Manulife Investments Partners with Pioneer in Thematic Investing to Launch Two New Funds

TSX/NYSE/PSE: MFC SEHK: 945

TORONTO, Oct. 17, 2018 /CNW/ - Manulife Investments announced today the launch of two new mutual funds, Manulife Global Thematic Opportunities Fund and Manulife Global Thematic Opportunities Class (the "Funds").

The Funds invest in companies set to benefit from megatrends - large, social, economic, political, environmental or technological changes that will impact the way we live, how society operates, or how business is done. The Funds will be sub-advised by Pictet Asset Management's Hans Peter Portner (26 years investment experience, joined firm in 1997) who heads the firm's thematic equities team and Gertjan Van Der Geer (18 years investment experience, joined firm in 2008), who is a senior investment manager on the thematic equities team.

Pictet Asset Management ("Pictet") has been successfully managing Thematic portfolios for over 20 years and those portfolios have over $52 B (CAD) in assets under management (as of September 30, 2018). With a team of over 35 investment professionals specializing in thematic investments and expertise across several investment themes: robotics, digital, security, health, smart city, nutrition, timber, water, clean energy, environmental, biotech, and premium brands, Pictet is a pioneer in thematic investing.

"Pictet Asset Management is a true leader in the thematic investing space with a proven track record of uncovering opportunities that capitalize on the megatrends and themes that shape our world," said Bernard Letendre, Head of Wealth and Asset Management, Canada. "This strategic relationship reaffirms Manulife's commitment to offering best of class differentiated investment solutions and provides us the opportunity to bring this strategy to Canada."

Pictet Asset Management

Pictet Asset Management is an independent multi-boutique asset manager based in Switzerland and has been managing assets since 1980 with 17 offices worldwide. Pictet Asset Management is one of the world's 100 largest asset managers with 300+ dedicated investment professionals, overseeing over CAD $250 billion (as at 30 September 2018) for their clients across a range of equity, fixed income, alternative and multi asset products.

About Manulife Investments

Manulife Investments, a division of Manulife Asset Management Limited, builds on 125 years of Manulife's wealth and investment management expertise in managing assets for Canadian investors. As one of Canada's leading integrated financial services providers, Manulife Investments and its affiliates offer a variety of products and services including exchange traded funds, segregated fund contracts, mutual funds and guaranteed interest contracts.

About Manulife

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. We operate primarily as John Hancock in the United States and Manulife elsewhere. We provide financial advice, insurance, as well as wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. At the end of 2017, we had about 35,000 employees, 73,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving more than 26 million customers. As of June 30, 2018, we had over $1.1 trillion (US$849 billion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made $27.6 billion in payments to our customers. Our principal operations are in Asia, Canada and the United States where we have served customers for more than 100 years. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong.

SOURCE Manulife Financial Corporation