Canada's Manulife posts higher quarterly profit on Asia unit strength (updated)

Manulife Financial

06/08/2025 22:33

Corrects August 6 story to say Asia business performance was driven by continued business growth and other factors, not higher sales volumes in Hong Kong in paragraph 4; corrects currency in paragraph 3 to U.S. dollars, not Canadian dollars

Aug 6 (Reuters) - Manulife Financial MFC.TO reported higher second-quarter profit on Wednesday, driven by strong performance in its Asia unit that boosted the Canadian insurer's results.

The company also announced it would buy 75% of Comvest Credit Partners for $937.5 million, in a push to expand its private credit platform.

Core earnings from Manulife's Asia business climbed 13% to $520 million in the quarter compared with the year-ago period.

The robust performance was driven by continued business growth, favourable claims experience and improved impact of new business.

Manulife's annual premium equivalent (APE), a commonly used metric in the insurance industry to measure the total value of new business written in a given period, jumped 15% during the quarter, powered by a jump in its Asia unit.

Shares of the insurer have lost nearly 3% in 2025, underperforming smaller peer Sun Life SLF.TO, which is set to report its earnings tomorrow.

The company's wealth and asset management business also contributed, as core earnings jumped 19% to C$463 million in the second quarter.

Net income attributable to shareholders came in at C$1.79 billion ($1.30 billion) or 98 Canadian cents per share in the three months ended June 30, compared with C$1.04 billion, or 52 Canadian cents per share, in the year earlier.

($1 = 1.3741 Canadian dollars)

 (Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)

 ((Pritam.Biswas@thomsonreuters.com;))