Net inflows to the wealth and asset management arm of the Toronto-listed group slowed in the third quarter from a year earlier.

Canada-headquartered Manulife Financial, which provides services including wealth management in regions including Asia, has logged net income attributed to shareholders of C$1.117 billion ($829 million) for the third quarter of 2016, up from $622 million in the same period a year ago.

The increase was mainly driven by investment-related gains recorded in Q3 2016, compared with investment-related experience charges in the same quarter of 2015.

The company logged core earnings of C$996 million, up from C$870 million a year ago.

It generated net flows of C$2.7 billion in its wealth and asset management businesses in the third quarter, down C$1.8 billion compared with C$4.5 billion a year earlier.

The third quarter marked the 27th consecutive quarter of positive net flows in Manulife's WAM businesses, it said. There were "strong net flows in Canada, US pensions and Asia". These inflows were partly offset by net outflows in Manulife Asset Management because of the inherent variability in the institutional advisory business, as well as net outflows in US mutual funds, which were negatively impacted by year-to-date underperformance in a few key funds and customers’ reduced appetite for actively-managed solutions, it said.

In November last year, Manulife Private Wealth, part of Manulife, opened a Hong Kong office to serve high net worth customers, especially those from Hong Kong and mainland China who are arranging to immigrate to Canada. As part of the offering in Hong Kong, a representative office of Manulife Bank of Canada was launched at the same time.