(Reuters) -Canada’s Manulife Financial Corp reported a jump in first-quarter profit on Wednesday, driven by robust performance in its Asia unit.
The company’s Asia business has benefited from mainland Chinese visitors returning to Hong Kong after pandemic restrictions were lifted.
Annualized premium equivalent (APE), a key sales metric, jumped 21% in the quarter, driven by a 13% rise in Manulife’s Asia unit and a 54% jump in its Canada business.
Total investment income at Manulife came in at C$4.79 billion ($3.49 billion) in the quarter, compared with C$5.46 billion last year.
The country’s largest insurer posted core earnings of C$1.75 billion, or 94 Canadian cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, compared with C$1.53 billion, or 79 Canadian cents per share, a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected Manulife to report a profit of 91 Canadian cents per share, according to LSEG data.
($1 = 1.3722 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
