Canada Life has told shareholders to take their time about responding to Manulife's €4.14 billion unsolicited bid for the company.

Mr Arthur Scace, chairman of the group's special board of directors committee, said it will be providing information to shareholders in January.

Canada Life has 50,000 shareholders in Ireland and is keen to stress that Manulife's offer will be open for 60 days and possibly longer. "Shareholders will have plenty of time to respond to this unsolicited takeover bid," he said.

Manulife has sent details of its offer to shareholders. It is giving them a choice of receiving €25 in cash or 1.055 Manulife shares for each share of Canada Life they currently own.

Its circular suggests that Canada Life policyholders who held onto the free shares they received when the group was demutualised in 1999 could be in line for an average payment of €6,250 if they accept this offer. Most of these shareholders have an average of 250 shares each.

Manulife Financial's president and chief executive, Mr Dominic D'Alessandro, said the offer was a full and fair valuation and presented an opportunity for shareholders to become shareholders in a global financial services group.

"Our offer provides shareholders with 30 per cent more value for their shares than the weighted average market price during the 20 days before our announcement of the offer on December 9th, 2002," he said.

The company, which is based in Toronto, Canada, is urging all shareholders to read its offer. "We want you to make an informed choice because we believe the more you know about our offer, the more you will want to take advantage of it," Mr D'Alessandro said.

The offer period closes on February 28th. If successful, the take-over bid would make Manulife the fourth largest public life insurance company in North America and the tenth largest public life insurer in the world.

A takeover would be subject to obtaining regulatory approval and the tendering of enough shares so that Manulife would have 66.6 per cent of Canada Life's shares, including the 9.1 per cent it already owns.

Canada Life is preparing to issue information to its shareholders on the merits of the offer on January 13th.

Canada Life shares are traded on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. The company has operations in Canada, the US, Ireland, the UK, Germany, Brazil, Hong Kong and the Caribbean. It has total assets of more than $65 billion Canadian (€39 billion).