Manulife Asset Management awarded US$2.9 billion in fixed income mandates in 2017's first quarter

BOSTON, May 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Manulife Asset Management said today that it won nearly US$3 billion in new fixed income mandates in the first quarter of 2017. Moreover, the firm's total assets under management reached US$358 billion as at March 31, 2017, a $15 billion increase over the fourth quarter of 2016.  

The largest mandate this year was from the Public Employees Retirement System of Mississippi. The US$487 million mandate was in the Core Fixed Income strategy and funded in March.

"We are honored to be selected for these important mandates, and we look forward to a long partnership managing assets for our clients," said Kai Sotorp, Manulife Asset Management's President and Chief Executive Officer.

"As always, our focus is on excellence in investment management as we continue to provide solutions to investors and clients worldwide," said Christopher Conkey, Manulife Asset Management's Global Chief Investment Officer.

The new wins for Manulife Asset Management were diversified across several fixed income strategies, with the majority won by teams managing Core and Core Plus Fixed Income, Strategic Fixed Income, and Total Return Bond/Securitized Fixed income.

Manulife Asset Management's Core Fixed Income strategy employs a disciplined investment process that seeks to add value by following a relative value approach to sector allocation and issue selection, engaging in intensive fundamental credit research, and identifying points on the yield curve with the greatest return potential. The firm believes strong relative performance may be generated through bottom-up active management of sector allocation and issue selection, combined with yield curve positioning. The team is led by Howard C. Greene, CFA, and Jeffrey N. Given, CFA. 

The firm's Core Plus team believes that strong relative performance may be generated through bottom-up active management of sector allocation and issue selection, combined with yield curve positioning. The team's investment process seeks to add value by:  following a relative value approach to sector allocation and issue selection, engaging in intensive fundamental credit research, and identifying points on the yield curve with the greatest return potential. The team is also led by Mr. Greene and Mr. Given.

Manulife Asset Management's Strategic Fixed Income team holds that strong, consistent returns may be generated by investing primarily in a portfolio of global government and corporate bonds, including emerging markets and high yield securities. Currency management seeks to further diversify the portfolio, mitigate risk and add value. By expanding the investment universe to include multiple sectors and currencies, the team believes it is able to increase its potential to add value while reducing risk. The team is led by Daniel S. Janis III, Thomas C. Goggins, Kisoo Park, and Christopher Chapman, CFA.

The firm's Total Return Bond/Securitized Fixed income team believes securitized assets offer interesting sourcing opportunities due to information barriers and limited competition in a large, inefficient marketplace. The portfolio is managed with a value orientation and focused on diversification among securitized asset classes, income generation as a consistent component of total return and maximizing risk efficiency. The team is led by Peter Farley, CFA; Jeffrey Given, CFA; and David A. Bees, CFA.

About Manulife Asset Management

Manulife Asset Management is the global asset management arm of Manulife, providing comprehensive asset management solutions for investors. This investment expertise extends across a broad range of public and private asset classes, as well as asset allocation solutions. As at March 31, 2017, assets under management for Manulife Asset Management were approximately C$477 billion (US$358 billion, GBP£286 billion, EUR€335 billion).

Manulife Asset Management's public markets units have investment expertise across a broad range of asset classes including public equity and fixed income, and asset allocation strategies. Offices with full investment capabilities are located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines. In addition, Manulife Asset Management has a joint venture asset management business in China, Manulife TEDA. The public markets units of Manulife Asset Management also provide investment management services to affiliates' retail clients through product offerings of Manulife and John Hancock. John Hancock Asset Management is a division of Manulife Asset Management.

Additional information about Manulife Asset Management may be found at ManulifeAM.com.

About Manulife

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group that helps people achieve their dreams and aspirations by putting customers' needs first and providing the right advice and solutions. We operate as John Hancock in the United States and Manulife elsewhere. We provide financial advice, insurance, as well as wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. At the end of 2016, we had approximately 35,000 employees, 70,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving more than 22 million customers. As of March 31, 2017, we had $1 trillion (US$754 billion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made almost $26.3 billion in payments to our customers. Our principal operations are in Asia, Canada and the United States where we have served customers for more than 100 years. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong.

SOURCE Manulife Asset Management