Canada-based The Manufacturers Life Insurance Co.’s (Manulife) local unit is focusing on diversifying its long-term investments and savings as the Philippine economy also bears the brunt of the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. (Phils.) Inc. (Manulife Philippines) President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rahul Hora told a press briefing on Monday, March 9, that the insurer’s focus is diversification, noting that the country was positioned in an “unpredictable” environment even prior to the flare-up of the United States (US)-backed Israel-Iran rift.

This was Hora’s take even as Manulife Philippines saw a positive trend in previous months.

“With the recent crisis, it’s really difficult to assess the impact. It’s also unfolding as we are planning,” Hora said.

However, Hora said Manulife Philippines was on a solid footing prior to the military conflict breakout in the Middle East. He said the main reason behind the positive performance of the insurer was the resilience of domestic economic conditions despite disappointing economic growth in 2025.

Hora also reported that its clients have been flocking to Manulife Philippines’ freshly launched funds, an offering that supports its strategy to diversify. “We are seeing a lot of uptake of the products and funds which cater to diversification,” he said.

Manulife Philippines’ diversification approach aims to protect its customers from being trapped in a single geographical or asset concentration, a setup that puts investments at high risk from geopolitical shocks.

Manulife Philippines closed 2025 with a net income of ₱2 billion, falling 10.3 percent from the previous year’s ₱2.2 billion in net earnings. According to unaudited data from the Insurance Commission (IC), the insurer’s industry ranking remained at eighth.

This was driven by a 9.3-percent drop in premium income year-on-year, which stood at ₱14.4 billion last year from ₱15.9 billion in 2024, leading to a two-spot drop from the ninth rank in 2024.

New business annual premium equivalent (NBAPE), which measures the sales performance of new insurance business, dropped by more than a third to a total of ₱1.9 billion from ₱2.9 billion a year earlier.

Similarly, its net worth saw a double-digit contraction in 2025, standing at ₱14.3 billion from ₱16.5 billion in 2024.

Meanwhile, Manulife Philippines saw robust growth in its bancassurance tie-up with China Banking Corp.

“We delivered double-digit year‑on‑year growth in our retail life insurance business, reflecting continued demand and the strength of our core offerings, as well as our agency distribution team and strategic bancassurance partnership through Manulife China Bank Life,” Manulife said.

The insurer noted that the general decline in NBAPE “was driven primarily by our group insurance business, where we made a deliberate decision to streamline a sizable group account in order to improve overall profitability.”

Hora said the insurance company remains focused on prioritizing profitability over hyper-focusing solely on the topline.