Manulife Asset Management Singapore Launches New Global Equity and Fixed Income Funds

Online, April 18, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Manulife Asset Management Singapore Pte. Ltd. today announces that it is launching two new funds - the Manulife Global Contrarian Fund and Manulife Strategic Income Fund. These are the first global funds to be launched by Manulife Asset Management in Singapore, joining 5 other domestic and Greater China funds already available to local investors.

The two funds are Singapore dollar-denominated funds which feed into strategies managed by Manulife Asset Management's global equity and fixed income teams, based in Boston, USA. Both funds are available in Singapore to retail investors via the Aviva Navigator platform and to institutional investors.

Darryl Aw, Regional Head of Channel Distribution, Manulife Asset Management Singapore said: "We have harnessed the expertise of our international network of fixed income and equity managers to offer these two superior-performing global funds to Singaporean investors. Today's announcement is indicative of the demand we are seeing from institutional and retail investors for global funds that carefully manage risk and generate consistently strong returns."

Manulife Global Contrarian Fund

The Manulife Global Contrarian Fund aims to generate superior returns by investing in 'overlooked or misunderstood' companies selling at a discount to their intrinsic value. The fund also targets companies whose business models have the potential to generate high returns, that have attractive valuations or strong cash flows and which have proven management teams with strong track records for creating value.

The fund is part of Manulife's Global Opportunities strategy, managed by Chris Arbuthnot in Boston. The strategy was top ranked for its 3 and 5 year performance by Bloomberg Markets magazine in 2010 and, in January 2011, topped the Global Equity performance charts to pick up a Best of the Best performance award from Asia Asset Management for its 3 and 5 year performance(1).

Manulife Strategic Income Fund

The Manulife Strategic Income Fund is a multi-sector fixed income fund which allocates between global currencies, government and corporate bonds to generate strong consistent returns, while reducing risk. The dynamic and flexible approach of the underlying strategy has led it to consistently outperform its benchmark by 2% gross over 10, 5 and 3 year periods. Indeed over a 1 year period, it generated returns of 16.64% compared to benchmark returns of 8.16%(2).

The strategy is managed by Daniel Janis in Boston and offers investors the benefits of diversification across multiple bond sectors but with the ability to emphasize any particular sector that the portfolio management team believes has the potential to generate superior returns at any one time. It also has the flexibility to make opportunistic currency investments.

More details are available by visiting www.manulife.com.sg.

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Notes to editors:

(1) Bloomberg Markets - The Global Opportunities Strategy was top ranked in Bloomberg Markets magazine's annual ranking of U.S.-based mutual funds 2010.

(2) Performance shown is the Manulife Asset Management US Strategic Fixed Income composite as of September 30, 2010 in U.S. dollars. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Returns greater than one year are annualized.

About Manulife Asset Management

Manulife Asset Management™ is the global asset management arm of Manulife Financial. Manulife Asset Management and its affiliates provide comprehensive asset management solutions for institutional investors and investment funds in key markets around the world. This investment expertise extends across a full range of asset classes including equity, fixed income and alternative investments such as real estate, timber, farmland, as well as asset allocation strategies.

Manulife Asset Management has offices with full investment capabilities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. In addition, it has a joint venture asset management business in China, Manulife TEDA. It also has operations in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Uruguay. As at December 31, 2010 total assets under management were US$ 210 billion. Additional information about Manulife Asset Management can be found at ManulifeAM.com.

About Manulife Financial

Manulife Financial is a leading Canadian-based financial services group operating in 22 countries and territories worldwide. For more than 120 years, clients have looked to Manulife for strong, reliable, trustworthy and forward-thinking solutions for their most significant financial decisions. Our international network of employees, agents and distribution partners offers financial protection and wealth management products and services to millions of clients. We provide asset management services to institutional customers worldwide as well as reinsurance solutions, specializing in life and property and casualty retrocession. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were Cdn$475 billion (US$478 billion) as at December 31, 2010. The Company operates as Manulife Financial in Canada and Asia and primarily as John Hancock in the United States.

Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at www.manulife.com.

Media Contacts:

For Manulife Asset Management in Asia:

Catherine Battershill (Hong Kong)
Tel: +852 2202 1634
[email protected]

For Manulife Asset Management Singapore:

Cindy Cheng
Tel: + 65 6833 8162
[email protected]