robust asia business helps manulife

For the year to the end of December, the insurer posted a profit of C$1.1bn ($1.1bn, £700.8m, €822.5m).

Net income in the fourth quarter rose to C$1.7bn from C$129m in the same period a year earlier, in spite of its having registered losses in the second and third quarters.

The Asian division’s fourth quarter insurance sales were $US362m, an increase of 20% over the same period in 2011, while full year sales were US$1.4bn, 16% ahead of 2011.

Indonesia was described as a particularly strong market, with a full-year increase in sales of 46%, driven, according to Manulife, "by an expanded bancassurance channel which grew 140% compared to 2011". Wealth product sales to Indonesia also grew significantly, quadrupling in the fourth quarter over the same three months of 2011, and passing the US$1bn mark for the first time.

In a statement, Manulife president and chief executive officer Donald Guloien noted that expanding its distribution networks in Asia had contributed to Manulife’s strong showing there.

Note of caution

Manulife chief financial officer Steve Roder sounded a note of caution by pointing out that while the results unveiled today were "strong", "investment gains, and to a lesser extent tax items, were significant contributors that cannot be counted on in the future".

For this reason, he added, the company is introducing a new way of measuring results, the "core earnings metric", which he said can help analysts and investors to better assess the company’s underlying earnings capacity.

Another dose of reality was evident in the fact that when Hong Kong, Japan and Indonesia’s results were removed from Asia’s insurance sales in the fourth quarter, they were actually 9% lower than in the same period in 2012 (although the full year results were 15% higher). Manulife attributed the drop to "product changes in Taiwan". 

The Manulife fourth quarter and full-year results may be viewed  by clicking here.