Last year’s acquisition of U.S. insurer John Hancock helped Manulife Financial Corp., post an 88% jump in profit and an 84.5% in revenue in the first-quarter of 2005, the Toronto-based insurer said Thursday.

Manulife said that for the three-month period to March 31, revenue increased to $7.64 billion vs $4.14 billion, while earnings attributable to common shareholders were $801 million (99¢ a share) vs $423 million (92¢) in the same quarter of last year.

In a statement, the company said without the related costs of the $13.9-billion merger with John Hancock, earnings per share rose 13% to $1.04. Return on equity came in at 14.1% vs 19% a year ago.

The company also announced that the quarterly dividend was increased to 30¢ per common share from 26¢.

“We are very pleased with our performance for this quarter, which included record top and bottom line results and a significant increase to our return on equity,” Dominic D’Alessandro, president and CEO of Manulife Financial, said in a release. “The integration of John Hancock will be largely completed by year-end and we are focused on realizing the full benefits of the merger.

Manulife said that included in the financial results for Q1 2005 were a number of non-recurring items, including a $40-million (after tax) accrual related to the Portus Alternative Asset Management guarantee.

Total premiums and deposits for the first quarter were a record-high $14.8 billion, $5.5 billion higher than reported in the first quarter of 2004 and $0.7 billion higher than the preceding quarter. The increase reflects the addition of John Hancock, sales growth in North American insurance operations and strong wealth management deposits in Canada, the U.S. and Japan.

Funds under management were $350.3 billion at March 31 vs $163.2 billion a year earlier thanks, again, largely to the merger with John Hancock.

Manulife shares were trading at $58.64 at midday Thursday, up 6¢ or 0.10%.