Manulife Financial Corp. said Friday that it would aim to increase its profit to $4-billion by 2015, after a lacklustre year left it as one of Canada’s worst performing financial companies.
The insurer is expected to release its full plan at its annual Institutional Investor Day, being held in Toronto on Friday. Manulife also said in a statement before the event that its plan would include a goal to increase return on common shareholders’ equity to 13% by 2015.
“Over the past several quarters the Company has been repositioning its business to reduce capital market risk, increase future earnings growth and improve return on equity,” the company said in its statement.
Manulife booked a loss of $947 million in its most recent quarter, which amounted to 55¢ per common share. The figure was slightly better, however, than the 73¢ most analysts had been expecting.
Shares in the insurer closed at $15.69 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday, up 36¢. The stock, however, has dropped 19% this year, and has seen the worst performance among the 44 companies of the S&P/TSX Financials Index.