Manulife agent numbers in China, Vietnam slide on pandemic challenges, regulation

“We’ve seen people return to their home provinces to support their families during recent waves of the pandemic,” Green added. “But we expect that recruitment will normalize as markets recover.”

Canadian rival Sun Life Financial, which also has significant Asian operations, does not disclose agent numbers. Local media have reported that insurers in Asia and Hong Kong were tapping laid off workers in the education, aviation and hospitality sectors for talent to shore up falling sales due to an agent shortage.

On Wednesday, Manulife posted second-quarter core profit that fell to 78 Canadian cents, from 83 cents a year earlier. The decline was driven by largely expected weakness in its global wealth and asset management business, due to equity market declines as well as lower Asia sales.

Despite the challenges, Manulife is confident of meeting its medium-term core earnings growth target of 15% for Asia, Green said. The company has also said it aims to obtain half of its core earnings from Asia by 2025.

Manulife shares fell 1.1% to C$23.93 in morning trading in Toronto, compared with a 0.7% gain in the benchmark Canadian stock index.

“Profitability remains below management’s medium-term target,” Edward Jones analyst James Shanahan wrote in a note. “Progress relative to (management’s) goals would go a long way toward strengthening investor perceptions and driving stronger performance.”