‘Dividend’ forces movement

 By SHIRLEY MAULUDU

NEW Britain Palm Oil Ltd has moved shares owned by the New Ireland Provincial Government so that it could benefit from dividends and benefits, an official says.

Chief executive officer Nick Thompson said “We manage to swap NIDC (New Ireland Development Corporation) shares from Poliamba to NBPOL, so that the NIDC could share in the NBPOL dividends and benefit from having the shares listed on POMSOX (Port Moresby Stock Exchange). 

“This would have been the first occasion since Poliamba started in the mid 1980’s that its shareholders had received dividends.”

But, it was reported that the corporation has recently sold more than half of its shares in NBPOL reaping a total of K6.75 million.

New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan said income from the 380,000 shares sold would be used to promote diversified agricultural activities and establish a joint venture interest in an integrated agriculture programme with the Israeli LR Group.

The provincial government’s 18.7% of equity in Poliamba was converted to over 711,000 shares when Poliamba was sold to NBPOL.

Chan said the reason for offloading the shares was because of the changing of Poliamba’s ownership without the provincial government’s notice.