Manulife offers peso equity ‘Emperor Fund’

The local unit of Manulife Financial Corp. has introduced a peso equity fund that invests in top locally listed companies with Filipino-Chinese heritage.

Dubbed “Emperor Fund,” Ryan Charland, Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. (Philippines) Inc., president and chief executive, said that customers will have their investment access to stocks with a Sino-Filipino heritage.

Charland, however, assured that the fund will only put in money in a diversified portfolio that executes “strong business models.”

“These companies tend to deliver a track record of outperformance over the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) historically,” Charland said.

“As a customer-centric investment product, the Emperor Fund invests primarily in companies within this group that boast strong business acumen, prudent management philosophy and exceptional leadership,” he added.

The Emperor Fund provides customers with access to stocks of leading companies of Filipino-Chinese heritage within banking, food and beverage, industrial, real estate, energy, utilities and telecommunications sectors.

It also invests in other local smallto-mid-cap companies that are emerging market leaders.

“The Fund leverages the high growth potential of these rapidlyexpanding companies and provides greater diversification and risk-return tradeoff,” Manulife said.

With the Emperor Fund, Charland said “our customers will gain more access to growth-oriented investments driven by companies with relentless entrepreneurial spirit, while also enjoying the benefits of our superior life insurance solutions.”

Manufacturers opened for business in the Philippines in 1907 and has grown to become one of the leading life insurance companies in the country.

Manulife Philippines is a whollyowned domestic subsidiary of Manulife Financial Corp., among the world’s largest life insurance companies by market capitalization.

As of end-2017, Manulife Financial had about 35,000 employees, 73,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving more than 26 million customers.

As of June 30, 2018, Manulife Financial has over $1.1 trillion in assets under management and administration.