Sun Life reports strong growth of business in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines—Global insurance giant Sun Life of Canada grew its mutual funds business in the Philippines at a double-digit pace last year despite the turbulent global financial markets.

Thus Sun Life Asset Management Co. Inc. (SLAMC), the mutual funds arm of Sun Life Financial-Philippines, ended last year with P21.46 billion in assets under management, 11 percent higher than a year ago. It also reported an increase in gross sales by 34 percent to P11.91 billion.

Valeria Pama, SLAMC chief operating officer, said in a press statement that 2011 was a good year for the company even with the global challenges. “We’ve seen how the country remained resilient and persevering. There was substantial activity in terms of investments and I am happy to note that our funds portfolio grew well,” she said.

SLAMC manages the Sun Life Prosperity Funds which include five peso-denominated funds and two US dollar-denominated funds. These are the Bond Fund, Balanced Fund, Phil Equity Fund, Money Market and GS (Government Securities) Funds; the Dollar Advantage Fund and Dollar Abundance Fund.

In terms of returns for peso-denominated funds, the bond fund led the pack as of yearend 2011 with a one-year return of 8.1 percent, followed by the GS Fund with 6.7 percent.  For the US dollar-denominated funds, Dollar Abundance Fund took the lead with 5.9 percent one-year yield.

In terms of asset under management, the Sun Life Prosperity Balanced Fund posted the highest at yearend 2011 with P8.67 billion, followed by Phil Equity Fund with P5.04 billion.

Mutual funds were invented by financial wizards for people who may not have the time or expertise to create and actively manage an investment portfolio. An investor who buys a share in the mutual fund gets the same percentage of return as one who gobbles up a bigger share and is widely expected to benefit from diversification and professional portfolio management.

Considering the resilience of the Philippine economy amid  the US and European debt crises, and the healthy growth of the funds, Pama said SLAMC would continue to exert efforts to encourage more Filipinos to invest in mutual funds.  And one of the major initiatives mapped out for this year is the campaign called “Invest & Fly.”

“This campaign was meant to further educate the Filipinos on the advantages of investing in mutual funds and to adapt a long-term investment horizon,” Pama said.

For every qualified investment of P500,000 or $10,000 in any of the six Sun Life  Prosperity  Funds,  the  investor  is rewarded with a free round-trip economy  ticket  exclusive  of  applicable taxes and fees. With this promo, investors  get  the  opportunity  to grow their money through an instrument that  promises  potential  higher  returns  and at the same time experience seeing the world, Pama said.

The  eligible  investor  may  choose  to fly to Hong Kong, Beijing, Sydney, Paris,  New  York,  Tokyo,  Melbourne,  London,  Milan,  Moscow,  Rome, Los Angeles,  San Francisco, Vancouver and Toronto via Cathay Pacific for every qualified  investment  in the Sun Life Prosperity Funds.  The campaign runs until May 31 this year.