🇹🇼 Taiwan ETF Holdings (Mid 2025)
A look at all 120+ stock holdings of the iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF (NYSEARCA: EWT) + Franklin FTSE Taiwan ETF (NYSEARCA: FLTW) + their performance along with that of The Taiwan Fund, Inc (NYSE: TWN).
Last year, I did a post (Taiwan ETF Holdings (Early 2024)) covering around 122 holdings of the two Taiwan ETFs. I thought it would be a good time to update it as earlier this week, I saw a Facebook post about a free Taiwan expo at the nearby convention center and decided to check it out - especially to see if there might be any tourism or F&B related booths (a complete directory of participants is here) along with China Airlines (which I take to the USA):
In the past, I had written about two F&B stocks that you will widely encounter on visits to Taiwan:
Gourmet Master (TPE: 2723): Taiwan's Rapidly Expanding Version of Starbucks
Gourmet Master Co., Ltd. (TPE: 2723) is an investment holding company operating around 1,000 bakery cafes under the 85°C name in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Australia, United States, and Cambodia.
Bafang Yunji International (TPE: 2753): Turning Things Around and Expanding in HK Plus the USA
Taiwan based Bafang Yunji International Co., Ltd. (TPE: 2753) operates dumpling-potsticker plus pork rib restaurant chains with branches in China (closing), Hong Kong & the USA where they are starting to expand
Taiwan Stopover + Non-Tech Taiwan Stock Updates
A short Taiwan stopover; Bafang Yunji International Co., Ltd. (TPE: 2753) vs. Gourmet Master Co., Ltd. (TPE: 2723); China Airlines (TPE: 2610) vs. Eva Airways Corp (TPE: 2618) updates; etc.
Although I missed their presentation, Bafang was among the F&B presenters looking at expanding to Malaysia or SE Asia in general and I also chatted with their rep (otherwise, I did not really recognize any of the other F&B concepts presenting…).
However and in Taiwan, the core Bafang Dumpling concept is more geared for providing affordable pan-fried potstickers/dumplings/noodles to students & office/blue collar workers, etc. If they were to expand to SE Asia, I hope they would enter at a similar price point (e.g. what China’s Mixue has done) geared for the mass market rather than try to compete for a share of the smaller upper income brackets.
As far as I know, Bafang has closed all their Xiamen outlets (China’s covid lockdowns, economic problems, and tensions with Taiwan make this a wise business strategy) while I am not sure about the status of their Hong Kong outlets or if they plan to continue growing there. On the other hand and according to their brochure, they now have 11 locations in Southern California (in Asian communities that no doubt have above average incomes) and are opening an outlet in Texas by the end of the year where there are also sizable Asian communities.
As for the rest of the expo’s participants, I did not really recognize too many names or listed companies plus some of the participants or staff (I assume to be working for the local event organizer) were not so fluent in English as they would obviously be talking in Cantonese/Hokkien or I guess Mandarin (as more Malaysians are probably learning it in Chinese school) to each other:
EWT, FLTW & The Taiwan Fund
Interactive Brokers now gives access to the Taiwan stock market and the rest of this post takes a closer look at all 120+ stock holdings for the following two Taiwan ETFs (there is considerable overlap with the holdings of the two):
iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF (NYSEARCA: EWT) - Inception: June 20, 2000
Expense Ratio: 0.59%
P/E: 17.12 / Dividend Yield: 2.28% (Yahoo! Finance)
Franklin FTSE Taiwan ETF (NYSEARCA: FLTW) - Inception: November 2, 2017
Net Expense Ratio: 0.19%
P/E: 17.20 / Dividend Yield: 1.84% (Yahoo! Finance)
And for reference, there is one Taiwan closed-end fund:
The Taiwan Fund, Inc (NYSE: TWN) - Inception: December 23, 1986
Price/Book (Current): 0.96
Trailing P/E: 12.18 (no forward P/E) / Forward Annual Dividend Yield: N/A (Yahoo! Finance)
We cover The Taiwan Fund in our Sunday posts and it always feels like they do a fair amount of trading every month or quarter. Otherwise, their monthly fact sheets do provide good commentary about the Taiwan market and the latest tech trends.
