Manulife U.S. Regional Bank Trust Announces Correction of Currency Hedging Position on Class A Units

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Investors who sold units between March 3, 2016 and July 6, 2016 to be reimbursed

TORONTO, July 6, 2016 /CNW/ - Manulife U.S. Regional Bank Trust (TSX: MBK.UN) (the "Fund"), a Canadian closed-end fund, announced today that the Class A units of the Fund were under-hedged during the period from March 3, 2016 to June 6, 2016.

In accordance with the investment policy of the Fund, Manulife Asset Management (US) LLC  intended to hedge substantially all of the value of the portfolio attributable to the Class A units denominated in non-Canadian currencies back to the Canadian dollar. Due to a processing error, the Class A units were hedged between 70% to 93% during the above mentioned period.  The Class A units' daily Net Asset Values (NAVs) were subsequently recalculated attributing a hedge ratio of 100%, and it was determined that the cumulative loss to the units over the Reimbursement Period (as defined below) was approximately 1.1% of the NAV per unit. During the Reimbursement Period the NAVs were understated, with the maximum difference being $0.126 on a reported NAV of $9.73 for a difference of 1.29%. We have conducted an audit of our processes and have made enhancements to help prevent this error from happening again.

On July 6, the Fund was reimbursed for the full value of the under-hedged position. The reimbursement was reflected in the NAV as of end of day, July 6, 2016.  Manulife Asset Management Limited will reimburse any investor who sold their Class A units between March 3, 2016 to July 6, 2016, the "Reimbursement Period", for the amount per unit that the NAV would have been understated on the date of sale.  Given that Manulife is not able to identify each investor who traded Class A units during the Reimbursement Period, we invite investors who may have been affected to contact us for reimbursement or with any questions at 1-888-333-3240. 

For greater certainty, the Fund's other class of units, Class U units, are designed to be unhedged. Investors in Class U units were unaffected by this event, and do not need to take action.

About Manulife Investments

Manulife Investments builds on 125 years of Manulife's wealth and investment management expertise in managing assets for Canadian investors. As one of Canada's leading integrated financial services providers, Manulife Investments offers a variety of products and services including mutual funds, as a division of Manulife Asset Management Limited, and segregated fund contracts, annuities and guaranteed interest contracts, as a division of The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company.

About Manulife

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group providing forward-thinking solutions to help people with their big financial decisions. We operate as John Hancock in the United States, and Manulife elsewhere. We provide financial advice, insurance and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. At the end of 2015, we had approximately 34,000 employees, 63,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving 20 million customers. At the end of March 2016, we had $904 billion (US$697 billion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made more than $24.9 billion in benefits, interest and other payments to our customers. Our principal operations are in Asia, Canada and the United States where we have served customers for more than 100 years. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong. Follow Manulife on Twitter @ManulifeNews or visit www.manulife.com or www.johnhancock.com.

SOURCE Manulife Financial Corporation

Media contact: Bev MacLean, Manulife, 416-852-8501, [email protected], @ManulifeNews