Canada's biggest life insurer Manulife Financial, has reported a rise in first-quarter earnings, slightly beating market forecasts with help from strong sales in Asia.
The company said its core earnings, excluding one-time items and market movements, rose 22 percent to $1.1 billion Canadian dollars.
Net income rose to $1.35 billion Canadian dollars, up $305 million Canadian dollars from the previous year, while assets under management rose to over $1 trillion Canadian dollars for the first time in the company's history.
Over The Pacific
Manulife has been steadily expanding in Asia as the region's growing middle class looks to save, buy insurance and invest.
The Toronto based company has also benefited from a long-term partnership with Singapore's DBS, agreed in 2015, through which it sells its products through the lender's Asian branch network.
Bricks and Mortar and Fintech
Earlier this year Manulife purchased a landmark 28-floor office building near Singapore's Raffles Place from DBS in a deal which valued the skyscraper at $774 million Singapore dollars.
Manulife also opened a new «Lab of Forward Thinking» location in Singapore, joining established labs in Boston and Toronto to focus on innovation and emerging fintech solutions for Asian consumers.
«In Asia, we achieved a 31 percent increase in annualised premium equivalent sales, with strong double-digit growth in most territories and importantly, a 53 percent increase in new business value, which speaks to the quality of sales we generated,» said Steve Roder Chief Financial Officer.
