(Adds details, comments from CFO, share price)
By John Tilak
TORONTO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Manulife Financial Corp MFC.TO
reported a higher adjusted quarterly profit that was in line
with market expectations on Thursday, boosted by growth in its
wealth management and life insurance operations.
Core profit at its wealth and asset management business
climbed 20 percent in the second quarter, while earnings at its
insurance division rose 22 percent. The company says core profit
is a measure of underlying earnings capacity that excludes the
impact of short-term factors such as fluctuations in interest
rates.
Canada's largest insurer said assets under management and
administration rose to C$883 billion ($670.87 billion), up 39
percent, as it was helped by the acquisition of New York Life's
retirement plan services.
Manulife, which has a presence in Canada, the United States
and Asia, recorded double-digit earnings growth in its Asian and
Canadian operations.
The company has been expanding in Asia, where core earnings
rose 30 percent to C$300 million, making up about a third of its
total profit. Growth was supported in particular by sales in
Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
"Asia's been a substantial part of our earnings for some
time, but we have gotten momentum over the last several quarters
into our core earnings," Chief Financial Officer Steve Roder
said in an interview.
A sales push launched a few years ago and a move to increase
regional diversification within the continent are starting to
reflect on the bottom line, he said.
The company is also on track to meet its earnings target for
2016, Roder added. Manulife has previously said that it expects
to record more than C$4 billion in core earnings in 2016.
The Toronto-based company earned C$600 million, or 29
Canadian cents a share, in the second quarter, compared with
C$943 million, or 49 Canadian cents a share, a year earlier.
Beyond the impact of a steeper yield curve in several
markets on net income, the company was also hurt by
acquisition-related charges, which involved C$54 million in
integration costs involving recent deals.
Core profit climbed to 44 Canadian cents per share, from 36
cents a share a year ago.
Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of 45 Canadian
cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Manulife shares were up 0.3 percent at C$23.36.
($1 = 1.3162 Canadian dollars)
(Editing by Jason Neely and Meredith Mazzilli)