 00403A faces competition from several peer products. Compared to its stablemate 00981A (Uni-President Taiwan Stock Growth Active ETF), 00403A's stock selection universe focuses on the top 50 stocks by market capitalization, making its style relatively conservative. 00981A covers the top 300 stocks and has delivered a YTD performance of approximately 78.8%, while the passive benchmark 0050 rose about 38% over the same period.

Compared to 00991A (Fuhua Future 50 Active ETF), both employ a "core + satellite" strategy. 00991A's selection covers the top 50 plus the 51st to 150th stocks by market cap, while 00403A extends this to the top 200, representing a minor difference. However, in terms of holding limits, 00991A is restricted to 10% under general regulations, which is significantly lower than 00403A's 30% cap.

Compared to the passive ETF 0050, which fully tracks the Taiwan 50 Index using market-cap weighting (resulting in TSMC accounting for over 60% of the portfolio), 00403A actively filters out laggards and includes high-momentum stocks, attempting to address the "large but not strong" issue associated with 0050.

Regarding fees, 00403A's management fee rate is approximately 1.235%, which is higher than the 0.02%–0.04% of passive ETFs and 00991A's approximately 0.14%, reflecting the typical cost profile of active management.

00403A Core Terms: 30% Concentration Limit

The core competitive advantage of 00403A lies in its breakthrough in holding concentration. Because Uni-President Asset Management received incentives from the "Leapfrog Program," the upper limit for its largest single holding can reach 30%, and all listed and OTC stocks are eligible candidates.

This means managers can heavily overweight a single favored stock with up to 30% of the assets. Uni-President Asset Management stated that this flexible mechanism allows the management team to lock in high-quality growth stocks during bull markets and pivot to defensive stocks like telecommunications and finance when under bearish pressure.

Initial holding data shows that the top five holdings are anchored by TSMC at approximately 25.1%, followed by BizLink-KY, AVC, Delta Electronics, and King Slide. Please note that the above data is based on planning prior to the fund's inception; actual holdings will be based on announcements after listing.

Compared to traditional passive ETFs that can only passively buy weighted stocks according to market capitalization, 00403A emphasizes "survival of the fittest" and will exclude companies with earnings that miss expectations or those that are loss-making.

According to the prospectus, the fund will prioritize the exclusion of companies whose ROE (Return on Equity, a core metric of profitability) has declined by more than 5 percentage points for two consecutive quarters, or those with negative year-on-year revenue growth for three consecutive quarters.

00403A Capital Magnet Effect: NT$80 Billion Raised

00403A set a new listing record for Taiwan stock ETFs with a fundraising scale of NT$80 billion, serving as a microcosm of the active ETF craze. In a high-market environment where the Taiwan stock index is at 40,000 points and the quarterly moving average deviation exceeds 18%, investor demand for active stock selection has risen significantly.

However, the NT$80 billion scale is both a halo and a burden. Market participants point out that an ETF of this size may face liquidity shocks in its allocation to small- and mid-cap stocks: when massive capital flows into individual stocks with limited average daily trading volumes, purchase costs are easily driven up, eroding potential returns.

The Uni-President Taiwan Power Fund, managed by Uni-President Assets Management fund manager Chang Che-wei, has achieved a five-year return of 292.9%, significantly outperforming the 145.6% return of the 0050 over the same period. However, as a newly established fund, 00403A has no historical performance record of its own to be verified.

Is 00403A worth investing in?

The core selling point of 00403A is its 30% individual stock holding cap, combined with fund manager Chang Che-wei's performance of nearly 300% over the past five years, demonstrating strong active stock-picking capabilities. However, three points warrant attention:

First is the risk of a first-day premium; previous active ETFs have seen premiums exceeding 20% on their listing day before quickly retreating. Second, the broader market is currently at a high level, with the Taiwan stock index at 40,000 points, a bias ratio of 18%, and TSMC trading at a P/E of approximately 24x—placing it in an expensive range; investors must be prepared for a potential drawdown of more than 10% over the next six months. Lastly, the 80 billion scale poses liquidity constraints, which could drive up allocation costs for small and mid-cap stocks.

Investors who can tolerate volatility and remain optimistic about mid-term AI trends may allocate no more than 20% of their equity positions; otherwise, it is advisable to wait for the release of the first quarterly report in August before reassessing.