Business

Wednesday October 31, 2007

Manulife Financial open to M&As

By DALJIT DHESI



It views Malaysia as potential growth driver for group

KUALA LUMPUR: The world’s fifth largest life insurer, Manulife Financial Corp, is open to possible acquisitions in Malaysia as it views the country as a potential growth driver for the group in Asia.

Manulife Financial senior executive vice-president and general manager for Asia Robert A. Cook said the group was always open to merger or acquisition and would consider it if suitable opportunities arose.

“We have a history of having made a number of acquisitions in Asia. Manulife had acquired half a dozen companies in Indonesia and three to four in the Philippines.

“In Malaysia, there appears to be some desire on the part of the regulators to encourage consolidation in the insurance sector and we are certainly interested in the subject,” he said in an interview.

Robert A. Cook
Manulife Financial entered the Malaysian life insurance industry after acquiring US-based life insurer John Hancock Financial Services Inc in the US. The merger between John Hancock and Manulife Financial was finalised in April 2004.

Manulife Financial owns about 46% of Manulife Insurance (M) Bhd, with local institutions and retail investors holding the balance of the equity. The local institutions include the Employees Provident Fund, Permodalan Nasional Bhd and Public Mutual.

Asked whether the group had identified any suitable insurers in the local market, Cook said: “I have no comment and do not want to go into specifics. We are not going to rush into any form of deals at the moment.”

According to him, the group was a conservative and disciplined buyer when it came to acquisitions and had not overpaid for any acquisitions to date.

Manulife Financial, which is also Canada’s largest life insurer, is only one of two triple “A” rated publicly traded life insurance companies in the world. Its market capitalisation as at June 30 stood close to US$57.5bil.


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