Bank South Pacific posts K407 million profit

Source: The National, Monday, March 18, 2013 

 

BANK South Pacific posted an operating profit before tax of K545.3 million last year, up 14.8% from the previous year’s profit of K475 million, chairman Kostas Constantinou announced last Friday.
The BSP group has again achieved very sound results last year, with operational and financial stability supporting solid profitability and balance sheet growth, Constantinou said.
The group also posted a revenue above K1 billion, net of interest expense to K1.353 billion.
The result after tax was K407.74 million.
Total assets of the group had increased by about K1.652 billion to K13.333 billion.
The bank’s results were strong with pre-tax profits growing 14.8% to K535.4 million, from K466.2 million in 2011, supported by K1.207 billion of revenues net of interest expense.
Total assets of the bank at the end of last year were just above K13.013 billion.
“Last year’s results had been achieved on the back of continued strong domestic growth of the PNG economy, driven by continuing LNG project-related activities and other resource projects in various stages of development, despite a fractious and fickle global economic environment,” Constantinou said.
“Inflation and foreign exchange volatility had been the macro-economic factors driving monetary policy in PNG.
“Strong export performance supported by favourable global commodity prices had continued to boost liquidity levels, and this has meant interest rates on bank bills  remained at the low levels where they ended 2011, maintaining significant downward pressure on net interest income.
“PNG’s elections were held and conducted without major disruption.
“Elsewhere in the region, economies have performed reasonably well, with export performance leading the way.”
Constantinou said the steady performance last year was an indication of the positive impact of the changes being implemented in BSP.
“For this to continue, the group must maintain competitiveness, anticipate market conditions, and adapt to change,” he said.
“In 2010, we spoke of an emerging recovery in global conditions, but this stalled in 2011 and further weakened last year.
“Even so, BSP has enough local strength to continue to leverage profitably off PNG’s strong economic performance in 2012 and in the future.
 “The group is working hard to position itself as the leading bank in the South Pacific, to efficiently serve a customer base that is experiencing and rapidly becoming accustomed to the benefits of technologically aided banking using global standards.
 “The 2012 results demonstrated that BSP continues on course to achieve its market goals.
“I am also confident that the group will meet the challenges of this year and return more profitable results for shareholders and ultimately the people of Papua New Guinea.
“And we at BSP are also proud to have been recently announced as the major sponsor of the 2015 South Pacific Games.”