This week in asset owner history: Manulife facing two-speed China entry

Five years ago, Manulife inked a distribution tie-up with Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) that it hoped would help it to tap the individual retirement savings market in China. The Canadian life insurer had spent over a year looking for a partner to set up an onshore pension joint venture. The firm was in discussions with banks, including ABC, but regulatory question marks remained. “There is quite a lot of uncertainty within China as to how [the regulations on foreign JVs] woul…