Manulife generates 20% growth in premium

MANILA, Philippines - Manulife Philippines reported a 20 percent growth in total premiums in the first nine months of 2011 on the back of strong performances of all its distribution networks.

Last year, total premiums amounted to P3.97 billion.

Likewise, its Asia Pacific Bond Fund was able to generate $5 million in sales after only a month in the market.

Manulife Philippines president and chief executive officer Indren Naidoo said gross sales grew 30 percent, while its new business expanded 54 percent.

“The strong performance in the first nine months was due to the equally strong performance of our distribution networks, including bancassurance,” Naidoo said in a press briefing.

Its agency force is expected to reach 3,000 by end-December from just 2,700 in the first semester. Likewise, its financial executives already expanded to 210, mostly fielded in the branch network of China Banking Corp.

China Bank and Manulife Financial have formed a bancassurance joint venture that markets life insurance products within the bank’s branches. In fact, one-third of the insurer’s premiums were generated by the joint venture.

The remaining two-thirds of premiums are traditional insurance products and investment-linked products and single-pay premiums.

Meanwhile, Naidoo expressed optimism in the potential of the Asia Pacific Bond Fund, which maximizes total returns potential over a medium- to long term period through a combination of capital appreciation and income generation.

The fund is a dollar-denominated investment-linked fund, which managed the insurer’s fund manager based in Hong Kong. Minimum initial investment is $2,500.

The fund primarily invests in a diversified portfolio of mostly investment grade (i.e., average of A-) fixed income securities issued by governments, agencies, supra-nationals and corporate issuers from across the Asia Pacific region.

The bond fund is managed by a team of fixed income fund managers that is part of a global network of interconnected investment professionals under Manulife Asset Management (Hong Kong) Ltd., the investment management arm of Manulife Financial in Asia.