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Manulife plans office space, agency force expansion to capture growing insurance demand in Greater Bay Area

  • Manulife will open a 7,300 sq ft customer centre in Tsim Sha Tsui and move into new office space in Kwun Tong under CEO Damien Green’s watch
  • Asia contributed one-third of Manulife group’s core earnings and the bulk of its annualised premium sales

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Damien Green, chief executive of Manulife Hong Kong and Macau, is confident in the future of Hong Kong. Photo: May Tse
Enoch Yiu
Manulife, the second-biggest insurer in Hong Kong, is making plans to entrench its market position by capturing new opportunities fuelled by rising affluence in the Greater Bay Area, said Damien Green, its chief executive for Hong Kong and Macau.

The Canadian insurer will open a 7,300-square foot centre at the Gateway in the Tsim Sha Tsui commercial district this month to cater to high networth individuals, tripling the size of its previous footprint. The move dovetails with its sizeable plan to move into its fifth office tower in the city later this year.

“We have a growing business in Hong Kong and we will hire more agents to sell our products in the following years,” Green said in an interview with the Post. “We will need more space for training and for our salespersons to meet customers.”

Manulife has generated more than one-third of the group’s core earnings from Asia in 2020, with an annualised premium sales of US$2.9 billion. It has a 10,800-strong agency force in Hong Kong, or about 10 per cent of its strength across the region. It grew its assets under management in Asia by 16 per cent to US$108 billion.

Manulife may be spending an estimated HK$4 million a month for the four floors at Manulife Place in Kwun Tong. Photo: Winson Wong
Manulife may be spending an estimated HK$4 million a month for the four floors at Manulife Place in Kwun Tong. Photo: Winson Wong
The group, which ranks as the largest provider of pension plans under the city’s Mandatory Provident Fund, will take up 145,000 sq ft of space over four floors in International Trade Tower in Kwun Tong, to be renamed Manulife Place, in Hong Kong’s biggest grade A office lease since July 2019.

“Our expansion shows our commitment to Hong Kong where we have operated for 124 years,” Green said, declining to disclose the cost of the additional office space. At a market rate of about HK$28 per square foot, it would amount to HK$4 million per month, one property analyst estimated.

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