For the third quarter ended September 30, 2024, Manulife Financial Corporation reported net income attributable to shareholders of $1.8 billion, up 82% compared to the same quarter last year, when earnings reached $1 billion.
President and CEO, Roy Gori, underlined Manulife’s “substantial top-line growth across our operating segments.”
Core earnings were $1.8 billion in the third quarter of 2024, an increase of $85 million or 4% compared with $1.7 billion in the same period of 2023.
The company’s Life Insurance Capital Adequacy Test (LICAT) ratio stood at 137% at September 30, 2024, reported Colin Simpson, Manulife's Chief Financial Officer. This is the same ratio as reported a year earlier.
Sales
Annualized premium equivalent (APE) sales totaled $2.3 billion in the third quarter, an increase of $690 million or 40% compared to sales of $1.7 billion for the same period of 2023.
In the third quarter of 2024, compared with the same period in 2023, sales were up 64% in Asia, the insurer's largest market, and 23% in the United States. On the other hand, sales in Canada fell by 20%.
In Canada
In Canada, net income attributable to shareholders reached $430 million in the third quarter of 2024, compared with $290 million a year earlier. This represents an increase of 48%.
Core earnings amounted to $412 million in the third quarter of 2024, an increase of 1% over the same period in 2023. In this regard, the company notes that “strong business growth in Group Insurance more than offset the impact of less favourable claims experience in 3Q24.”
Other markets
In Asia, net income attributable to shareholders reached $606 million in the third quarter of the year, compared with $63 million in the same quarter of 2023. This represents an increase of 877%.
In the Asian market, core earnings rose by 17% to $453 million. This progress was achieved through “continued business growth momentum and benefits from updates to actuarial methods and assumptions in 2023 and 2024.”
Also in Asia, the company points out that the Manulife Pro program continued to be rolled out in Hong Kong over the summer, with the aim of improving agent productivity. The program, which is also available in Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and Japan, was one of the factors contributing to growth in APE sales in the last quarter, Manulife stated.
In the United States, income attributable to shareholders was $5 million in the third quarter of 2024, compared with earnings of $53 million for the same quarter of 2023. This represents a decline of 91%.
Also in the U.S. market, core earnings were down 8% in the third quarter to $302 million. The company explains this result “primarily due to lower investment spreads, impact from the previously completed reinsurance transaction and the annual review of actuarial methods and assumptions, partially offset by a lower charge in the ECL (Expected Credit Loss) provision and more favourable claims experience in life.”
For the Global Wealth & Asset Management (WAM) segment, net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $498 million in the last quarter, compared with net income of $318 million in the same quarter of the previous year. This represents an increase of 55%.
In the WAM segment, core earnings rose by 37% year-on-year, to $499 million. This result is attributed to “higher net fee income from favourable market impacts and positive net flows, favourable tax true-ups and benefits, and continued expense discipline,” stated the company.
