Border reopening between Macau and mainland helped double life insurance business in 2021 – Manulife – Macau Business

The increase in mainland visitors has helped annualized premium equivalent (APE) sales in Macau more than double in 2021, insurance group Manulife announced in its annual financial report.

A common measure of ascertaining the business sales in the life insurance industry, APE is the sum of the regular annualized premium from the new business plus 10 per cent of the first single premium in a given period.

“After the border between Macau and mainland China re-opened, APE sales in Macau more than doubled in 2021 compared to 2020; with sales from mainland Chinese visitors comprising 60 per cent of the total,” Damien Green, Chief Executive Officer of Manulife Hong Kong and Macau indicated.

Green added that in order to help meet this demand, during the fourth quarter Manulife accelerated its investment in both Hong Kong and Macau, opening new offices and upgrading our customer service centres, as well as appointing senior executives to drive strategic priorities.

This helped Manulife APE sales go up 10 per cent year-on-year in 2021, reaching some HK$6.6 billion, with the group’s core earnings rising 17 per cent to HK$7.4 billion.

Manulife was also the largest Mandatory Provident Funds provider with a market share of 27 per cent based on assets under management as of December 31, 2021, up 2.4 percentage points from a year ago.

In the fourth quarter, Manulife Hong Kong expanded its agency offices to 145,000 square-feet of new office space at Manulife Place, while customer service centres in Kwun Tong and Macau were also renovated.

“We look forward to cross-border travel commencing again between Hong Kong and mainland China so that we can meet the demand for insurance products from MCVs, especially those from the Greater Bay Area,” Green added.

The senior executive appointments of Candy Au Yeung as Chief Operations Officer, and Carrie Tong as Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Macau Branch, were also carried out to drive strategic growth.