Manulife Financial Corporation reported net income attributable to shareholders of $1 billion for the second quarter of 2024, consistent with the results from the same period last year.
The difference between the results for the two periods is $17 million, for a 1.7 per cent increase.
In a statement, Roy Gori, Manulife’s President and CEO, highlighted the company’s 23 per cent growth in new business value. He reiterated the company's goals made in June at the company’s Investor Day “of raising the bar on our financial targets.”
Gori added that as part of this transformation into a "higher return and lower risk business," Manulife completed the largest reinsurance transaction for universal life insurance in Canada. This transaction was announced at the end of March.
Manulife’s core earnings reached $1.7 billion in Q2 2024, an increase of $100 million or 6 per cent compared to the $1.6 billion reported in Q2 2023.
The Life Insurance Capital Adequacy Test (LICAT) ratio stood at 139 per cent as of June 30, 2024, up from 136 per cent a year earlier, stated Colin Simpson, Manulife's Chief Financial Officer.
Premiums
Annualized premium equivalents (APE) totalled $1.9 billion, an increase of 17 per cent or $274 million compared to the $1.6 billion reported as of June 30, 2023.
On a year-over-year basis, APE sales increased by 7 per cent in Asia, Manulife's largest market, and by 61 per cent in Canada, while U.S. sales decreased by 4 per cent.
In Canada
In Canada, net income attributable to shareholders was $79 million in Q2 2024, compared to $227 million a year earlier, a decrease of 65 per cent.
Core earnings in Canada reached $402 million in Q2 2024, up 7 per cent compared to the same period in 2023. Manulife attributed this growth to the Group Insurance segment and favourable net insurance experience.
Regarding the significant increase in Canadian APE sales, which reached $520 million in Q2 2024, Manulife indicated that the growth was driven by higher volumes across all business units, particularly in Group Insurance due to a large-case sale.
Other markets
In Asia, net income attributable to shareholders reached $424 million in Q2 2024, compared to $96 million in Q2 2023, a 289 per cent increase.
In Asia, core earnings increased by 40 per cent to $424 million. The company attributed this growth to the “continued business growth momentum and updates to actuarial methods and assumptions in the second half of 2023.”
In the U.S., net income attributable to shareholders was $98 million in Q2 2024, compared to $136 million in Q2 2023, a decrease of 28 per cent.
In this market, core earnings decreased by 11 per cent to $303 million. The company noted the impact of “adverse net insurance experience and foregone core earnings from the long-term care reinsurance transaction announced in December 2023.”
In the Global Wealth and Asset Management (Global WAM) segment, net income attributable to shareholders was $350 million in Q2 2024, compared to $317 million in Q2 2023, a 9 per cent increase.
In the same segment, core earnings increased by 23 per cent year-over-year to $320 million. The company says this growth was driven by “higher fee income from favourable market impacts and positive net flows, and a favourable tax true-up.”
Manulife’s Corporate and Other segment reported a net loss attributable to shareholders of $104 million in Q2 2024, compared to net income of $168 million in Q2 2023.
During the last quarter, Manulife's Global WAM segment completed the acquisition of CQS, a UK-based multi-sector alternative credit manager. The brand now operates under the name Manulife | CQS Investment Management.
