Press Releases

TORONTO, Feb. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Manulife Mutual Funds won two individual awards at the 2012 Canadian Lipper Fund Awards ceremony, held in Toronto last night.

For the second year in a row, the Manulife Structured Bond Class Advisor Series was recognized within the Canadian Fixed Income Balanced category for providing consistent strong risk-adjusted performance relative to its peers over a five-year period.

In the International Equity category, the Manulife International Dividend Income Fund Advisor Series won for excellence over a one-year time period.

"Continued recognition by Lipper is a source of pride for all of us at Manulife Mutual Funds, and we again congratulate our portfolio managers for their consistent performance, leadership and vision," said Paul Lorentz, President of Manulife Investments. "Our investment managers share our goal and commitment to delivering strong and consistent risk-adjusted returns for our clients."

The Manulife Structured Bond Class is managed by Terry Carr, CFA, of Manulife Asset Management, the asset management arm of Manulife Financial. Primarily invested in Canadian corporate and government bonds with additional exposure to equities, the Fund was launched in October of 2003.

The Manulife International Dividend Income Fund is managed by Duncan Anderson, Chris Hensen, Prakash Chaudhari and Alan Wicks, also of Manulife Asset Management. Launched in November 1993, the fund seeks long-term capital growth by investing in strong dividend-paying companies operating in world markets with head offices outside North America.

"We are continually focused on our commitment to producing excellent long-term investment value for our clients," said J-F Courville, President and CEO of Manulife Asset Management. "It is gratifying to once again accept these awards, which reflect the success of our efforts."

The Canadian Lipper Fund Awards are awarded annually to celebrate exceptional performance throughout the professional investment community. In calculating the awards, Lipper considered all funds domiciled in Canada. Awards were given to funds with a 1, 3, 5, and 10 year history at the end of October 2011 in equity, bond and balanced Canadian Investment Funds Standards Committee (CIFSC) classifications with at least 10 distinct portfolios. Both group and fund awards were calculated using Lipper's Consistent Return score. A more detailed Funds Awards Methodology may be found at: http://excellence.thomsonreuters.com/awards/lipper.

About Manulife Mutual FundsManulife Mutual Funds, a division of Manulife Asset Management Limited, builds on 125 years of Manulife Financial's wealth and investment management expertise in managing approximately $17.7 billion as at December 31, 2011 for Canadian investors, through a diverse portfolio of forward-thinking mutual fund products.  Our experienced Portfolio Managers offer access to markets in Canada, the United States and around the world, in a range of investment styles to help meet individual needs.  Manulife Mutual Funds is part of Manulife Investments, which offers personal wealth management products and services, such as mutual funds, segregated fund contracts, annuities and guaranteed interest contracts.  For more information, please visit manulifemutualfunds.ca.

About Manulife Asset ManagementManulife Asset Management™ is the global asset management arm of Manulife Financial. Manulife Asset Management provides comprehensive asset management solutions for institutional investors and investment funds in key markets around the world.  Manulife Asset Management also provides investment management services to affiliates' retail clients through product offerings of Manulife and John Hancock. This investment expertise extends across a full range of asset classes including equity, fixed income and alternative investments such as real estate, timber, farmland, as well as asset allocation strategies. Manulife Asset Management has offices with full investment capabilities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. In addition, it has a joint venture asset management business in China, Manulife TEDA. It also has operations in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Uruguay. John Hancock Asset Management, Hancock Natural Resource Group and Declaration Management and Research are units of Manulife Asset Management. As at December 31, 2011 total assets under management were C$211 billion (US$208 billion). Additional information about Manulife Asset Management can be found at ManulifeAM.com.

About Manulife FinancialManulife Financial is a leading Canada-based financial services group with principal operations in Asia, Canada and the United States. In 2012, we celebrate 125 years of providing clients strong, reliable, trustworthy and forward-thinking solutions for their most significant financial decisions. Our international network of employees, agents and distribution partners offers financial protection and wealth management products and services to millions of clients. We also provide asset management services to institutional customers. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were C$500 billion (US$491 billion) as at December 31, 2011. The Company operates as Manulife Financial in Canada and Asia and primarily as John Hancock in the United States.

Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at manulife.com.

SOURCE Manulife Mutual Funds

MORRISTOWN, N.J., Feb. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) has agreed to implement the recommendations in a report on the Morristown underground electrical network, which was accepted today by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU). 

"The report provides a thorough analysis and offers valued recommendations," says Don Lynch, president of JCP&L.  "We worked with the BPU staff and the Special Reliability Master (SRM) who performed the review, as the report was developed and will continue to update them and Morristown officials on our progress."

The report said the underground network meets design, construction and reliability standards for U.S. electric utilities and outlined recommended enhancements to underground equipment and engineering, operations and inspection practices.  Most of the recommendations in the report will be completed in 2012 and many are already under way.

Report recommendations scheduled to be implemented include: 

• Upgrading relays in the Morristown substation feeding the network to shorten restoration times when outages occur 
• Completing a study of a secondary portion of the network to determine if additional fuses are needed to help protect against equipment damage 
• Adding special guards at the Morristown substation to prevent animal-related power outages 
• Replacing two electrical switches in the underground network   
• Conducting a pilot project to investigate available methods for securing manhole covers  
• Providing additional training for employees on vault inspections and data collection to support effective preventative maintenance

JCP&L serves 1.1 million New Jersey customers in the counties of Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren. 

Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements based on information currently available to management. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. These statements include declarations regarding management's intents, beliefs and current expectations. These statements typically contain, but are not limited to, the terms "anticipate," "potential," "expect," "believe," "estimate" and similar words. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially due to: the speed and nature of increased competition in the electric utility industry, the impact of the regulatory process on the pending matters in the various states in which we do business including, but not limited to, matters related to rates, the status of the PATH project in light of the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (PJM) direction to suspend work on the project pending review of its planning process, its re-evaluation of the need for the project and the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of any related capital expenditures, business and regulatory impacts from ATSI's realignment into PJM, economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins, changes in markets for energy services, changing energy and commodity market prices and availability, financial derivative reforms that could increase our liquidity needs and collateral costs, the continued ability of FirstEnergy's regulated utilities to collect transition and other costs, operation and maintenance costs being higher than anticipated, other legislative and regulatory changes, and revised environmental requirements, including possible GHG emission, water intake and coal combustion residual regulations, the potential impacts of any laws, rules or regulations that ultimately replace the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) including the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), which was stayed by the courts on December 30, 2011, and the effects of the EPA's recently released Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rules, the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital expenditures that may arise in connection with any NSR litigation or potential regulatory initiatives or rulemakings (including that such expenditures could result in our decision to shut  down or idle certain generating units), the uncertainty associated with PJM's review of FirstEnergy's plan to retire its older unscrubbed regulated and competitive fossil units, adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes with respect to our nuclear operations (including, but not limited to, the revocation or non-renewal of necessary licenses, approvals or operating permits by the NRC, including as a result of the incident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant), issues that could result from our continuing investigation and analysis of the indications of cracking in the plant shield building at Davis-Besse, adverse legal decisions and outcomes related to Met-Ed's and Penelec's ability to recover certain transmission costs through their transmission service charge riders, the continuing availability of generating units and changes in their ability to operate at or near full capacity, replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or inadequately hedged, the ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability standards and energy efficiency mandates, changes in customers' demand for power, including but not limited to, changes resulting from the implementation of state and federal energy efficiency mandates, the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic goals and our ability to improve electric commodity margins and the impact of, among other factors, the increased cost of fuel and fuel transportation on such margins, the ability to experience growth in the distribution business, the changing market conditions that could affect the value of assets held in FirstEnergy's nuclear decommissioning trusts, pension trusts and other trust funds, and cause FirstEnergy to make additional contributions sooner, or in amounts that are larger than currently anticipated, the impact of changes to material accounting policies, the ability to access the public securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with FirstEnergy's financing plan, the cost of such capital and overall condition of the capital and credit markets affecting FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries, changes in general economic conditions affecting FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries, interest rates and any actions taken by credit rating agencies that could negatively affect FirstEnergy's and its subsidiaries' access to financing or their costs and increase requirements to post additional collateral to support outstanding commodity positions, LOCs and other financial guarantees, the continuing uncertainty of the national and regional economy and its impact on the major industrial and commercial customers of FirstEnergy's subsidiaries, issues concerning the soundness of financial institutions and counterparties with which FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries do business, issues arising from the completed merger of FirstEnergy and Allegheny Energy, Inc. and the ongoing coordination of their combined operations including FirstEnergy's ability to maintain relationships with customers, employees or suppliers, as well as the ability to continue to successfully integrate the businesses and realize cost savings and any other synergies, the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in FirstEnergy's and its applicable subsidiaries' SEC filings, and other similar factors. The foregoing review of factors should not be construed as exhaustive. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all such factors, nor assess the impact of any such factor on FirstEnergy's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. FirstEnergy expressly disclaims any current intention to update, except as required by law, any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE FirstEnergy

Expansion in Korea marks another significant growth opportunity for Canada Goose

TORONTO, Feb. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Canada Goose, Canada's leading manufacturer of extreme weather outerwear, today announced Connex Solution Inc. as its exclusive distributor in Korea. This partnership signifies Canada Goose's commitment to global expansion and international growth, enabling the company to meet growing consumer demand in Korea for its Made in Canada products.

"Today's announcement moves us one step closer to our ultimate goal - freeing people from the cold in every market around the world," says Paul Silvertown, Vice-President of Global Sales, Canada Goose. "Connex is a trusted distributor with the industry knowledge and local reach that we need to meet the growing interest in Canada Goose in the Korean market."

Connex Solution will officially launch Canada Goose in Korea in September 2012 with plans to distribute product to more than ten high-end department stores and premium outdoor retailers throughout the country. Canada Goose products are currently sold at Boon The Shop in Seoul, Korea.

"As the exclusive distributor of Canada Goose in Korea, we are excited to be able to fulfill the high consumer demand across the country for their authentic, premier outerwear products," says Wonsik Kang, CEO, Connex Solution Inc. "We look forward to a successful launch later this year and to bringing the same success that Canada Goose has had in North America and Europe to the Korean market."

Visit www.canada-goose.com  for more information on Canada Goose.

About Connex Solution Inc.: Connex Solution began in 2005 with a mission to deliver diverse brands identity and awareness. As an importer and distributor of specialized lifestyle brands for Korea, the company works with brands that carry a strong set of core values. The brands are engaged in various distributions channels, progressive media relationships and effective marketing strategies. With keen insight in the industry, Connex Solution has proven its success through brands such as TOMS Shoes, achieving the second largest gross sales next to the U.S. market. Additionally, the company follows another successful venture with Victoria Shoes. Connex Solution also operates its own multi-brand store, Central Post, to deliver a memorable experience to fashion forward clientele in Korea.

About Canada Goose Inc.: For over 50 years, Canada Goose has been committed to producing the best extreme weather outerwear in the world; proudly made in Canada. From the South Pole research facilities and the Canadian High Arctic, to the streets of New York City, Stockholm, Milan, Toronto and Tokyo, people wear Canada Goose products because of its reputation for authenticity, best quality, functionality and iconic style. Canada Goose supports Polar Bears International as well as a number of charitable organizations and outdoor ventures that provide commitment to Arctic stewardship and the environment. Ask Anyone Who Knows.

SOURCE Canada Goose