Canadian insurer has beaten analysts' expectations with latest quarterly earnings
Despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Sun Life is ready to seize any opportunities that may enable its expansion.
The Canadian insurer and asset manager’s quarterly earnings report was released this week, showing a 7.4% rise in underlying earnings ($770 million) which beat analysts’ expectations.
But the firm also saw its largest drop in net income since 2017 – of 37% to $391 million - due to market conditions caused by the pandemic.
Sun Life’s CEO told Bloomberg that the pandemic is likely to mean more takeover opportunities and he is ready to act.
“We continue to be interested in acquisition candidates across all of our pillars that fit our criteria, I don’t think the Covid-19 crisis has changed that at all,” Dean Connor said. “It might change the set of things that become available, but it hasn’t changed our focus and our appetite.”
Connor added that the MFS Investment Management and institutional asset management units were both strong as 2020 began. He said that overall, the impact from the pandemic has been “quite modest so far.”
Asset Management’s net income was up 9% ($20m) to $239 million.
Wealth sales increased to $55.9 billion from $35.9 billion a year earlier and assets under management rose to $1.023 trillion from $1.011 trillion.
