2012 News Releases

Jakarta - Manulife Indonesia is starting the New Year on a high note, opening a new office in Semarang, Central Java to cope with the rising workload of business. The move reflects the company’s significant growth in recent years. This is the latest of several expansions for Manulife Indonesia. In mid 2011 the company expanded its Jakarta operations by opening a new marketing office in Kuningan; this followed previous expansions across Indonesia earlier the same year, including in Pontianak and Lhokseumawe.

Manulife Indonesia’s new office offers enhanced facilities for its customers and agents. The company celebrated with an official opening today with agents and employees from Semarang, as well as with the Company’s senior management team.  The new office, at Jalan Pandanaran 16-18, Semarang, has 2,200 square meters of working space, including a spacious customer service area, larger working space for agents and employees, as well as multipurpose rooms that can be used for training and customer meetings.  

“This new office represents another important step for the future of our company and customers. It is the result of Manulife Indonesia’s growth and success.  It is also large enough to accommodate our plans in the future as well,” said Alan Merten, CEO and President Director of Manulife Indonesia.

“Our aspiration is to expand our agent distribution in this city to leverage the growing economies and wealth, and we trust this will create more job opportunities for local residents.  We see this as a really positive start here to a special year for Manulife Financial globally, which celebrates its 125^th anniversary,” added Mr. Merten

Semarang is the ninth most populated city in Indonesia, with more than 1.5 million residents and a growing economy. “The fast-rising economy of Semarang have fueled our business, both in terms of premium growth and new customers.   We have been able to capitalize on this by recruiting more agents. In Semarang, for the first time we have expanded the number of agents to over 300,” said Premraj Thuraisingam, Executive Vice President Director and CAO of Manulife Indonesia. “That’s why we need the new office, which will permit us to deliver better services to both our customers and agents,” Mr. Thuraisingam added.

Manulife Indonesia
Manulife Indonesia offers the most comprehensive products and services in the Indonesian financial services industry through life insurance and employee benefits and through mutual funds and asset management services from its affiliated company, PT Manulife Aset Manajemen Indonesia. Headquartered in Jakarta, Manulife Indonesia operates through a network of marketing offices in 24 cities across the country, supported by more than 8,100 employees and professional agents and has approximately 1.6 million in-force policies.

Manulife Indonesia has earned several prestigious awards in 2011:

• “Good” rating in Life Insurance category at Net Promoter Loyalty Award 2011 from Hachiko-Net Promoter® Solutions and SWA magazine
• The 1st Best Life Insurance Company in 2011 for two years in a row from ABAI (Asosiasi Broker Asuransi & Reasuransi Indonesia – Indonesian Insurance & Reinsurance Brokers Association)
• “Very Good” rating for the 6th time from Infobank magazine in the life insurance company category with gross premium income above IDR 1 trillion in 2010
• The Best Customer Choice of Health Insurance, The Best Customer Choice of Unit Link Insurance, and The Most Popular Brand of Health Insurance categories at Indonesia Brand Champion 2011, which was initiated by MarkPlus Inc.
• Service Quality Award 2011 with “Gold” rating for Health Insurance Service category from the Service Excellence magazine, Marketing magazine and Carre - Center for Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty (Carre - CCSL)
• The Best Insurance of the Year at ASEAN Business & Company Award 2011, which was initiated by the International Achievement Foundation (IAF)

About Manulife Financial
Manulife Financial is a leading Canada-based financial services group operating in 21 countries and territories worldwide. In 2012, we celebrate 125 years of providing clients 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 property and casualty retrocession. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were C$492billion (US$473 billion) as at September 30, 2011. 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 manulife.com.