Canadian insurance giant Manulife says it has slashed about 225 positions in its Global Wealth and Asset Management division representing about 2.5 per cent of the workforce.
In an internal email shared with the division’s more than 9,000 employees on Monday, division head Paul Lorentz announced “organizational changes” including the staff cuts, saying that affected people have already been notified.
A Manulife spokesperson said the company is focusing on “strategic priorities” and “allocating capital to deliver long-term sustainable growth to clients and shareholders.”
“We will always be affected by how global markets perform, how our businesses perform, and how successful we are at managing expenses in other ways,” the spokesperson wrote in an email to the Star. “However, we go to great lengths to avoid having to take these measures.”
A source who did not want to be identified over fears of professional repercussions said a number of employees in the company’s Canadian headquarters were impacted. Manulife did not say how many jobs were lost locally as the cuts were “not Canada specific.”
The move comes just a year after the company eliminated 250 jobs in its investment management arm as other Canadian financial institutions also slashed jobs.
In its second-quarter earnings report, Manulife’s “core earnings” were $1.7 billion, up six per cent from the same quarter in 2023.
The division’s “core earnings” grew 23 per cent, while it saw a decline in new business of 96 per cent.
Overall, the division has been performing well, Cormark analyst Lemar Persaud wrote in a July note to clients, as the company has been capitalizing on Asian market trends and alternative investments.
Manulife recently raised its financial targets for 2027, including a rise in return on equity to 18 per cent from 15.9 per cent in 2023.
