UPDATE 2-Manulife beats profit estimates on strong Asia, Canada performance
(Adds details throughout, compared earnings with analysts' estimates)
Feb 14 (Reuters) - Canada's largest insurer Manulife Financial Corp on Wednesday beat analysts' estimate for quarterly core earnings, driven by strong performance at its Canadian and Asia units.
Manulife's results mirror that of smaller peer Sun Life , which also beat earnings estimates on strong sales.
Both companies have seen their Asia businesses boom as mainland Chinese visitors have flocked to Hong Kong after pandemic restrictions were lifted.
Annual premium equivalent, a sales metric better known as APE, rose 10% at Manulife, driven by a 11% rise in Asia and a 44% jump in Canada, largely helped by group insurance sales.
The insurer, which operates across Asia, and in North America and Europe, is also reshaping its portfolio to focus on more profitable areas for growth, including signing a $10 billion reinsurance deal last year.
"Much of the strength in the quarter for Manulife came from the Asia segment," Morningstar analyst Suryansh Sharma said.
"Some of the strong results in the profitability for the new business underwritten (within the Canadian segment) were due to the higher rate environment and product decisions made by management in recent years."
Manulife has also been on the radar after it said last month that customers on its Specialty Drug Care program would be primarily delivered through Loblaw's Shoppers Drug Mart, leading it to roll back the policy to allow customers to fill those prescriptions at any pharmacy.
Total investment income at Manulife rose to C$7.2 billion in the quarter from C$1.8 billion in the year-earlier period.
It posted a core earnings of C$1.77 billion ($1.31 billion), or 92 Canadian cents per share, in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with C$1.54 billion, or 77 Canadian cents per share, a year earlier.
Analysts had forecast earnings of 85 Canadian cents, according to LSEG data.
The company also announced a 9.6% dividend increase.
($1 = 1.3543 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru and Nivedita Balu in Toronto; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Diane Craft)
