Manulife Private Credit Plus Fund, listed as a 10%+ owner of John Hancock Marathon Asset-Based Lending Fund, disclosed an open-market purchase of 438,596 shares on December 1, 2025. The transaction was priced at $20.52 per share, for a total outlay of $9,000,000, according to a Form 4 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Following the purchase, Manulife Private Credit Plus Fund directly holds 3,394,958 shares of the fund. Because the position was acquired at a fixed price on a single date rather than through a series of smaller trades, the filing reads as a straightforward capital commitment rather than a routine periodic buy.
A Pattern of Related-Fund Activity
This is not the only recent filing tying capital flows to John Hancock’s asset-based lending vehicle or its affiliated fund family. Earlier disclosures have shown other Manulife and John Hancock-affiliated entities adding to positions across related trusts. One example: John Hancock Trust Buys $6M Stake in Manulife Private Credit Fund, which detailed a similar internal purchase within the broader fund complex. Taken together, these filings point to continued deployment of capital among affiliated Manulife and John Hancock entities into private credit and asset-based lending strategies.
John Hancock Marathon Asset-Based Lending Fund does not currently carry a public ticker, and detailed public financial statements for the fund are limited compared with exchange-listed companies. That makes Form 4 filings from major holders like Manulife Private Credit Plus Fund one of the more direct windows into how capital is moving through the fund’s ownership structure.
Under SEC rules, any entity or individual owning more than 10% of a company’s shares is required to report changes in their holdings, whether the buyer is an individual insider or, as in this case, an affiliated investment fund. The 10%+ owner designation means Manulife Private Credit Plus Fund’s trading activity is subject to the same disclosure requirements as an officer or director would face, even though the purchase reflects portfolio-level capital allocation rather than a personal investment decision by an individual executive.
Academic research on insider transactions has generally found that clustered buying activity among insiders can correlate with subsequent performance, though single filings of this kind are not, on their own, indicative of future results. This filing represents one disclosed transaction and should be read in that context, alongside the broader pattern of related-fund purchases across the John Hancock and Manulife ecosystem.
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Source: original SEC Form 4 filing.