Manulife Asset Management expands into Korea

Manulife Asset Management has obtained a cross border investment advisory license in Korea.

Michael Dommermuth, president of Manulife Asset Management Asia, says: “Korea is the second largest institutional asset management market in Asia, growing at 14% and forecast to reach KRW320 trillion by 2015. We’re are seeing considerable interest from institutional investors to step up portfolio diversification and outsource their investments.”

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He adds, “The proportion of outsourced AUM for the retirement segment—which holds almost a third of total investable institutional assets—has grown from 9.7% in 2006 to 19.9% in 2011. Korea is a strategically important market for our company.”

Manulife also hired Peter Kim as managing director and head of institutional sales in July. He’s based in Hong Kong and reports to James Chen, the head of institutional sales & relationship management in Asia. In his new role, Kim is responsible developing the business strategy in Korea.

He has more than 17 years of business development experience in traditional and alternative asset management companies in both Korea and Hong Kong.

Chen says, “Many institutional clients are increasingly looking to invest in China, alternative asset classes and income-oriented solutions.”

China is a familiar market to Manulife Asset Management; its joint venture in Mainland China, Manulife TEDA, provides local market insights via extensive company research and government policy analysis, which benefit the company’s equity investment and advisory businesses.

Today’s announcement follows earlier news Manulife hired heads of asset allocation and product development in Asia.

Read: Manulife reduces earnings targets

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The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.