Polaris
Securities Investment Trust Company Ltd. ( Polaris SITC ) is an
asset management company based in Taiwan. It was established in September,
1992 and its assets under management at the end of January, 2005 were
U.S.$ 3.5 billion. It is 52 % owned by Polaris Financial Group, one
of the leading financial services groups in Taiwan. Due to its outstanding
achievements in the investment management industry, Polaris SITC has
received several awards, including " The Best Fund House- Taiwan
" award given by Asian Investor magazine in 2004.
Advised by State
Street Global Advisors ( SSgA ) , the Taiwan Top 50 Tracker Fund ( TTT
) was launched on 30 June, 2003 by Polaris SITC as an Exchange Traded
Fund tracking the Taiwan 50 Index which is compiled by the Taiwan Stock
Exchange Corporation ( TSEC ) and FTSE. The Taiwan 50 Index was launched
in October, 2002 and consists of the 50 largest companies from the TSEC
based on market capitalization, liquidity and free float factors. To
facilitate trading and hedging of investors' positions in TTT, the Taiwan
50 Futures started trading on 30 June, 2003, the same day as the listing
of TTT. The initial size of TTT was U.S.$ 123 million and has grown
to U.S.$ 1.37 billion at the end of Jan.,2005. TTT is now the sixth
biggest ETF in the world by region, according to the December 2004 report
by Morgan Stanley. TTT provides international investors with an efficient
and inexpensive method of gaining greater exposure to Taiwan's equity
market.
