Manulife Financial is continuing to expand in China, having received licenses for offices in six new locations, the company announced on Thursday.

The firm announced that Manulife-Sinochem Life Insurance Co. Ltd. has received approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission to operate in the city of Jinhua and has also been granted licenses for five additional satellite offices across three provinces.

With this approval, Manulife-Sinochem is now licensed in 39 cities that are home to more than 280 million individuals. The company is a joint venture between Manulife (International) Limited and China Foreign Economic and Trade Trust & Investment Company, a member of the Sinochem group.

The new insurance licenses were granted shortly after a visit to China by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canada’s Minister of International Trade. The expansion comes after news in late-November that Manulife had reached a deal to buy Fortis Bank’s 49% interest in China-based ABN AMRO TEDA Fund Management Co.

“We are grateful for the continued strong support from our excellent Chinese partners and from the Canadian and Chinese governments as we continue to expand our presence in this very important and fast growing insurance and wealth and asset management market,” said Manulife Financial president and CEO Donald Guloien.

Jinhua has a population of 4.6 million and is located in Zhejiang province. It is a communications centre in southeast China between coastal and inland areas and one of the major hubs of land transportation in the country.

The five newly approved satellite offices are located in Fujian province, Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and three in Zhejiang province. The new satellite offices provide an even greater sales presence where Manulife already has licensed offices, the company said.

“The granting of these six new licenses is a very welcome step forward for Manulife-Sinochem as we continue to expand to serve China’s fast growing insurance needs,” said Manulife-Sinochem chairman, Marc Sterling.

Manulife-Sinochem currently has more than 11,000 professionally trained staff and agents serving over 450,000 customers across China.