Manulife Financial, a Canada-based life insurance provider, has swung to a profit of C$1.03bn ($989m), for the third quarter of 2013, compared with a loss of C$211m for the same period in 2012.
The net earnings were driven by strong product sales in wealth and insurance businesses, the company said.
Core earnings during the period were C$704m, compared with $570m for the same period a year ago, driven by new business margins on insurance businesses, higher fee income as a result of the growth of wealth management businesses, improved policyholder claims experience and lower hedging costs.
Manulife president and CEO Donald Guloien said, as we predicted last quarter, a number of items with unusual timing reversed themselves this quarter, contributing to the increase in net income.
"Insurance sales increased modestly, but most importantly, were accompanied by much higher margins; wealth sales were extremely positive across the board. The overall plan is unfolding extremely well."
Wealth sales were C$11.3bn, up 34% compared with a year earlier.
For the nine-month period ended 30 September, net income rose to C$1.83bn from C$733m in the last year.
Headquartered in Toronto, Manulife Canadian operations are based in Waterloo and the company has 3,800 staff in Waterloo and Kitchener.
