TSX/NYSE/PSE: MFC
SEHK:945
For Immediate Release
September 14, 2015
Manulife Investments Announces Mutual Fund Platform Changes
Go-forward platform to consist of Standard Life Mutual Funds and Manulife
Mutual Funds which are managed by seasoned portfolio management teams.
TORONTO – Manulife Investments, a division of Manulife Asset Management Limited
(MAML), today announced a number of proposed changes to its mutual fund lineup. The
changes follow the acquisition of the Canadian-based operations of Standard Life plc
completed earlier this year and are part of the continuing integration of the Standard Life
Mutual Funds into the Manulife fund family. Subject to applicable regulatory and
securityholder approval, Manulife Investments proposes to:
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amalgamate the existing Standard Life and Manulife mutual fund corporations
change the investment objectives of certain funds
change the sub-advisors and portfolio managers of certain funds
cap certain funds to new purchases
implement a series of fund mergers
“These changes are the result of a careful analysis of the combined Standard Life and
Manulife mutual fund platforms to create a “best of the best” mutual fund lineup", said
Derek Saliba, Assistant Vice President, Mutual Fund Product. "These changes would
achieve our objective of streamlining our mutual fund lineup, which is managed by
seasoned portfolio management teams, while minimizing the impact to our investors.
The majority of the proposed mergers will also be completed on a tax-deferred basis
where the management fees investors pay will remain the same and in many cases will
decrease.”
Amalgamation of Standard Life Corporate Class Inc. and Manulife Investment Exchange
Funds Corp. (on or about November 21, 2015)
In an effort to create a stronger mutual fund corporation and to allow for tax-deferred
switching between the Standard Life corporate funds and the Manulife corporate funds,
as well as tax-deferred mergers between these funds, Manulife Investments is proposing
to amalgamate Standard Life Corporate Class Inc. (“SLCCI”) and Manulife Investment
Exchange Funds Corp., on a tax-deferred basis, into a single corporate entity (the
“Corporate Amalgamation”).
A special meeting will be held on November 5, 2015 for securityholders of SLCCI to vote
on this matter and, subject to receipt of all necessary approvals, the Corporate
Amalgamation will take place on or about November 21, 2015. The Independent Review
Committee of the funds has reviewed the proposed Corporate Amalgamation and
concluded that it achieves a fair and reasonable result for the impacted funds.
Investment Objective Changes
Effective on or about January 4, 2016, subject to securityholder approval, Manulife
Investments will change the investment objectives for the following funds:
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Manulife U.S. Opportunities Class
Manulife Value Fund
Standard Life Emerging Markets Dividend Fund
Standard Life Emerging Markets Dividend Class
A special meeting will be held on November 5, 2015 for securityholders of the above
funds to vote on this matter.
Sub-advisor and Portfolio Manager Changes
Effective on or about January 4, 2016, Manulife Investments will change the subadvisory and portfolio manager responsibilities of the funds described below. Unless
otherwise noted above, the investment objectives of these funds are not affected.
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For Manulife U.S. Dividend Registered Fund, Manulife U.S. Dividend Class and
Standard Life U.S. Dividend Growth Fund, MAML will become the Portfolio
Manager. These funds will be managed by Alan Wicks, Senior Managing
Director and Senior Portfolio Manager, and his team including Jonathan Popper
and Conrad Dabiet.
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For Standard Life U.S. Monthly Income Fund, MAML will become the portfolio
manager and Manulife Asset Management (US) LLC will be appointed as subadvisor for the fund. The equity portion of this fund will be managed by Alan
Wicks, Jonathan Popper and Conrad Dabiet. The fixed income portion of the
fund will be managed by Howard Greene, Senior Managing Director, along with
Jeffrey Given and Konstantin Kizunov.
• For Standard Life Emerging Markets Dividend Fund and Standard Life Emerging
Markets Dividend Class, Manulife Asset Management (Europe) Limited will be
appointed as sub-advisor. Kathryn Langridge, Senior Managing Director and
Senior Portfolio Manager will be appointed as lead portfolio manager for the
funds.
• For Manulife Global All Cap Focused Fund, Manulife Asset Management (US)
LLC will be appointed as sub-advisor. Paul Boyne, Senior Managing Director
and Senior Portfolio Manager and Doug McGraw, Managing Director and
Portfolio Manager will be responsible for the fund’s management.