For returns, here is a look at the more recent performance of both Taiwan ETFs and the closed-end Taiwan fund covering the COVID period (the charts are linked back to Yahoo! Finance):
And the long term performance of all three funds:
As you can see from the above charts, The Taiwan Fund has tended to outperform the two Taiwan ETFs. However, note that both ETFs and the Taiwan closed-end fund are still heavily overweighed in TSMC:
IF you already own TSMC, it may not make sense to invest in the Taiwan ETFs or closed-end fund given these weightings.
The remainder of their portfolios are also heavily geared toward tech stocks and some Taiwan tech stocks have gone parabolic in the past as potential AI plays:
Aside from being tech orientated, some specific things you will notice when skimming through the holdings covered later in this post include how most of these Taiwanese stocks pay decent dividends - including the tech ones.
It should also be noted that the New Taiwan Dollar (NTD) has been fluctuating a bit in recent years against the USD (albeit not by that much compared with many emerging or frontier market currencies):
We have covered what’s been going on with the TWD’s sudden recent surge in some recent Monday post:
📰 Taiwan dollar rise threatens insurers’ profitability (The Asset) 🗃️
Fitch puts five local life insurance firms on ‘rating watch negative’ as risks to their capital and earnings increase
Taiwanese life insurers, with their large holdings of USD fixed-income assets and short positions in the Taiwan dollar, have been adversely affected and remain exposed to further NTD appreciation.
Those placed on the Fitch RWN list are Cathay Life Insurance [Cathay Financial Holding Co., Ltd. (TPE: 2882 / 2882A / OTCMKTS: CHYFF)], Fubon Life Insurance [Fubon Financial Holding Co Ltd (TPE: 2881 / 2881B / 2881C / OTCMKTS: FUISF / FUIZF)], and KGI Life Insurance [KGI Financial Holding Co Ltd (TPE: 2883 / 2883B)], all with Insurer Financial Strength ( IFS ) Rating of “A”; Nan Shan Life Insurance, with an IFS Rating of “A–“; and Taiwan Life Insurance, with an IFS Rating of “BBB+”.
At the same time, Fitch has placed Shin Kong Life Insurance's ( SKL ) [Shin Kong Financial Holding Co Ltd (TPE: 2888 / 2888A / 2888B)] IFS Rating of “BBB” on Rating Watch Evolving ( indicating uncertainty about the future direction ), and affirmed Chubb Life Insurance Taiwan Company's National IFS Rating at “AA–( twn )” with Stable Outlook.
📰 What The Hell Is Going On With The Taiwan Dollar? (ZeroHedge) $ 🗃️
This week saw Taiwan’s dollar surged the most since 1988 as traders speculated that authorities might allow it to appreciate to help reach a trade deal with the US...
In an emergency press briefing late Monday, Taiwan’s central bank sought to quell speculation about the currency’s surge, saying that the wild, two-day appreciation was partially attributable to market chatter and urged against irresponsible speculation.
It also reiterated that the US did not require the currency to appreciate. Taiwan’s office of trade negotiations also said that it had wrapped up a first round of tariff-reduction negotiations with the US and that the talks did not touch upon the issue of foreign exchange policy. US President Donald Trump has previously advocated a weaker US dollar to boost America’s competitiveness
Our Other Taiwan Stock Posts
Last year, I also did a post about my last stopover in Taiwan:
Taiwan Stopover + Non-Tech Taiwan Stock Updates
A short Taiwan stopover; Bafang Yunji International Co., Ltd. (TPE: 2753) vs. Gourmet Master Co., Ltd. (TPE: 2723); China Airlines (TPE: 2610) vs. Eva Airways Corp (TPE: 2618) updates; etc.
And in addition to the previously mentioned F&B stocks, I have also done write-ups about these two potentially interesting but not so well known Taiwanese tech stocks:
Taiwan based E Ink Holdings (TPE: 8069) is an electronic paper (ePaper) & electronic ink stock. Amazon Kindle, wearables, etc. plus retailers like Wal-Mart (for digital labels) use the technology.
