In the US the new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh held rates steady at 3.5% to 3.75% to combat the resilient inflation. While across the pond, the ECB has been forced to hike into a low growth environment as Eurozone inflation hits 3.2%.
The Korea Discount
By taking a global equity exposure, you tend to get a more diversified geographic exposure. By doing so from time to time you tap into certain country happenings. One such opportunity is the structural inflection point occurring in South Korea.
Historically 70% of Korean companies have been trading below book value due to opaque governance. This is known as the Korean Discount. But in 2026, mandatory minority shareholder protections came through the Commercial Act Amendments. From this we saw the Korea Value-Up Index (KVI), which tracks companies meeting strict capital efficiency and governance standards, outperform the KOSPI 200 by 30%. This performance could be attributed to the capping of controlling shareholder voting rights at 3% for audit elections. Also, there were revisions to the Commercial Code which now require companies to permanently cancel repurchased treasury shares within one year, treating buybacks as true capital returns.
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