Manulife Philippines sees robust growth

Banking on its network expansion and product campaign efforts, Canadabased financial services group Manulife is expecting its Philippine unit to grow side by side with the country’s insurance growth, which is expected to expand by double digits this year.

Insurance Commissioner Emmuanuel Dooc earlier expressed confidence that the country’s insurance industry would exceed in 2015 its highest level premium income in history after the sector grew 42 percent in the first semester of the year.

The industry’s total premiums particularly increased to 116.1 billion from 81.7 billion from January to June this year compared with the data recorded in the same period last year.

Dooc said the growth was mainly driven by life insurance’s nearly 50 percent growth in the first two quarters.

“The industry did quite well in the first six months and we also did well, we're up to keep pace with the industry in the second half,” Manulife Philippines president and chief executive officer Ryan Charland said in an interview with reporters on Wednesday.

“We have our own internal targets and we're confident that we will achieve those targets. We are confident that we will do better than last year,” Charland added. To date, the company already has 37 branches nationwide and this should grow to 50 branches by 2016.

“We had a modest success in our branches outside Metro Manila, so we are expanding in areas outside Metro Manila, particularly in Visayas and Mindanao,” he further said.

On Wednesday, Manulife Philippines launched its new brand campaign, tapping highly-paid celebrities Richard Yap and Sarah Geronimo as its brand endorsers.

Charland said Manulife effectively gains more customers through investing in more brand campaigns.

"Last year, we launch our campaign in October, this year we wanted to give it a little more time prior to Christmas. [In previous campaigns] we saw an increase in people who would consider buying Manulife, so we are expecting it to deliver similar if not better results this year," he further said.

It was reported in May that Manulife is planning to double its investment in the country as the insurer expands the number of branches, particularly in Mindanao.

“We are looking to double down on the investment we make this year through increased spending in branding and marketing. We are undergoing the largest and biggest agency expansion in the history of our company,” Charland said in an earlier interview. (MBM)