BSP lauded for K643m profit

BANK South Pacific group chief executive officer Robin Fleming has applauded the group for making a K643.5 million profit last year.
The group profit, which was released last week in the 2016 full-year results, noted the increase in the net profit after tax of  21 per cent.
“This has been a great contribution from every part of the business,” Flemming told a news conference on Monday.
He also gave a highlight on the business factors that contributed to the group’s net profit.
Fleming said the group’s total income was up by 16 per cent which was K1.79 billion.
Total assets went up by 14.5 per cent to K20.8 billion.
“The cost to income ratio improves to 42.9 per cent,” he said.
“The capital adequacy maintained at 23.1 per cent.”
Fleming said loan provision was maintained at 4.9 per cent.
“The return of equity went up 1.8 per cent to 29.6 per cent and a dividend yield of 9.8 per cent based on the current exchange rate,” Fleming added.
With foreign exchange, he said, they managed to increase contribution when Ok Tedi resumed operations.
“One of the underlying thing is that the business is growing,” he said.
Fleming commended all seven countries in the region, noting also that there were challenges affecting the business growth faced in these countries.
“They managed to contribute in terms of their strong loan growth portfolio, incremental impact of Vanuatu business acquisition, significant market shares and other profit contributions by the business,” he added.