AIA 'confusion' helps Manulife in Asia: Guloien

Manulife Financial Corp Chief Executive Officer Donald Guloien said the Canadian insurer stood to benefit from “confusion” in Asia surrounding the status of American International Group’s local unit.

“The more there’s confusion about what’s going on, it provides opportunities for people to deal with what’s a very stable situation here at Manulife,” Guloien said yesterday in a telephone interview.

Prudential terminated a $35.5 billion agreement to buy AIG’s AIA Group on June 2 after Prudential shareholders balked at the price. Guloien said the scrapped deal may cause clients to turn to Toronto-based Manulife, which has been in Asia since 1897 and operates in 11 countries in the region, including China, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

“I think uncertainty just creates impressions in people’s minds,” said Guloien, 53. “AIA is a fine company, but Manulife is seen as a very stable partner to buy insurance from, to buy wealth-management products from and to do business with as a distributor.”