Manulife Financial Corp. and Standard Chartered Bank on Thursday announced a 15-year distribution partnership giving Manulife exclusive rights to offer its investment strategies for Hong Kong's Mandatory Provident Fund scheme to Standard Chartered's customers in Hong Kong.
Under the agreement, Manulife will acquire Standard Chartered's existing MPF and Occupational Retirement Schemes Ordinance business, with combined assets under management of $2.4 billion.
A joint news release said financial details of the deal, which is expected to close during the first half of 2016, are not being disclosed.
A Manulife spokesman said adding Standard Chartered's roughly $2 billion MPF business to Manulife's $15.1 billion total as of June will help Manulife close the gap with HSBC, the biggest MPF player with $18.2 billion in assets under management. The acquisition will lift Manulife's market share of MPF assets to 21.4% from 18.9%.
The MPF system, established in 2000, currently has about $80 billion in assets, with a compound annual growth rate of 20% since 2009.
Under the deal, Manulife will also add Standard Chartered's roughly $400 million in pension fund assets under the older ORSO retirement scheme to its $900 million ORSO business.
In the news release, Roy Gori, president and CEO of Manulife Asia, said the partnership “will enable us to increase value to customers and deliver the benefits of economies of scale.”
