By Meriba Tulo – EMTV News, Port Moresby
Following the announcement of its 2018 Full Year Results to the markets, Bank South Pacific held a briefing with media and investors yesterday, March 4th, to explain the performance of the PNG-based financial entity over the last 12 months.
According to Group CEO, Robin Fleming, despite a challenging operating environment in Papua New Guinea, the BSP Group collectively managed to achieve positive results, culminating in an announcement of a Net-Profit-After-Tax of Eight Hundred and Forty-Four Million Kina.
BSP Group CEO provided a snapshot of the performance of the bank over the 2018 calendar year; with operations across eight countries in the Asia Pacific, collectively the performance in all countries remained positive.
This, despite a challenging environment in PNG that saw a slight decline in deposit numbers. This translated to a Full Year Net-Profit-After-Tax of K844.1 million Kina – an 11.5% increase from 2017 Results.
According to Mr Fleming, contrary to popular belief, the results were achieved without having to increase bank fees for its customers.
At the end of 2018, the Banks Balance Sheet realised:
• Total loans to the value of K12.5 billion,
• Total assets valued at K23.1 billion, and
• Total deposits of K18.2 billon
Whilst BSP’s balance sheet remains relatively healthy, the head of the bank has said that the operating environment outlook remains challenging, especially in PNG. But with recent reprieves in the foreign currency inflows into the market on the back of PNG’s issuance of the Sovereign Bond, there are hopes that with several decisions on resource projects expected within the next six months, PNG’s economy can improve over the next 12 months.
