BSP makes K400m profit

The National Business

BANK of South Pacific has announced a net profit of K418.3 million for the first half of this year.
Chief executive Robin Fleming said this was nearly a 13 per cent (K370.9 million) increase from last year.
BSP also announced a dividend of 36 toea per share which is payable on Oct 19.
Fleming said revenues increased 7.9 per cent for the comparative period, total assets increased by about K577 million to K22.947 billion mainly due to an increase in the loan book for the period across all countries.
“Total assets at the half year are K20.781 billion compared to K20.364 billion in 2017,” he said.
Although there was minor downward movement in capital adequacy from the previous quarter, the ratio exceeds the minimum Bank of Papua New Guinea “prudential requirement of 12 per cent”.
“Capital adequacy has 22.7 per cent, down from 24.5 per cent at the end of 2017 and that reduced somewhat following a payment of final dividends in June,” Fleming said.
Fleming said market shares had grown in all the countries that BSP operated in.
“In PNG, our market strength has gone up around 60 per cent as at the end of June and 61 per cent on the deposit side.
“Share price was K10.01 per share at the end of June and a dividend yield of 12.4 per cent.”
Fleming said revenues from foreign exchange income increased from K133.6 million to K151.8 million as a consequence of good export flows in PNG for the first half of the year.
“The operating expenses have increased 2.2 per cent which reflects good cost containment. The cost to income ratio is 39.57 per cent versus 41.35 per cent in 2017 comparative period.”
Group chairman Kostas Constantinou said that the payment of the interim dividends recognised the bank’s commitment to its shareholders and that it reflected BSP’s desire to ensure that all shareholders benefitted from BSP”s profitable operating performance.
Constantinou said he remained confident that the BSP Group would continue to adapt to challenging market, conditions and continue to deliver a sound underlying performance for remainder of the year.