The financial services group logged robust overall gains last year.

Toronto-headquartered Manulife Financial Corporation, which provides services including wealth management with a focus on regions such as Asia, yesterday reported net income attributed to shareholders of C$2.929 billion ($2.24 billion) for 2016, up 7.3 per cent from a year earlier.

The rise was driven by growth in core earnings, and a turnaround in investment-related experience partially offset by an increase in charges related to the direct impact of markets, it said in a statement yesterday.

The firm generated net flows of C$15.3 billion in its wealth and asset management businesses in 2016, down by more than half from C$34.4 billion in 2015.

Manulife said its net flows in 2016 were driven by strong inflows in institutional advisory business and mutual funds businesses in Asia and Canada, which were partly offset by outflows in its North American pension and US mutual fund businesses. US mutual fund outflows were affected by a “challenging sales environment” and the underperformance of a few key funds earlier in the year. Net flows were $19.1 billion lower than in 2015.

“Manulife achieved particularly strong operating results, ending the year with C$4 billion in core earnings, an increase of 17 per cent from the prior year; and achieving the target we set back in 2012,” said Donald Guloien, chief executive and president.

“While the overall impact of higher rates is highly positive over the long term for our company, net income was negatively impacted by market movements in the fourth quarter. For the full year, net income was C$2.9 billion, an increase of 34 per cent over the prior year.”

Steve Roder, chief financial officer, said: “In Asia, we achieved a 29 per cent increase in APE sales compared to 2015, and a 35 per cent increase in new business value, which speaks to the quality of sales we generated. We also delivered C$15 billion in net flows in our global wealth and asset management businesses, our seventh consecutive positive year."

In a breakdown of its results, Manulife said its Hong Kong-based wealth business showed strong results last year.

Quarterly wealth and asset management gross flows grew by 14 per cent to a new quarterly high of HK$5.8 billion ($747 million) from HK$5.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015, reflecting the continued expansion of its pension business and an increase in mutual fund sales, it said. Full-year wealth and asset management gross flows increased to a record high of HK$20.2 billion, from HK$19.9 billion in 2015.