Manulife pays for aggressive growth

Article Excerpt

Manulife’s $15-billion purchase of New York-listed John Hancock Financial in 2004 doubled its assets under management. It also let it expand rapidly in the U.S. by selling John Hancock’s innovative, high-fee, stock-based variable annuities. These annuities guarantee minimum long-term returns even if markets fall. Manulife’s shares peaked at $44 in late 2007, but falling markets and interest rates after that turned these guarantees into big liabilities for the company. MANULIFE FINANCIAL $12.53 (Toronto symbol MFC; Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $22.1 billion; SI Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.2%) sells life and other forms of insurance, as well as mutual funds and investment-management services. It operates globally, and has $453.9 billion of assets under management. In the three months ended June 30, 2010, Manulife lost $2.4 billion, or $1.36 a share. Canada’s conservative accounting rules forced it to set aside $3.2 billion, mostly to increase reserves for its variable annuities. (Under U.S. accounting rules, it would have actually reported a small…