Manulife Asia on track for 2025 earning goal

Manulife Financial’s (MFC.TO) Asia unit is on track to account for half of the Canadian insurer’s core earnings by 2025 despite economic slowdowns and impact of Covid-19 to its key markets, the newly appointed regional chief executive told Reuters.

Manulife set the earnings target for Asia, which last year brought in 35per cent of the group’s global earnings, in September last year and challenges to the sector have gathered pace this year as China’s economy slows and the Covid cases resurge in many regions.

Asia, where Manulife operates in 13 markets with about 13 million customers, dragged down the firm’s earnings in 2021 and weakened its performance in the first quarter.

“I think we’re broadly on track, our strategy is broadly on track,” said Asia CEO Damien Green, who was appointed to lead Manulife Asia in May, four years after he joined the Canadian insurance company and was most recently its Hong Kong chief.

“We’ve all been disrupted and distracted for the last two years ... but the secular trends in Asia are the same as it goes to life insurance, in particular, a rising middle class and a rising need for health and retirement protection, and China.”

Asia is an important area for global and regional insurers, with international companies attracted by the region’s rapidly growing middle-class looking for life and healthcare insurance as well as investment options and low coverage ratios.

Manulife missed analysts’ estimates in first quarter on sluggish sales in Hong Kong, one of its largest Asian markets that saw a rise in Covid cases in the first few months of 2022 with weeks-long curbs stifling the economy.