Manulife Financial Aims at Financial Holding Group in China

Sino-Canadian insurer Manulife-Sinochem Life Insurance Co., Ltd. saw a branch in Chongqing, the biggest Chinese municipality, for one year recently.

Amid quit of foreign shareholders of Sino-foreign insurers in the Chinese market, Manulife Financial, the foreign shareholder of Manulife-Sinochem Life, continues its strategy of growing into a financial holding company as usual. In November 2009, its wholly-owned asset management unit inked a contract with Fortis Bank over taking a 49 percent stake in ABN AMRO TEDA Fund Management Co., Ltd. The deal has been completed and the target was renamed as Manulife TEDA Fund Management Co., Ltd.

Marc Sterling, senior vice president of Manulife Financial for the Asian market, said as early as August 2008 that it aimed to stretch out reach to pension fund, real estate, private capital operation and A-share trading in China. Its Hong Kong-based asset management unit last November gained approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the top Chinese securities regulator, to invest in stocks floating on the A-share market as a QFII.