Bank South Pacific Announces 2019 Final Dividend Payment

The Bank South Pacific Group has announced a final dividend of 96 toea (FJ 0.61 cents) per share at its at its annual general meeting held past Friday, via online conferencing, with its shareholders.

Chairman of BSP, Sir Kostas Constantinou OBE, announced the final dividend for the year ending 31st December 2019.

Sir Kostas noted that despite challenging macroeconomic conditions in PNG and other Pacific countries in which BSP operate, BSP Group again recorded improved outcomes in 2019 with a net profit after tax of K890.4 million (FJ$ 577.37m), an increase of K46.3m (FJ$ 30.02m) on the 2018 result.

When considering the final dividend payment for 2019, the Board gave due regard to BSP’s dividend policy, BSP’s capital soundness, potential impact on capital arising from increased provisioning that may result from COVID-19 related economic impact and credit stress testing.

Total dividend payment

The board also recognised that the dividend is a final dividend for audited 2019 results which were - finalised before any signicant COVID-19 events occurred in PNG. It therefore determined a final dividend of 96 toea per share for the 2019 financial year.

With this final dividend and the 38 toea per share interim dividend paid in October 2019, the total dividend payment for the 2019 financial year is K1.34 (2018 =K1.37 (FJ$0.888)) per share, generating a yield of 11.17 per cent on the current share price of K12.00 (as at May 13, 2020).

The payout ratio for 2019 of 70.32 per cent is lower than the 2018 ratio of 75.84 per cent, to allow for maintaining BSP’s capital buer given the uncertainties associated with COVID-19.

BSP’s balance sheet remains strong with a capital adequacy ratio of 23.7 per cent as at March, 2020 (March 2019: 24.1 per cent) and will remain well above BPNG guidelines after payment of the final dividends.

The planned processing dates for the 2019 final dividend are:

Ex-date:

■Friday May 29, 2020 –

■Record date: Friday June 5, 2020, and

■Payme■t date: Friday June 19, 2020

Sir Kostas stated that the full year dividend represents a total distribution of K626.10 million (FJ$405.99m) (2018: K640.13m (FJ$415.08m) to BSP shareholders.

Over the past seven years, total dividends paid by BSP to its shareholders total K3.38 billion (FJ$2.19bn).