• For Manulife International Focused Fund, Manulife Asset Management (US) LLC
will be appointed as sub-advisor. Wendell L. Perkins, Senior Managing Director
and Senior Portfolio Manager, and his team will be responsible for the fund’s
management.
• For Manulife Global Real Estate Class, Standard Life Investments Limited (a UK
company) will be appointed as sub-advisor. Svitlana Gubriy, Portfolio Manager
and William Pekowitz, Portfolio Manager will be appointed as portfolio managers
for the fund.
• For Manulife Value Fund and Manulife U.S. Opportunities Class, Gary Li,
Managing Director and Derivatives Portfolio Manager of Manulife Asset
Management (US) LLC, will be added as a Portfolio Manager.
Fund Cappings
Standard Life U.S. Dividend Growth Fund, Manulife Global All Cap Focused Fund and
Manulife International Focused Fund will be capped to new purchases (excluding
existing pre-authorized chequing plans (PACs), dollar cost averaging plans (DCAs) and
switches-in from Manulife Dollar-Cost Averaging Fund), as of 4:00pm ET on January 22,
2016.
Fund Mergers
Subject to receipt of required regulatory and securityholder approvals, Manulife
Investments is proposing to proceed with mergers of the funds, as described in the
tables below. In addition, and as noted below, each merger of a Standard Life corporate
fund into a Manulife corporate fund, or vice versa, is conditional upon the approval and
completion of the Corporate Amalgamation.
The Independent Review Committee of the funds has reviewed the proposed mergers
and concluded that they achieve a fair and reasonable result for the impacted funds.
The proposed streamlined platform is expected to eliminate overlap and confusion for
advisors and investors. Manulife Investments anticipates that the go-forward portfolio
management teams will have the ability to fulfill the investment objective of the funds
and act in the best interest of investors. For certain Terminating Funds, their portfolio
management teams will be changed over to the teams of the corresponding Continuing
Funds in advance of the mergers and this will be disclosed in the offering documents for
those funds, as amended from time to time and in accordance with securities regulation.
Proposed Mergers on or about March 11, 2016:
Terminating Fund
Standard Life Tactical Bond Fund2
Standard Life Canadian Small Cap Fund2
Standard Life Canadian Bond Fund2
Standard Life U.S. Equity Value Fund2
Continuing Fund
Manulife Canadian Bond Plus Fund
Manulife Canadian Opportunities
Balanced Fund
Manulife Growth Opportunities Fund
Manulife Bond Fund
Manulife U.S. All Cap Equity Fund
Standard Life U.S. Equity Value Class3
Manulife U.S. Large Cap Equity Fund
Manulife U.S. Large Cap Equity Class
Manulife Special Opportunities Class
Standard Life Global Equity Value Fund2
Manulife Global Focused Fund
Manulife U.S. All Cap Equity Class3
Manulife U.S. All Cap Equity Fund
Manulife U.S. All Cap Equity Class
Manulife U.S. All Cap Equity Class
Standard Life Global Equity Fund2
Standard Life Global Equity Fund2
Manulife Global Focused Class3
Standard Life Global Equity Class3
Standard Life Balanced Fund
Proposed Mergers on or about April 15, 2016:
Terminating Fund
Standard Life Money Market Fund2
Standard Life Short Term Bond Fund2
Standard Life Global Bond Fund+,2
Standard Life Canadian Equity Fund2
Manulife Global Focused Balanced Fund
Standard Life International Equity Fund2
Standard Life European Equity Fund2
Manulife Canadian Conservative Balanced
Fund
Manulife Global Real Estate Fund
Standard Life Canadian Equity Value
Fund2
Standard Life Canadian Equity Growth
Fund2
Standard Life High Yield Bond Fund2
Standard Life Emerging Markets Debt
Fund2
Continuing Fund
Manulife Money Fund
Manulife Short Term Bond Fund
Manulife Strategic Investment Grade
Global Bond Fund
Manulife Dividend Income Fund
Manulife Global Strategic Balanced Yield
Fund
Manulife World Investment Fund
Manulife World Investment Fund
Standard Life Diversified Income Fund2
Standard Life Global Real Estate Fund2
Manulife Dividend Income Fund
Manulife Canadian Opportunities Fund
Manulife High Yield Bond Fund
Manulife Emerging Markets Debt Fund
Proposed Mergers on or about May 27, 2016:
Terminating Fund
Continuing Fund
3
Standard Life Short Term Yield Class
Standard Life Corporate Bond Class*1
Standard Life Canadian Bond Class*1
Standard Life Conservative Portfolio Class1
Standard Life Moderate Portfolio Class1
Manulife Short Term Yield Class3
Standard Life Corporate Bond Fund2
Manulife Bond Fund
Standard Life Conservative Portfolio 2
Standard Life Moderate Portfolio 2
* This Fund was previously capped to all purchases on July 19, 2013. This Fund will be capped for existing PACs on
4:00pm ET on October 30, 2015.
