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A Sun Life Financial sign is seen outside of their building before their annual general meeting for shareholders in Toronto May 7, 2014.Mark Blinch/Reuters

Sales of insurance and wealth management products in Asia accounts for more and more of Sun Life Financial Inc.'s business, with no signs of slowing.

At its investor day in Toronto on Thursday, Sun Life revealed how much of the entire company's business now comes from clients in Asia. This not only takes the Asian insurance and investments division into account, but also the retail and institutional money managers selling to Asian high net worth clients and investment funds though Sun Life's other business lines in North America. The result is 18 per cent of underlying net income, or about $321-million, up from $192-million a year earlier.

About 19 per cent of new business now comes from Asia, and that's expected to increase to 25 per cent in the next few years, said Dean Connor, chief executive of Sun Life. He expects insurance and wealth sales in Asia will increase to a projected 15 per cent of the company's total, from 10 per cent now.

"As our sales grow, and our agents grow and the demand grows in Asia, that's driving strong sales and earnings," Mr. Connor said.

The company said it expects its overall earnings per share to increase by 8 to 10 per cent each year in the next three to five years, which the company is calling its "medium term objective." That's lower than the average pace of 15 per cent in the last few years, Mr. Connor said, but it's also a more aggressive rate than the major Canadian banks.

Alongside Asia, Sun Life has three other business divisions. It's U.S. and Canadian arms sell insurance and investment products, and its global asset manager MFS Investment Management is primarily focused on institutional clients. Sun Life expects its U.S. business to outpace the growth of both its Canadian business and MFS in the coming years.

Since 2012, Sun Life extended its reach in Asia through acquisitions in Malaysia and Vietnam, as well as forging new partnerships with local banks and expanding its sales force.

"We are in the deal flow and deals come to us on a regular basis," said Kevin Strain, who leads the Asian group from its Hong Kong head office. "Our focus is on bolt-on acquisitions in our existing markets," he said, adding that there may also be appetite for expansion in new parts of southeast Asia. When it comes to the tools for organic growth, not much has changed in recent years. Getting distributions right is still as essential as it was a few years ago.

Sun Life has about $1.8-billion in excess capital, which prompted questions about what kind of mergers could be attractive to the company as a whole.

"Some buyers out there have accepted long-term returns on investments that actually have a single digit expected return, and we have not gone there," Mr. Connor said. "We continue to think that a 12 to 14 per cent return on investment are the kinds of targets we should be shooting for, and if you've put capital to work through M&A that's got a single digit, long-term return on investment, it's going to take us away from achieving that objective."

Overall, Mr. Connor said Sun Life is set to exceed its 2015 earnings objectives of $1.85-billion.

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+0.15%73.91

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