Manulife Financial Corp. has done business in Asia for more than a century, but never in India. Now the insurer sees the country becoming a big part of its operations in the region.
Manulife last week announced a joint venture with India’s Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd., a firm with more than 6 million customers and assets under management in excess of US$8.5 billion. India was one of the few countries in the region the insurer had yet to enter. “This is just almost perfect chemistry to create a value proposition in the market that will allow us to win and ultimately create value for consumers and ultimately for our shareholders as well,” Gori said.
Since 1897Manulife has been in Asia since 1897, when the insurer sold its first policy in the region, in Shanghai. It now has a presence in more than a dozen Asian markets, with more than 11,000 employees and 80,000-plus contracted agents offering insurance, wealth-management products and asset-management services. Manulife’s assets under management in Asia totalled $192.9 billion as of March 31.