(June 15 – 15:55 ET) – Manulife Financial will maintain its dividend scale on all dividend-paying life insurance policies in Canada at current levels for the period July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2001.
Manulife will disburse an estimated $123 million to about 350,000 Canadian policyholders, up 5.9% from the previous year. This is the first dividend to Canadian policyholders by Manulife since the company demutualized in September 1999.
“This announcement is a demonstration of our commitment to providing stable, long-term value to our policyholders,” Trevor Matthews, Manulife executive vice president of Canadian operations, said in a press release. “While policy dividends have never been guaranteed, Manulife continues with its practice of setting very competitive dividend scales.”
Matthews also noted that most of these policyholders had received either shares or cash payments as a result of Manulife’s transition to a publicly-traded company in 1999.
-IE Staff