Manulife Financial MFC-T 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 per cent of Comvest Credit Partners for US$937.5-million, in a push to expand its private credit platform.
Core earnings from Manulife’s Asia business climbed 13 per cent to US$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 per cent during the quarter, powered by a jump in its Asia unit.
Shares of the insurer have lost nearly 3 per cent in 2025, underperforming smaller peer Sun Life , which is set to report its earnings tomorrow.
The company’s wealth and asset management business also contributed, as core earnings jumped 19 per cent to C$463 million in the second quarter.
Net income attributable to shareholders came in at C$1.79 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.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article stated that Asia business performance was driven by higher sale volumes in Hong Kong and also showed $520-million to be in Canadian dollars. The article is updated to reflect more accurate factors contributing to Asia business performance and corrects the currency to US dollars.