MFS Investment Management is planning to add up to 100 employees and hike spending on branding and advertising, company spokesman Dan Flaherty confirmed to The MFWire.

MFS plans to hire 50 to 100 people over the next three years, half of whom will be in MFS's overseas offices such as Hong, Kong, Brazil and India.

Rob Manning MFS CEO

"We're filling in places where the (economic) growth is likely to be," MFS CEO Rob Manning told Reuters on Thursday.

MFS first revealed on July 22 that it planned to increase its staff powered by an infusion of up to $50 million from its Canadian-based parent, Sun Life Financial. At that time, company executives said they're looking to add staff in areas such as sales, dealer relations and relationship management, attributing the expansion to "strong net sales growth in 2009."

Aside from upping its headcount, MFS will also spend more money on branding and advertising.

The company plans to beef up its current campaign titled Choose What Fits, which was created by Allen & Gerritsen.

At the end of June, MFS had $147 billion of assets under management.

SunLife released second quarter results Thursday which show that MFS earned $27 million in the April-to-June period, compared with $55 million a year ago, mainly due to lower average net assets.

MFS saw $4.9 billion of net flows in the second quarter, including retail net flows of $1.2 billion. 

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