Yageo Corp (TPE: 2327 / OTCMKTS: YAGOY): Powering AI with Passive Components
Taiwan-based electronic component manufacturer Yageo Corp (TPE: 2327 / OTCMKTS: YAGOY) is one of the largest passive component makers in the world helping to power AI.
Market Observation Post System (MOPS)
For further research about Taiwan stocks, the Market Observation Post System (MOPS) has company profiles and financial information in English (when available), but the site is slightly clunky to use as it seems like you need to re-search for the company under each tab and can’t save a URL for a specific search result…:
Taiwan ETF Holdings
To make your life easier, the rest of this post includes:
The broad industry classification for the stock.
Which ETF or ETFs own the stock as a holding.
A quick description of the stock pick with links to the IR page and stock quote(s) on Yahoo! Finance.
A link (🇼) to any Wikipedia page (for what it might be worth…)
A price/book (current) ratio plus forward or trailing P/E and dividend yields linked back to the Yahoo! Finance statistics page. MOPS is probably a better tool than Yahoo! Finance for certain financial ratios e.g. I have noticed that some forward dividends on Yahoo! Finance’s statistics page have not changed since last year when I did this post.
The latest long term technical chart linked back to Yahoo! Finance.
Note that on desktop browsers, an autogenerated table of contents will appear on the left side linked to each stock covered in the post.
Unfortunately, I could not upload the rest of this post into DeepSeek for some AI insights as I got a message the document “may violate terms” given Taiwan is mentioned a number of times…
And as always, this post is provided for informational purposes only (and to make your life easier…). It does not constitute investment advice and/or a recommendation…
🔬 Research analysis (including articles/blog posts from fund managers, etc.); 🎥 Video; 🎙️ Podcast; 🎬 Webinar; 📰 Newspaper/magazine article; 📯 Press release; 💻 Substack/blog/website article; ✅ Our own posts; 🗃️ Archived article; ⏰ Upcoming webinar or event; ⚠️ Disclosures or restricted access e.g. based on your location, investor status, etc.; 🇼 Wikipedia page; 🏷️ Tagged links to other posts about the stock.
Accton Technology
Information Technology
EWT & FLTW
🌐 Accton Technology (TPE: 2345) - Open hardware platforms for data center, carrier access, campus, SD-WAN networks & IoT. 🇼 🏷️
Price/Book (Current): 10.45
Forward P/E: 19.23 / Forward Annual Dividend Yield: 1.48% (Yahoo! Finance)
Acer Inc
Information Technology
EWT & FLTW
🌐 Acer Inc (TPE: 2353 / FRA: AC5G / OTCMKTS: ACEYY) - Hardware & electronics (PCs, laptop PCs, tablets, servers, storage devices, virtual reality devices, displays, smartphones, peripherals & gaming PCs). 🇼 🏷️
Price/Book (Current): 1.28
Forward P/E: 17.39 / Forward Annual Dividend Yield: 5.46% (Yahoo! Finance)
Advanced Energy Solution Holding Co Ltd
Industrials
FLTW
🌏 Advanced Energy Solution Holding Co Ltd (TPE: 6781) - Lithium battery modules. Production sites in Changshu, China & Hsinchu, Taiwan. British Cayman Islands registered. 🏷️
Price/Book (Current): 5.96
Trailing P/E: 37.11 (no forward P/E) / Forward Annual Dividend Yield: 1.14% (Yahoo! Finance)
Advantech Co., Ltd.
Information Technology
EWT & FLTW
🌐 Advantech Co., Ltd. (TPE: 2395) - Global leader in industrial IoT. Automation & Embedded Computing products/solutions. 🏷️
Price/Book (Current): 6.15
Forward P/E: 26.53 / Forward Annual Dividend Yield: 2.81% (Yahoo! Finance)
Airtac International Group
Industrials
EWT & FLTW
🌐 Airtac International Group (TPE: 1590) - Transmission equipment (Preparation units, control components, actuators, accessories & linear guides). 🏷️
Price/Book (Current): 3.72
Forward P/E: 22.12 / Forward Annual Dividend Yield: 2.08% (Yahoo! Finance)