+This Fund was formerly named Standard Life International Bond Fund.
1
This merger will be effected on a taxable basis.
2
Eclipse and Legend Series where applicable of this Fund will be capped effective as of 4:00 pm ET on October 30, 2015.
3
This merger is conditional upon the prior approval and completion of the Corporate Amalgamation.
Except as noted otherwise, each Terminating Fund will be capped to new purchases,
excluding PACs, DCAs and switches-in from the Manulife Dollar-Cost Averaging Fund,
as of the close of business on the Monday immediately preceding the applicable merger.
Securityholders will have the right to redeem the securities of each Terminating Fund up
to the close of business on the effective date of each merger. Following each merger,
PACs, systematic withdrawal plans, DCAs and switches-in from the Manulife Dollar-Cost
Averaging Fund, which had been established with respect to a Terminating Fund, will be
re-established with respect to the applicable Continuing Fund unless a securityholder
advises us otherwise.
Each Terminating Fund is intended to be wound-up or terminated on, or as soon as
possible after its merger. All the mergers will be effected on a tax-deferred basis except
as noted above.
Securityholder Approvals
As noted above, the Corporate Amalgamation and investment objective changes will
require securityholder approval in order to proceed. Approvals by certain
securityholders of the Terminating Funds and select Continuing Funds will also be
required for some of the mergers described above to proceed. For mergers where
securityholder approvals are not required, Terminating Fund securityholders will be
provided written notice in accordance with applicable securities law.
Voting securityholders will be provided with advance notice of the changes which they
will be required to approve through a Notice of Meeting and Management Information
Circular that will be delivered in accordance with applicable securities laws. Any
necessary securityholder approvals will be sought at special meetings to be held on or
about November 5, 2015 for securityholders of record as of October 1, 2015.
Other administrative changes will also be made effective at close of business on or
about November 13, 2015. Impacted parties will be notified of the details of these
changes.
For more information, please visit manulifemutualfunds.ca or contact Manulife
Investments at the following telephone numbers:
English: 1-888-588-7999
French: 1-877-426-9991
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 offers a variety of products and services including
segregated fund contracts, mutual funds, annuities and guaranteed interest contracts.
About Manulife Asset Management
Manulife Asset Management is the global asset management arm of Manulife, providing
comprehensive asset management solutions for investors. This investment expertise
extends across a broad range of public and private asset classes, as well as asset
allocation solutions. As at June 30, 2015, assets under management for Manulife Asset
Management were approximately C$390 billion (US$313 billion).
Manulife Asset Management’s public markets units have investment expertise across a
broad range of asset classes including public equity and fixed income, and asset
allocation strategies. Offices with full investment capabilities are located in the United
States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia,
Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines. In addition, Manulife Asset
Management has a joint venture asset management business in China, Manulife TEDA.
The public markets units of Manulife Asset Management also provide investment
management services to affiliates' retail clients through product offerings of Manulife and
John Hancock. John Hancock Asset Management and Declaration Management and
Research are units of Manulife Asset Management.
Additional information about Manulife Asset Management may be found at
ManulifeAM.com.
About Manulife
Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group
providing forward-thinking solutions to help people with their big financial decisions. We
operate as John Hancock in the United States, and Manulife elsewhere. We provide
financial advice, insurance and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals,
groups and institutions. At the end of 2014, we had 28,000 employees, 58,000 agents,
and thousands of distribution partners, serving 20 million customers. At the end of June
2015, we had $883 billion (US$708 billion) in assets under management and
administration, and in the previous 12 months we made more than $22 billion in benefits,
interest and other 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.
Follow Manulife on Twitter @ManulifeNews or visit www.manulife.com or
www.johnhancock.com.
Media contact:
Bev MacLean
Manulife
416-852-8501
Beverley_Maclean@manulife.com
@ManulifeNews