Manulife takes hit from continued Covid curbs in Asia

TORONTO: Manulife Financial Corp took a hit from continued pandemic-related restrictions that weighed on its Asia business, extending a patch of rocky results for the insurer in the region.

Third-quarter core earnings in the Asia unit fell 3.8% from a year earlier to C$513mil (Us$379mil or Rm1.8bil), the Toronto-based company said in a statement.

Manulife has faced a difficult macroeconomic environment in recent quarters, with measures intended to fight Covid-19 hurting its Asia business and plunging equity markets weighing on the wealth and asset-management unit.

Annualised premium equivalent sales in Asia fell 8.2%, hurt by lower sales in Hong Kong, which only recently began lifting Covidrelated restrictions.

By contrast, core earnings in Canada rose 13%.

“Many of our markets in Asia are experiencing significant Covid case counts and significant restrictions,” chief executive officer Roy Gori said in an interview.

“The strength that we have is that we can see some of those headwinds and offset them with strengths in other markets, in this case in Canada.”

Manulife shares have fallen 7.8% this year, compared with a 12% drop for the S&P/TSX Composite Financials index.

Manulife’s global wealth and asset-management business largely withstood an industry-wide decline that’s being driven by falling equity markets.