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.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday held its first board of directors meeting in the US, at which it did not unveil any new US investments despite mounting tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, prompting market speculation that TSMC might consider boosting its chip capacity in the US or ramping up production of advanced chips such as those using a 2-nanometer technology process at its Arizona fabs ahead of schedule. Speculation also swirled that the chipmaker might consider building its own advanced packaging capacity in the US as part
A move by US President Donald Trump to slap a 25 percent tariff on all steel imports is expected to place Taiwan-made steel, which already has a 25 percent tariff, on an equal footing, the Taiwan Steel & Iron Industries Association said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, association chairman Hwang Chien-chih (黃建智) said such an equal footing is expected to boost Taiwan’s competitive edge against other countries in the US market, describing the tariffs as "positive" for Taiwanese steel exporters. On Monday, Trump signed two executive orders imposing the new metal tariffs on imported steel and aluminum with no exceptions and exemptions, effective