Manulife Financial Corp, Canada’s largest insurer, may almost double assets under management at its Asian wealth-management business over five years, bolstered by increased demand for equities and fixed-income funds.
The Manulife unit has about US$38 billion in assets under management, compared with about US$12 billion five years ago, said Michael Dommermuth, president of Manulife Asset Management in Asia.
“Over the next five years, if I extrapolate that present growth rate, I wouldn’t be surprised to see our assets under management go to US$75 billion,” Dommermuth said in a telephone interview on Thursday.
Manulife chief executive Donald Guloien told investors last November that rising sales in Asia would help to propel profit to C$4 billion (US$4.02 billion) by 2015. Asia could produce profit of C$1.5 billion by that year, compared with C$284 million in the first nine months of last year.
“It’s a growth story,” Dommermuth, 48, said. “The thing that’s attracting people is that it’s growing at a much more rapid pace than the US or Europe.”
Manulife has operated in Asia for more than 100 years. It offers mutual funds and other wealth-management products in Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, China and much of Southeast Asia.
Manulife has 80 investment professionals in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. Dommermuth said future hiring will “pretty much track our growth in assets under management.”
Manulife is also considering expansion in India. The company signed an agreement last year with Kotak Mahindra (UK) Ltd to provide advice on Indian equities.
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