Question 6

Has the MNE conducted any merger and acquisitions? What were the motivating
factors for the acquisitions and how did the market react to the takeover news?

MAAKL Mutual Bhd is a company that hold 27unit trust funds and over 1000 agents.
The acquisition of MAAKL is same with the Manulife’s strategy which is expand their
business wealth management. Manulife Holdings Berhad as a part of Manulife Financial
Corporation had announced their merger between its wholly owned subsidiaries MAAKL
Mutual Bhd (MAAKL) and Manulife Asset Management Services Berhad (MAMSB) at year
2014. In November year 2013, Manulife Holdings Berhad had entered a share purchase
agreement in MAAKL Mutual Bhd by acquired 6 million ordinary shares of RM 1 each as
represented the entire issued and paid a total of RM 96,475,000 for the ordinary share capital
of MAAKL Mutual Bhd. At the year 2014, the Manulife Holdings Berhad had increased their
interest in MAMSB through the subscription of total RM 34 million ordinary shares and RM
1 for each in cash. According to the statement, Manulife mention that the merger followed
the acquisition of MAAKL and marked the full consolidation of both companies into a single
entity, which would retain the MAMSB name. Mark O’ Dell, the Chief Executive Officer of
Manulife Holdings Berhad said that the merger was expected will bring the benefits of having
professional knowledge in global asset management. The merger had attracted the
professional unit trust advisers and expand the MAMSB’s range to 42 unit trust funds.

Manulife Holdings planned the merger since year 2013 by accelerating the scale of
their unit trust operations with the acquisition of 100% share capital of MAAKL. The
Manulife Holdings planned the merger because the acquisition of the MAAKL was highly
complemented to the existing operation of Manulife Asset Management. Besides that, the
merger also will significantly increase the scale of unit trust business of Manulife in Malaysia
and push MAMSB as one of the top 10 largest private unit trust management companies in
Malaysia.

Malaysia is expected to reach aging population status by year 2030 and this had
provided signals to the community the importance of retirement planning. This have giving
chances to MAMSB to fulfil the retirement and wealth management needs of Malaysians
with a variety range of unit trust and Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) products. MAMSB
expanded their distribution channels to include banks and independent financial advisors as
well as the number of unit trust and PRS consultants.