Michael Huddart, executive vice-president and CEO of Manulife Hong Kong, is quoted by the South China Morning Post as saying that the company would also promote yuan products, which are in demand among investors who expect them to benefit with the currency’s appreciation.
According to the SCMP, Huddart “plans to increase the company’s agency force in Hong Kong by about 10% each year to 7,000 people by 2015, up from 4,600 agents as of the end of June”.
At the same time, the company intends to boost its sales from non-agency channels, including independent and bank distribution, to 25% of total sales by the end of 2015, from its current level of 13%, and to raise its share of the MPF market to 20% from its current 17.6% by 2016, the SCMP said.
The mandatory provident fund system is Hong Kong’s compulsory retirement savings scheme, which is overseen by the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority.
Manulife is the No. 2 player in Hong Kong’s MPF market, behind HSBC, and has around 1.6 million clients in total in Hong Kong.
Huddart’s announcement of Manulife’s ambitious expansion plans comes just weeks after Axa chief executive Stuart Harrison revealed his company’s plans to double its sales in Asia over the next three years, with projected annual growth from its Hong Kong operations of 15%.
113 year presence
The Manulife name comes from "Manufacturers Life Insurance Company", as it used to be known. Founded in 1887, the company has had a presence in Hong Kong for 113 years – longer than it has been in the US.
Among its Hong Kong clients are some of an estimated 290,000 Canadians who currently live there, many of whom were originally Hong Kong Chinese who have recently returned to the former British colony following its handover to China in 1997.
In second quarter results posted earlier this month, Manulife Hong Kong saw net income attributed to shareholders of HK$685m ($87m, £53.2m), a gain of 17% from the same period a year earlier.
The company’s Hong Kong investment business is up around 50% year-to-date on 2010, which itself was “a record year”, according to Myles Morin, director at Manulife Asset Management in Hong Kong. The performance was helped in part by having “some good products” and by what, at least until recently, has been a buoyant market, Morin said.
The parent company, Manulife Financial Corp, which is Canada’s largest insurer as measured by assets, swung to a profit during the second quarter after posting a loss in 2010.
