Manulife exposure to Wachovia just under $600M, CEO says
Manulife Financial Corp. CEO Dominic D'Alessandro says the insurance company has slightly less than $600 million in exposure to Wachovia Corp., the latest U.S. bank to fall victim to the Wall Street credit troubles.
D'Alessandro revealed the figure Monday during an investor conference in Toronto.
Earlier this month, Manulife said it has just over $800 million US in total exposure to other troubled U.S. financial firms Lehman Brothers, American International Group and Washington Mutual.
D'Alessandro said it's "well within the ability of Manulife to withstand the cumulative impact of those four failures."
The company's chief financial officer Peter Rubenovitch also told investors that Manulife isn't struggling with cash requirements at this point either.
"We don't have any current issues … the nature of our money market funds is high conservative," he said.
"Our problem is one of making sure our money is safe in a somewhat perilous market climate. We're not seeing liquidity stress and we're not likely to be the first place to see that sort of thing."
Manulife didn't specify the nature of its exposure to Wachovia. On Sept. 17, it said its exposure to the other three firms was primarily fixed-income investments in the companies and derivative products, both of which could potentially lose part or all of their value.
Shares of Manulife closed down $1.55, or 4.1 per cent, at $36.25 on the TSX.
With files from the Canadian Press
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